Classroom Modules

As a supplement to our hosting of field trips in our K-12 educational programming, PLE is planning to develop and offer kit-based modules that can be borrowed and taught in the classroom.  Currently, PLE has one kit that is available for teachers of middle school and early high school age students.  If you are a teacher interested in utilizing this module in your school, please contact Chris Davis (chris.davis@pitt.edu) for more information.

Ectotherm ER

Ectotherm ER is an educational module for learning about climate change impacts on organisms and their ecosystems that the Richards-Zawacki lab developed, in collaboration with Pitt Bio Outreach and local teachers, for use in middle and early high school classrooms. Using amphibians and their battle against the fungal disease chytridiomycosis as a model, students learn about the important role that temperature plays in the biology of ectothermic animals and the potential impacts of climate change for these and other species. 

 Students are engaged in experimental design and hypothesis testing as they make and deploy agar model frogs with embedded temperature sensors in different microhabitats near their schools. The students then collect the frogs, gather the temperature information from the sensors, and analyze those data to answer questions about the potential interactions between climate change and disease for frog populations. 

Funding for the development of Ectotherm ER has been provided by the National Science Foundation’s CAREER program.