AMAZING CLASSROOMS: “TEACHING FIELD ECOLOGY” PROGRAM TRANSCRIPT
Narrator: For high school science teacher Cindy Zacks, it’s important that students gain an appreciation for the environments in which they live. For the past fifteen years, Ms. Zacks has tested her students’ mastery of field ecology with an innovative and challenging final project.
Cindy Zacks (Interview): So we live in the Mojave Desert, and a lot of people don’t understand how important the desert ecosystem is. It’s actually one of the richest, most diverse ecosystems on the planet: more different species of plants and animals than most ecosystems on the planet. And many people look at it as a wasteland. They don’t understand the complexity of the desert. So, to have students learning about the outside environment where they live, and appreciating that, and establishing a sense of place helps them be able to understand why they should protect it in the future.
Cindy Zacks: Alright, so we’ve been talking since the beginning of the year that we’re going to be doing this project toward the end of the year where you’re going to be putting together all your knowledge and lessons and such from the year to teach little kids, because if you can teach someone else a subject, then you obviously really understand it.
Zacks: We know that we’re meeting a Landers Elementary School group. They are kindergarteners. So, when you plan your games and activities, you have to remember that and not plan anything that requires them to read. It’s okay to have words and point out what the word says, because that helps them with their pre-reading, but they need to be really, really simple.
Zacks (Interview): I think it’s important to teach high school students how to teach younger kids because it encourages them to understand the teacher’s perspective, so as they’re going through high school and then college, they have a better understanding of what it’s like to be on the other side of the desk, so to speak.
Krista: Are we allowed to use some of the concepts that you showed us through your games?
Zacks: Uh-huh. You can use any of my games that I’ve demonstrated for you during the year. What we want to try and do if you’re using concepts that have to do with
“Teaching Field Ecology” – PROGRAM TRANSCRIPT page 1

predator/prey, or food chains or food webs, or anything like that, is we want to try to stick with organisms that live here in the desert, so that they’re not only learning the ecological principles but they’re also learning a little bit about the desert where they live.
Zacks (Interview): They spend about four or five days planning their projects. They have a lesson plan that they have to fill out. And they write all of their instructions, and they script all the things that they’re going to say, and how are they going to introduce their activity, and what’s the activity, and how does the activity connect to the bigger picture of the entire environmental ed. program that they’re doing.
Zacks: What we’ll do right now is – as a group – think about what concept you want to do, and we’ll get that whittled down today, and we’ll get everybody with group members and subjects signed up. And then once I approve your subject, you can go ahead and start grabbing stuff and thinking of activities or how you want to approach doing your lessons.
[students talk among themselves] [Predator/Prey group]
Amanda: Hey guys, the single most important thing we want them to know is--? Their interaction with each other?
Paige: Like the relationship...
Amanda: Or the traits of it? A certain predator or prey?
Fred: The distinction between them.
Zacks: So somebody is doing the lesson in the beginning: so you’re teaching about what predators and prey are and setting up the whole lesson, and then the other people take responsibility for the different games.
[Reduce, Reuse, Recycle group]
Adam: What about carbon foot-printing, as in emissions come from the cap-and-trade system? Or would that not work because of numbers?
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Zacks: I think that would probably not work because they’re 5. They probably are not gonna even understand carbon emissions. So you gotta keep it really simple.
Zacks (Interview): When you teach elementary kids – particularly kindergarten, first grade – you have to break the vocabulary down into its component parts. So if you can do that, then you really understand the bottom line of the concept.
[Food Chains group]
Kelly: We can talk about, like, what kind of animals are actually in the desert. And then from there we can move to on to, like, which ones are at the top, which ones are at the bottom.
Zacks: The relay with the little—you know, giving each kid a card, and then saying, “Okay, now you’ve got—you know, whoever gets in line first gets a prize,” and you can come up with some kind of prize, other than candy or food. But just something that simple. And maybe you can have a desert chain and then a forest chain, and you can do it twice. But that’s enough to make up a whole game.
Zacks: Questions? Okay, so you have today and tomorrow. Dress rehearsals start Wednesday, which means by the end of the period tomorrow, you have to have all your games done, all your materials here, everything put together. And you won’t know who’s dress rehearsing on Wednesday until the end of the period tomorrow, so everyone has to be ready.
