Fifth-grade students get their hands dirty in an “Organism Dig”

Photo by Cecilia Williams

Pleasant View School fifth-graders participated in an “Organism Dig” on Friday, Jan. 10 on campus grounds.

The “Organism Dig” was an opportunity for students to investigate and answer the question, “how many organisms are in a square meter of land.”

Science teacher Cecilia Williams gave her students this assignment to demonstrate what ecologists do.

“They get to experience what being an investigators or ecologists is like,” Williams said.

The students found a lot of worms and plants in their investigation, which made the assignment a lot of fun.

“What I liked most about it was seeing all the organisms and how they live,” said third-grader Halla Abunasrah. “I learned a lot from this experience.”

Although it was a short assignment, Williams said her students learned a lot about the ecosystem, demonstrating the amount of living organisms that can exist in a certain area.

“It was just awesome watching them running around with worms,” Williams said.

Williams said she decided to do this activity because students learn better when it’s hands-on and they can get their hands dirty.

“They learn more about the whole topic of ecosystems and the environment rather than just talking about it and showing pictures,” Williams said. “This is them actually doing what real researchers would do on a daily basis.”