Biodiversity Monitoring
Mike Weddle, Science Teacher
2805 Lansing Ave. NE
Salem, OR 97303
503-399-3215
71% of Waldo’s students in the Jane Goodall Environmental Magnet School (JGEMS) pass the state science test compared with 35% for the entire school, 52% for the district and 60% for the state.
Yet Waldo is the lowest socio-economic school in their district and JENS students are chosen by lottery. What’s their secret? A hands-on inquiry-based, integrated curriculum with real-life applications has engaged these students at all levels. This is the recipe for an outstanding education program and a future cadre of citizens who will care about their community.
JGEMS is a school within a school at Waldo where a team of teachers integrate math, science, language arts, history and computer technology throughout the curriculum. In Mike’s Conservation Biology class, students regularly travel to forest or wetland sites to meet with professionals and learn techniques and protocols for data collection.
Each spring, students formulate their own questions and design an investigation at a study site. Once data collection is complete, they analyze the results and display their findings in a poster-board presentation for local scientists and school board members. In 2001 the investigations focused on bio-diversity. In past years they have focused on global warming or endangered species.
What Diack Funded
Field survey equipment, Field Guides, infrared camera system, spotting scope
Partnerships and Other Funding Sources
Willamette National Forest
Oregon Zoo
Baskett Slough national Wildlife Refuge
Ankeny National Wildlife Refuge
National Zoological Park’s
Conservation and Research Center
Oregon Watersheds
“With careful planning and community support, field-based science inquiry can be a wonderful way to teach science in general and ecology in particular.” – Mike Weddle, Waldo Middle School