A Little Bit More
Every once in a while, someone comes along with a really good idea! Roger Tory Peterson did just that back in 1934 and today we’re still reaping the benefits. Although Peterson’s field guide was first published during the Depression, a terrible time to publish a book, it became an instant success and his books almost flew off the shelves. Today’s field guides have new illustrations, different artists, and new, updated information but the basic format, created in the 30’s, is still with us and going strong.
The Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History (and home of the Electronic Naturalist) is named in honor of America's preeminent naturalist of the twentieth century and is based in Jamestown, NY, the birthplace of Dr. Peterson. The facility was built, in part, to house the lifetime body of work of this great naturalist, but today the organization reaches a large number of people all around the world with new, creative programs and services beyond Peterson’s own work.
The primary objective of the Roger Tory Peterson Institute is to promote nature study in the classroom. Teaming With Nature, My Place, an assortment of nature-oriented workshops, Vernal Pool Project, and NatureKind are just a few of the programs currently being offered by the Roger Tory Peterson Institute. Take a look at the home site (www.rtpi.org) to get a better appreciation for what’s available at the Institute. And, if you’re ever in the western New York area, stop in at the Institute’s facility in Jamestown and see their beautiful building and offerings firsthand.
Activities
Science & Art – Key Characters
Objectives: Understand the “key characteristics” approach to field guides
Materials: Materials: Reference material (library or online) paper, pencil, coloring tools
Field guides are an incredibly valuable resource. As you might expect, there are field guides, not only for specific countries, but even for regions within countries. Certainly not everyone is going to become familiar with the field guides for their area, but everyone should at least be aware that field guides exist. Here’s a simple exercise that will help students learn a little more about a field guide to some part of the natural world for their own area.
1. Have your students locate a field guide to a group of organisms (mammals, birds, reptiles, fish, wildflowers etc.) for their geographic area – library or local book store. Students will need to look carefully at their choice to be sure they have a resource that covers their area (students in Nevada don’t want to select a field guide to the birds of Eastern North America, for example!).
2. Students should look through the field guide for an organism that they’re reasonably familiar with. If they chose a bird field guide, they may want to select the American Robin, for example. If they’re a bit more bird savvy, they may want to try selecting a less well-known bird.
3. Once an organism has been selected by each student, have them read the descriptive information on that animal or plant to see what distinguishing features/characteristics are noted in the text. If they chose an American Robin, for example, the text will target as a “key characteristic”, the bird’s reddish-orange breast and evenly gray back. These two characteristics are important and should be noted.
4. Now have your students look on the same page to find an organism that is closely related but different. The key characteristics should be noted on this organism too.
5. Now have the students draw/color their two organisms making sure they incorporate the key characteristics of each. They need also to label their animal and note the key characteristics as well with lines to each feature just as Peterson did.
6. Once finished, each student will have 2 reasonably similar organisms on a page that have their key characteristics noted for easier identification.
One Step Further –
If you would like, you could have your students create their own “local” field guide.
1. Either assign or have students choose a group of local animals (mammals, birds, amphibians, etc) they’d like to work on as a group. Each student should choose a different local animal/plant in your chosen category to work on.
2. Students can look up their organism, find out its key characteristics (these may include habitats in which it lives too) and draw/color and label. Have all students do their final illustrations on the same kind and size of paper.
3. Once all students have finished their exercise, assemble the pages into a mini field guide for your area. This “field guide” can then be added to your library, if you wish.
4. There’s a good chance that there aren’t enough students to do all of your local organisms so if you want, you can assign this project in subsequent years until you have most/all of the organisms of your selected category for your area in a single field guide.
5. Be sure to check with your librarian and see if he/she would like to include your local field guide in the library.
Key Concepts
Structures and Functions, Identification, Adaptations and Diversity
Questions
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