Little Red-Cougar Science Buddies

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School: Ithaca High School and Caroline Elementary School

Project Title: Little Red-Cougar Science Buddies

Class(s): AP Biology, 3rd Grade Science and English Language Arts

Grade(s): 11/12 Grades at Ithaca High School and 3rd Grades at Caroline Elementary

Subject(s): Life Sciences, English Language Arts

Project: Over the course of the school year, Caroline Elementary Third grade students and IHS AP Biology students correspond, meet, and study together the foundational life sciences, as well as build relationships that enrich all students. Students collaborate to understand, discuss and explain their new knowledge. Together, they make scientific observations, gather evidence, construct explanations, and learn to effectively communicate new understandings.

Standards: Third Grade NGSS Life Science Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems, Inheritance and Variation of Traits: Life Cycles and Traits.

Experts/Local connections: AP Biology student serve as subject area experts.

Service Learning: AP students share their expertise and passion for sciences with younger students, and are supportive role models to third graders.

Fieldwork: Students use the Caroline Wilderness Trail for their Bird Study and the Bird Garden for Ecosystem dynamics. Third grade will visit Ithaca High School to perform lab work about Natural Selection and Evolution.