[Reduce, Reuse, Recycle group]
Darian: ...because, I mean, population can cover a lot of different concepts. We could get, like, you know, different size hula hoops maybe for one game and say, you know, “When there’s one person living in this much space, it’s okay, but if there’s, like, a whole bunch of people in the hula hoop, there’s nothing.”
Zacks: The introduction is where you teach them the basic concept, and then all the games are reinforcement.
[Predator/Prey group]
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Alex: Which part do you want us to all say together?
Amanda: “Bats eat bugs,” the beginning. No, we’re not singing “They don’t eat people” together because that’s confusing, because each time the verse at the very end switches.
Zacks: One of the things we probably don’t wanna do necessarily is continue the impression that people have that predators are dangerous animals to us.
[laughter]
Alex: That’s what the song is for.
Zacks: ‘Cause there’s enough sort of misconception of predators in our world.
[Food Chains group]
Kelly: We made cards that have, like, different animals on it – and then, like, the sun, coyote – and then we’re gonna have them try and put themselves in order in a food chain.
Zacks: I have another idea if you wanted to try it, to extend your idea a little bit beyond food chains: if you wanted this one to be on a food web, you could tell them briefly what a food web is, you know, it’s a whole bunch of food chains that link together. Okay, tell me something that lives in the desert.
Kelly: Coyote.
Zacks: Okay, tell me something that depends on a coyote or the coyote depends on.
Kenia: A rabbit.
Zacks: Okay. Tell me something that depends upon a rabbit or that a rabbit depends on.
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Carlos: Uh... hawk?
Zacks: Tell me something a hawk depends on, or depends on a hawk, to eat.
Connie: Uh, quails.
Zacks: Okay, and then if I put, say, rattlesnake, and you connect all the kids, what have you just made?
Kelly: A web.
[Water Cycle group]
Krista: After the songs, when you hand them the things... and then the rain shadow game, and then, this’ll tie in with the other game, because the other game is where we each give them, like, a sun, a cloud, a raindroplet, and they have to put themselves in order.
Zacks: Okay.
Krista: So, by visually showing them what each looks like and relating them to the words, like ‘evaporation,’ ‘condensation,’ and ‘precipitation,’ then they’ll associate.
Zacks: Good, good. And those are kind of big words, but it’s not bad to tell them some big words. But just make sure that you have some simple words to go with it, like, you know, ‘evaporation’ is when the sun, you know, sucks the moisture out, yeah. Okay.
[Predator/Prey group]
Amanda (singing): Predators eat prey / It’s their only source of food / Yeah, predators eat prey / But they won’t eat me or you.
Zacks: Very cute! You made that all up?
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Amanda: Yeah.
Zacks: That’s great!
[Water Cycle group]
Krista: Next, we’ll go into a more playful game where they run around, pretend that they’re raindrops to—the rainshadow effect with the mountains in the middle.
Zacks: And then you can tell them that that’s called a rain shadow and explain what that means. There’s a poster up there that you can take down if you want to, if you think that would help.
Zacks: So you guys are to go through everything, exactly as if they were the little kids, okay? So if you have games that involve running, you gotta take them outside. The coloring sheets, you should have a few for some to color, because we need to have an idea of how long it takes to do some of them, ‘cause the whole point of this is to see, Are you forty-five minutes? Because the timing is going to be very important on Friday when we go do this. Okay?
Students: Water cycle!
Krista: This tastes so good. Do you know where it came from? Any ideas?
Paige: The clouds.
Erica: Has any of you heard ‘The Itsy Bitsy Spider’ before? Of course. Well, okay, great! While we’re singing it, we need to think about all the steps that she said in her story: first there was a puddle, then the sun sucked it up, and it became a cloud. Then once it was a cloud, it got really heavy and it rained. And this keeps happening. This is called the water cycle.
Students (singing): The itsy bitsy water drops turned into a cloud / Down came the rain as the cloud ran out / And the itsy bitsy water drops went up the sky again.
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[applause]
Zacks: Pretty good. It’s always hard to be the first group, because you just don’t quite know what all to expect. So everybody else has a little bit of a better idea now. And I think—What’s the one biggest thing that you guys--?
