Bugs In Our Backyard is an educational outreach and collaborative research program, providing project-based learning opportunities for K-12 students– or anyone! The core activity for BioB takes advantage of the bugs in your own backyard, schoolyard or neighborhood. Students can become citizen-scientists by surveying this diversity of insects and plants.
This lesson teaches the next generation of anglers and lake lovers how to keep Wisconsin’s waters clean and free of pesky invaders like the dreaded zebra mussel.
*Supports Clean Boats, Clean Waters
With a roll of the die, students simulate the movement of nutrients in a forest ecosystem both before and after earthworms invade to see how & why change can occur in ecosystems as a result of exotic species invasion. Lessons are aligned to standards.
*Supports Great Lakes Worm Watch
Making a earthworm observatory is a great way to see for yourself what earthworms do and how they might change ecosystems when they invade. You can set up a demonstration observatory in your classroom or nature center, or students can use small observatories to conduct their own experiments! Lessons are aligned to standards.
*Supports Great Lakes Worm Watch
This citizen science project provides students, teachers, and anyone interested the opportunity to collect real data and contribute to a national mosquito species distribution study. This project not only gives individuals an opportunity to explore and collect around their house, but also raises awareness of diseases that can be transmitted by mosquitoes, and how they can make an effort to protect themselves, communities, and pets from illness.