Knowing is Caring: An Exploration of Rand Park's Inhabitants

In early May students attending Ms. Weeg’s, Mr. Ambrose’s, Ms. Wright’s and Ms. Chmura’s biology classes engaged in an activity based partly in ecology and partly in philosophy. They were presented with a lesson detailing the complex interactions between wolf, moose, and fir trees on Michigan’s Isle Royale as provided by Michigan Technological Institute's John Vucetich.  Despite the extraordinary life needs of the organisms involved and the dramatic scenario of predation between the three, the lesson concluded with two surprising central questions: “Do we now care?” and “Why do we now care?”

            Initial answers came easily enough. Students felt that they should care because it concerned balance (or lack thereof) within an ecosystem. They felt that it was their duty to care about such things because ultimately, any imbalance would impact them. Before long, the complex nature of the question was highlighted; teachers pointed out that Isle Royale is completely isolated from any main land, that its ecosystem is atypical from most others, and that what occurred there had almost nothing to do with what occurred in Montclair.  It was then posed that the answer might be of a much simpler nature: We suggested that they now care because they now know. Observing a species with great scrutiny, knowing how it struggles or thrives throughout its life cycle, instills one with the capacity for empathy. Empathy might have the power to encourage emotional investment in our students and we were wholly ready to take advantage of that.

            This was the birth of the multi-phased project “To Know is to Care”, throughout which students would take a detailed look at Rand Park, note the subtle differences between its voluminous inhabitants, and investigate the life of one in particular.

            The project began with the creation of a dichotomous key concerning aquatic and terrestrial autotrophs and heterotrophs within our sample ecosystem. During this phase students discovered that the trees they had previously seen as one general species consisted of multiple species possessing only slight differences in visible traits. They learned that the wood sorrel they first knew as clover was drastically different from the luck bearing plant, and that as much was evident from its sour citrus like flavor and heart shaped leaves.  Students overcame their fear of wild water and delved into the brook to overturn rocks in search of carnivorous leeches, gentle snails, and wonderfully slimy planaria. 

Mr. Ambrose describes the rich ecology present on a single rock found in the brook (photo credit: Susan Eckert)

            The excitement for choosing the focal organism for phase three of the project was palpable. Students raced to find their teacher at the completion of identifying, photographing, and labeling all key species, hoping that they would be able to select the organism they were most interested in before any of their classmates could.

            Students next engaged in the last phase of the project. They conducted research regarding specific criteria on the organism they chose: What was its life like? What organisms facilitated its existence in the park? Which would it loathe to encounter? These questions and more served as an avenue towards “knowing” not only the organism they selected, but also any organism with which it interacted. 

         After spending nearly two hours of critical observation on avian, mammalian, and other species within the park and spending twice as much investigating one of those species in particular, it was clear that students had grown to see Rand park, not just use it. They had come to know the intricacies of its community, and we dare hope that knowing may have led them to care.