Homeschool biology lesson

["Kinney, Travis" <kinney at pdtarchs_com>]

Bravo!

I'm glad to see someone using the planted aquaria as a means of discussion
in teaching our youth. I don't have any literature myself that uses the
aquarium as the outline for a course, but would love to know about one if
you find it. My wife and I are homeschooling and I have used the aquarium as
a tool to lead discussions on plants and animals. We went out in the woods
and caught planaria, hydra, daphnia, clay, rocks, various larvae, ferns,
snails, salamanders blah blah blah

I then collect as many books and information on those items we have found. I
end up reading little kid books for my 3-year old too! They love getting
involved. We use a magnifying glass a lot and occasionally a microscope, and
some great books from Dover Publications. I have them create drawings of
various items, we sometimes watercolor, and make other art items, while
learning about snails, look at their eggs, antennae etc etc. The discussions
go into many different tangents that help these kids see how life is all
interconnected. We'll talk about the snail shell, then collect some hermit
crabs, then collect some crabs, eat a few lobsters, talk about bones,
skeleton systems etc. I collect all the sheets of information that I use
into a binder for use with the other kids as they grow. Plus it's nice to go
back and look something up that you've forgotten. As I begin to grasp water
chemistry more and more I look forward to using the aquarium once again for
chemistry talks. The aquarium has been used as a launching point for
discussion in ecology, estuaries, plant growth, animal life, history lessons
in famous explorers, botanists etc etc. There are of course lots of writing
assignments that can be created as well! The aquarium is just one of
unlimited tools that can be used for teaching our youth. My kids are still
very young so we are just starting. Good luck.