Students will select a Service site

Seventh-grade life science is a survey course, the scope of which includes all living things. It is intended to provide a foundation for subsequent life science course work. The major themes during the year are biodiversity, which includes the diversity of species, genes, and ecosystems, ecological principles, and land ethics conservation. Science investigations include a study of Breck campus regions focusing mainly on the cattail marsh, forest fringes, shoreline habitat restoration area, planted treelines, and built areas on campus. Activities and investigations include naturalist observations, cattail/purple loosestrife population measurement, squirrel telemetry, shoreline restoration study, ecological footprint, microscopic kingdom classification, local watershed investigation, and a lichen study. Ethical issues of ecology and the environment will be studied as students work on becoming naturalists and developing a land ethic. Significant emphasis will be placed on scientific reading and writing skills, journaling, keeping a lab book, scientific mapping, measurement of ecological factors, and effective equipment usage, as well as on study and test preparation methods. Students will use a variety of resources to support their field and lab research.