Fifth graders in Lexi Yansick’s class at Charles Champagne Elementary School in the Bethpage School District recently kicked off its eco-column project1721. Students split into different teams with creative names such as “The Grass Gurus” and “We <3 Science” and began building their eco-columns from scratch.
(Photo courtesy of the Bethpage Union Free School District)
An eco-column is a self-sustaining ecosystem on a small scale, which is made of plastic soda bottles. Eco-columns have three chambers: terrestrial, decomposition and the aquatic. The terrestrial layer represents the land habitat including plants and insects.
In the next few weeks, Yansick said that these balanced ecosystems will include fish, crickets, snails and pill bugs. This project aims to provide students with an opportunity to explore connections in nature by creating an artificial model of an ecosystem.
—Submitted by the Bethpage Union Free School District
