A Walk in the Woods

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Have you read the book by that title by Bill Bryson? A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail Oh, you should - it's hysterical.

But that's not what this post is about.

Our science study this year is Ecology, and we've been working through God's Design: Properties of Ecosystems.  After teaching some of the basic concepts of ecology, such as food chains and relationships within ecosystems, the study moves on to detail the major biomes of the world.  We've already talked about Grasslands -

- and this week we started learning about Forests.  In particular, the temperate forests.  Since we live near a deciduous forest area, I decided yesterday that a field trip was in order.  So we dropped everything and climbed in the truck for an impromptu trip to the state park nearby where we could see the forest layers firsthand and get a look at some of the plant life that typifies this biome.

Some of the trees were very easy to identify by their distinctive leaves.

We didn't have a field guide with us, so some of the less obvious ones we are looking up at home.

We looked at the forest floor, herb layer, and shrub layer.

And up into the canopy and emergent layer.

We found lichens and mosses.

And then we threw some acorns in the creek and went home.

Sometimes Science really is just that simple.

This post is linked to the Nature Journals Round-up at the Schoolhouse Review Crew blog.

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This post was added to the Throwback Thursday Blog-Style link-up hosted by Tots and Me... Growing Up Together! on October 8, 2015.

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