Name: Dave Stone

Project Title: "Expanding Resources for the Biology Component of the Allerton Park Freshman Retreat"

Project Narrative and Rationale for Requested Funds:

The freshman retreat was proposed to serve as an opportunity for freshman to 1) get to better know each other, 2) develop a stronger sense of community, and 3) explore some of their academic areas in greater depth in ways that are not possible during the traditional class day and/or in the present Uni High setting.

The first iteration of Uni High's Allerton Park Freshman Retreat allowed students to delve further into the academic areas of history, biology, math, art and English. The biology component gave students the opportunity to look closely at a wide variety of different life forms being discussed in the Organismal Biology class. Students were able to collect representatives from a number of different kingdoms, classify those organisms, and delve further into the natural history of five different species they collected during that retreat.

Uni was able to provide students with the majority of the materials required for the pond organism study (e.g. microscopes, droppers, slides, Petri dishes, coverslips and forceps). Student provided their own collecting jars and pencils for sketching their selected organisms. Because Uni offers a field biology class, we were able to provide field guides to assist students in the classification of groups emphasized in the field biology class (e.g. arthropods and trees), but were lacking in good quality field guides dealing with some of the groups encountered (e.g. birds, reptiles, amphibians, and mushrooms) as well as pond organism-specific field guides.

I would like to increase our collection of resources for this activity by focusing particularly on acquisition of field guides dealing with organisms encountered during the retreat. Specifically, I would like to purchase several copies of "The New Field Book of Freshwater Life" and the "Golden Guide to Pond Life" as well as single copies of either Audubon or Peterson field guides dealing specifically with freshwater algae, protists, mushrooms, mammals, and wildflowers. All of these books can be ordered through local vendors, who each provide a 20% discount on the purchase of books that will be used in classroom situations.

Amount Applied For: $150

Minimum Amount: $100

Projected Time Frame: The books would be used extensively during the Allerton retreat and would be available for student use after the retreat during the time period when the students delve further into the biology of their collected organisms.

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