(Originally posted 9/13/09 on my previous classroom blog)      This week we went outside into the area where the homecoming bonfire is usually held. This is an area of annual renewal. The plants present there today will be buried by a large pile of wooden pallets and will be burnt to the ground. The area will then begin to reestablish themselves and their population. So we spent one class period identifying the plants present and counting the number of individuals in that population. We studied many areas the size of a hula hoop. We did find some new species that we have not seen before and a very large spider which we are trying to identify. It was really nice to get out of the classroom and spend time studying our surrounding that we frequently overlook and ignore.      Later in the year we will refer back to the bonfire pit area  because it shows ecological succession because the environment is going to start o...