Students: Time.
Zacks: Time. So everything went much faster than you thought. You guys are about, probably in the neighborhood of 8 to 9 minutes short. So, Erica, too, on your song: it could probably be a little longer.
Erica: Yeah.
Zacks: And it’s very cute, but it’s a little bit confusing.
Erica: Okay.
Zacks: Just, some of the ways that some of the words go together just doesn’t quite show the cycle, so I don’t know if you can maybe work on that and maybe put in one more verse? So, Dawkins, the circle part was really quick, and it didn’t really seem to work great.
Dawkins: So, do you see someone who has your like—raindrop, symbol, or a cloud? Okay!
Zacks: You might want to ask them to put themselves in a line where they repeat the cycle twice and then say, “Oh, well, look, if we put you in a circle, now you make a cycle and you go around and around.”
Dawkins: Okay.
Zacks: You might even want to take a moment and explain the phases of water, the formats of water: you have liquid, you have gas, and you have solids. Alright! Good job! It’s hard to be the guinea pigs.
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Zacks (Interview): So now we all go to the preserve and do the educational programs in an environmental setting, which lends a little bit more understanding about the environment that they’re around.
Zacks: See you in a while. Thank you.
Zacks (Interview): The attitude of the high school kids toward teaching little kids: they’re typically really excited. The usual response is “That sounds really fun.” And there’s some nervousness and—not really so much anxiety or anything beyond nervousness— but public speaking, for them, is a difficult thing.
Tim: I don’t have any experience with kids. For me, it’s especially hard to think about how am I actually gonna connect with a kid.
Adam: The problem I am finding is I don’t know how low to set the speech level. It’s been so long, we can’t really remember how far to set it down.
Erika: And that can be difficult because the level at what we’re learning, we have, like, higher vocabulary, so it doesn’t always seem to us that they won’t understand things, but we really have to keep it simple.
Zacks: Hello! Hey, how are you?! Well, if I could have everybody’s attention, please. We want to welcome all of the kindergarteners from Landers Elementary. So are you guys all excited about today?
Students: Yes!
Zacks: Okay! And you’re all ready to learn a little bit about nature and the outdoors and where we live?
Students: Yeah.
Kelly: Okay, so who’s ‘The Owls’? Come over here.
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[Food Chains group]
Kelly: I’m going to be leading this activity. My name is Kelly, if you guys don’t remember. One for you, one for you, and one for you.
Kindergartener: I’m the predator!
Student: Good job!
Kelly: You guys are gonna spread out in a big circle. Can I get you guys in a big circle? So, around me. When I say ‘go,’ you guys are gonna have to get yourself into two food chains, okay? You guys have to play tag in a way. So you’re gonna run around and you’re gonna tag the person that you either eat or that eats you. So you gotta tag the predator or the prey, okay? So hold your cards like this so that everyone can see your picture. And then, on the count of 3, when I say ‘go,’ you guys are gonna go, okay? Ready... 1, 2, 3, go! Find your food chain.
[laughter]
Kindergartener: I tagged Bree!
[Reduce, Reuse, Recycle group]
Darian: By using these three things, we can help limit how much trash we have. Can anyone tell me why trash is bad, though? Yes?
Kindergartener: Flies eat it.
Darian: Kind of. So, flies would be around it. And flies aren’t fun. I’m gonna teach you a quick song to reinforce what we’re doing. So it’s a ‘repeat after me’ song, okay? So... (singing) Reduce, reuse, recyle...
Kindergarteners (singing): Reduce, reuse, recycle...
Darian (singing): ‘Cause trash can take a while...
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Kindergarteners (singing): ‘Cause trash can take a while...
Darian (singing): To decompose...
Kindergarteners (singing): Decompose...
Tim: Decomposition is when things break down–like an orange peel–over time. It takes a long, long time. And then they go back into the earth to grow more plants and stuff. If you were to throw this, like, in the trash, it would take about three years for it to decompose. And over time, it’ll look like this.
Kindergarteners: Whoa!
Tim: And then eventually, once it’s fully decomposed, this turns into soil, like this. See?
