FAQ's (Frequently Asked Questions)

1. What is a field guide to your schoolyard?
2. What is a Field Guide Project (FGP)?
3. How long does it take to conduct an FGP?
4. What skills are needed?
5. Who can participate?
6. What discliplines are involved?
7. Do I eed to purchase No Student Left Indoors: Creating a Field Guide to Your Schoolyard in order to do this project?

1. What is a field guide to your schoolyard?
   A field guide to your schoolyard is a species account, a catalog of the animals and/or plants found in your schoolyard. Which plants and animals, how much information your guide contains about each, and who contributes to the guide are up to you. Your field guide can be a small book about the birds in your schoolyard, created by a single class. Alternatively, it can be a comprehensive study and complete inventory to which the entire student body contributes over the course of the school year—or a living document that expands every year. Big or small, your field guide is what you need and want it to be to help you engage your students in an exciting and challenging environmental education experience.
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2. What is a Field Guide Project (FGP)?
   In order to create a field guide to your schoolyard, you must first explore, observe, collect data, conduct research, and write about the plants and animals in your schoolyard. The entire process—from your first schoolyard observation to the creation of the last page of your field guide book—is what we call the Field Guide Project, or FGP. A Field Guide Project is divided into three parts: 1) planning; 2) observation and data collection; and 3) book creation.
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3. How long does it take to conduct an FGP?
   Your field guide can be a one-day project, a semester-long project, a year-long project, or a multi-year project. You can schedule schoolyard observations weekly, biweekly, or monthly. The more time you invest, the more opportunities you present for students to learn and participate. The time you need is a direct correlation to the time you can invest. But even a one-day project should be revisited once a season. As birds and other animals move and migrate, as plants blossom and trees drop their leaves, your students will have the opportunity to observe seasonal changes.
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4. What skills are needed?
   You won’t need special skills to teach a Field Guide Project. Don't be concerned if you don't have a science background. Instead, use the FGP as an opportunity to learn alongside your students. Your role in a field guide project is to motivate, plan, coordinate, and support your students—skills you’ve already mastered as a formal educator.
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5. Who can participate?
   The FGP can be a class project, a project for an entire grade, or a project for the entire student body, grades K-12. During your planning stage you’ll determine what you'll need for your project and who will contribute. Those participants might include any or all of the following: students, faculty and staff, parents, families, and community members.
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6. What discliplines are involved?
   From science, ecology, environment, math, and technology to reading, writing, language arts, social studies, civics, ESL, and creative arts, the Field Guide Project can involve any and all discliplines. Students also learn to collaborate and cooperate in this project; they learn respect for the environment and all of its inhabitants; and they establish a sense of place and pride in their school and neighborhood.
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7. Do I need to purchase No Student Left Indoors: Creating a Field Guide to Your Schoolyard in order to do this project?
   Of course not. But we wrote the book with you in mind. We know that your time is precious and your "free" time in the classroom is nonexistent. The book is designed to help you conduct a field guide project while working with current curriculum, materials, and staff. The book will give you the instructions, background, incentive, motivation, insider tips, forms, and resources you need to get up and running quickly and to help ensure your success in a place- and project-based opportunity for you and your students.
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Based on the acclaimed book
No Student Left Indoors:
Creating a Field Guide to
Your Schoolyard

Helping K-12 Teachers and students
to discover, explore, observe, and record the nature in their schoolyard. For urban, suburban, and rural schools.