Students in Churchville-Chili High School’s Wildlife Ecology class have been hard at work, studying animals, their behavior and their habitats, and then assessing existing books on those subjects. Their aim was to design engaging books for children that would communicate everything they had learned.
Meanwhile, Fairbanks Road Elementary School second-graders have also been researching animal classification and how animals interact with their environments. They did in-depth research on seals, polar bears and other arctic wildlife that resulted in spectacular hall displays and digital presentations.
The two studies intersected on March 16 when the upperclassmen made a special visit to FRS to work with the younger students.
Older students had researched and created short monographs tailored to children on a wide variety of animal subjects: from wolves and vipers to dolphins and sea turtles. Each author was paired with a second-grader who was eager to learn about the animal and interact with an older role model.
“The younger children really look up to our high school students,” said FRS teacher Kaitlin Krahmer. “They respect the older kids and enjoy learning new things from them. Our older students are fabulous teachers and their enthusiasm is catching. It is really lovely to see the relationships that are developing here as they all share what they know.” After the custom book was read and discussed, each second-grader had the chance to share their own class wildlife research with their new friend.
“My students have been impressed by how much the younger students know about forming hypotheses, gathering and analyzing information and organizing their results into presentations,” said High School teacher Paula Mir. “This is a great way for both age groups to benefit, academically and socially.”
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