[Water Cycle group]
Kimberly: So this little cloud, he hit the mountain, and instead of going through it, he went up, up, up, up, and he tried to go over it. You see? And because he had to go over it, only a little bit of water got through, and here in the desert, we only have a little bit of water, because our mountains block the clouds. So now we’re gonna play a game where we’re gonna be the mountains, and you guys are gonna be the raindrops, alright? So in the first round, we’re all gonna be raindrops, and we’re gonna hop, like raindrops, to the mountains, okay? Are you ready? 1, 2, 3—start hopping!
[exclamations]
Erika: So, what we learned throughout the program so far is about the water cycle and how it goes in a circle and the three stages, right? And we’re gonna sing a song all about this, okay? And it’s going to sound kind of like a song called “She’ll Be Comin’ ‘Round the Mountain.” (singing) She’ll be comin’ ‘round the mountain when she comes. Like that.
Kindergartner: Oh! That’s on my radio!
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Students: Oh! Yeah!
Kimberly: So you can help us sing! Good job!
Erika: And so the song we’re going to sing is about the water cycle, and it kind of sounds like that song, but it’s about the three stages and how it goes in a cycle. Alright... 1, 2, 3—
Students (singing): Water travels in a cycle, yes, it does / Water travels in a cycle, yes it does / It goes up as evaporation / It goes up as evaporation / Forms clouds of condensation / Comes down as precipitation, yes, it does / Yes, it does!
[Predator/Prey group] Parent: Say ‘bat,’ Maddie! Kindergarteners: Bat! Moth! Bat! Moth! Bat! Moth! Student: Oh, you almost got him! [exclamations, cheers, applause]
Amanda: I think it’s about time to wrap up, and I’m so glad that you guys all got to come out here and spend time with us, and I hope that you guys learned stuff about predators and preys, and that predators eat preys. Thank you. Yay!
[applause]
Zacks: Did you have fun?
Kindergarteners: Yeah!
Zacks: Yeah? Okay, so can someone raise their hand and tell me what their favorite thing was?
Kindergartener: Yeah.
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Zacks: What was your favorite thing?
Kindergartener: I think my favorite thing: Bat and Moth!
Zacks: Bath and Moth, okay!
[applause]
Zacks: What was your favorite thing?
Kindergartener: Uh, when we played, uh, Coyote and Rabbit.
[applause]
Zacks: Okay, Coyote and Rabbit. Okay. Which song did you like?
Kindergartener: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.
Zacks: The Recycle Song, okay, good! Yes? Alright, this will be the last one. What did you like?
Kindergartener: The cards.
Zacks: The cards, okay. Good! Okay, well we’re gonna say goodbye to you, and all the high school students are going to go over there. Thank you so much!
Students: Bye!
Zacks: Thank you to all the chaperones, too!
Zacks: We’re gonna have a little re-cap for a minute. What are some of your thoughts, about how your programs went or the whole experience?
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Kelly: In our group, the first group, there was a dad who kept answering the questions, when I’d be, like, “Okay, what’s a food chain,” he’d start saying it. And I’m like, “Oh my god...”
[laughter]
Zacks: So was it, on the whole, was it what you expected, harder than you expected, easier than you expected?
Tim: Easier!
Students: Easier.
[laughter]
Alex: For Fred’s flash card activity, they were a lot more into that than I expected. They were, like, shouting, “Oh, I know what that one is,” and all that stuff.
Zacks: Oh, good!
Fred: I was not expecting them to be that excited about it.
[laughter]
Zacks: And so that’s one of the reasons why, as a teacher, there’s things that you do, and you think, “This is gonna be great,” and then it flops. Or there’s things that you think of at the very last second, and, you know, you’re not sure it’s gonna work and it works great. And so every time you do something, you get a little bit better at it, and you figure out what works and what doesn’t work, and that’s one of the things about good teachers—is people who continually try and continually make improvements and reflect on their experiences and what works and what doesn’t work, and apply that. So did you like it?
Students: Yes!
Zacks: Good.

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Zacks (Interview): And they’re actually outside doing—you know, learning. And they’re having experiences, and they’re coming back in and saying, “I had no idea there was so much in the desert or how beautiful it was. And that’s just, again, it’s just that connection, that deeper and deeper connection to where they live. And that’s usually my bottom line, is getting them more connected with the natural world, because whatever you understand better, you’re going to protect more.