Scientists in training

How does the shape of its skull determine what an animal eats? What are the structures and functions of different parts of flowers and seeds?

Third and fourth grade students from Mrs. Guyer's classroom at Ekalaka Elementary have had wonderful, hands-on opportunities to answer these questions and many more in a recent program. Sponsored by the Montana Natural History Center, the purpose of the Virtual Naturalist in the Schools program is to engage and encourage students' innate curiosity about the natural world through exploration and scientific inquiry.

The program is designed to have a full year of monthly virtual naturalist visits for each classroom. These are presented via webcam on the classroom interactive whiteboard. The instructor sees the entire class, and they see the instructor. These monthly visits enable the virtual naturalist not only to reinforce and build on key concepts like structure, function, and scientific inquiry over time, but also develop a strong, growing mentor relationship with students.

The main goals of the program are to: develop the skills of an artist, writer, and scientist to explore the natural world; become familiar with the process of scientific inquiry; understand how structure relates to function in the natural world by studying the adaptations of Montana flora and fauna; and develop a relationship with a naturalist mentor.

Each month of the school year, the naturalist provides strong, science-based lessons in the classroom and in the schoolyard. The lessons are designed to align with Next Generation Science Standards to support the instruction that classroom teacher is already providing-particularly science inquiry and the structure and function cross-cutting concept.

Through a partnership with the University of Montana Zoological Museum, the students have access to many specimens (wings, beaks, skulls, etc.) that are used to bring the study of the natural world indoors. Carter County Museum has been very generous in sharing their own collection of animal skulls for the students to observe and practice their newly developed identification skills.

Other hands-on activities and studies the 3rd and 4th grade classes have participated in are: learning the role of a naturalist as a scientist, artist, and writer; field journaling; Adaptation Olympics; scientific method; and winter adaptations. Upcoming lessons will include structure and function of wing shape, experiments on wing and beak shape, and insect collection and classification.