EARThS science lab fosters engaged learning
From the jumping spider to the rainbow trout fry, EARThS Magnet Elementary School’s life science lab is crawling with creatures with which students have the opportunity to interact.
Taking the bearded dragon on walks is just one of many responsibilities that Juliette Gibson and Stephanie Cipriano-Ceringa took on as life science teachers post-lockdown. “I have a love and a passion for animals, especially reptiles,” Cipriano-Ceringa said. It was this passion that led her to involvement in the life lab.
Gibson worked hard to get the life lab up and running for students, which included filling it with new animals. “Given the uncertainty of the COVID situation, the lab was completely disassembled. All of the animals had to be rehomed. And so when the lab was being redesigned, we decided to get all entirely new livestock,” Gibson said. On their journey to rebuild the lab, they sought to support local breeders and rescues. The area now contains about 70 species.
The lab provides students with an opportunity to observe what they are learning in class come to life. Classes come into the lab every one to two weeks, with lessons tailored to their in-class learning. “We always want to integrate with whatever their science unit that they’re working on is. So if they’re learning about rocks and geology, when they come into the lab, they’re going to be learning about the rocks that are in the lab,” Gibson said. Life lab lessons allow students to build upon prior knowledge, expanding as students grow. “So they’re going to learn about Bixby the bearded dragon in kindergarten, and they’re going to learn about them in first grade and third grade and fifth grade,” Gibson said. “But every year, they’re going to get deeper and deeper into that lesson, and they’re going to learn more complex information that’s going to grow with them.”
Each year, the lab partners with U.S. Fish and Wildlife to raise trout in the classroom and teach the students about their lifecycle. On Jan.11, students met at EARThS for a field trip to a pond in Simi Valley for a trout release. “[The students] get to see those fish from eggs all the way up through the release and then, if they choose to, they can actually fish in the pond, and they can see what it looks like when a grown up rainbow trout comes out of that pond,” Gibson said. The Ventura County Fly Fishers Association joined the children to show them how to catch trout and other fishing practices.
Within their lessons, Gibson and Cipriano-Ceringa emphasize the importance of good environmental stewardship. “When we’re talking about lessons, we not only talk about the exact species in the room, but we also talk about things like wildlife conservation, environmentalism, sustainable agriculture, endangered species [and] animal research,” Gibson said. By exposing students to these values early in their learning, the life lab plays a role in developing their love for conservation and learning what responsible animal husbandry looks like. The life lab is a beneficial source of information for families who are considering adopting a reptile pet, as students and their families can learn what the care and feeding requirements look like up close. “It’s an opportunity for them to have another resource to do research, rather than just going to the pet store and talking to a worker there or googling online, where the information can be inconsistent or often conflicting,” Gibson said.
Operating 365 days a year, the lab runs off of the support of parent volunteers. Corinne Yost, volunteer, dedicates several times a month to come in and check up on the animals. Yost appreciates the presence of the lab for her two kids at EARThS. “They’re exposed to creatures that they wouldn’t normally be. And if maybe they did encounter any of these creatures, that might be in a zoo, you know, where you don’t get the up front experience like they do in their classes,” Yost said. Yost believed that having exposure to these animals in the lab setting can shape students’ understanding and love for animal life.
Interactions with animals in a classroom environment are part of the reason Cipriano-Ceringa was drawn to the life lab, “I love seeing the smiles on their faces when they touch Bigsby and they go, ‘Oh, it’s scratchy, it’s rough’… I love watching the connections that they make and seeing the look in their eyes,” Cipriano-Ceringa said.
