Teacher Workshops

Discover Life in America offers teacher workshop on Biodiversity Education in the classroom.
Description:  Every aspect of life in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is being studied extensively by scientists. The goal is to discover and catalog every type of living organism in the park from bacteria and slime molds to black bears and elk. This project is called the All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory (or ATBI), it is being coordinated by Discover Life in America (DLIA).  Almost 900 species new to science and nearly 6500 species new to the park have been documented by the Discover Life in America teams of scientists and volunteers. Your students can do their own species study in the schoolyard.  An introduction to the Smokies ATBI will be followed with some outdoor hands/on work as well as demonstrations of how to conduct an ATBI at your school.

An example of a teacher workshop schedule:

9:00 –    Introduction – Smokies -ATBI PowerPoint (see attached documents)
10:00 –  Explore topic of “what is biodiversity?” with Biodiversity Boxes- The who, what, where and how.
10:30 –   Activity –Biodiversity in a bag, describe you animal using the personality profiles!
10:45 –   Break
11:00 –   Activity –Schoolyard ATBI

Explanation (see attached documents as well):

Marking out plots in different habitats

Rules of the Tools:

1. Shaker box/sifters
2. Beat Sheets (umbrella w/stick)
3. Sweep net
4. Aspirators

12:15 –   Lunch
1:00 –   Activity- Outside Stations using ATBI Tools
Divide into small groups and rotate through stations (may need helper at each station)

1. Shaker box/sifters
2. Beat Sheets (umbrella w/stick)
3. Sweep net
4. Aspirators
5. Bring in specimens a look at under study scope

Taxa Tally Sheet
3:00 -   Finish w/Questions