Consider the data collected over the past few months and revisit the December extension support: What improvements could be made to your school grounds based on your data in order to attract more ladybugs? In addition, consider comparing home collections with school collections. What patterns (in weather, vegetation, location) can be found? 

Now is a good time to begin to address the overarching questions.  As you start to develop your presentations and/or plan your schoolyard enhancements, the answers to these questions may help guide your plans:

1. 1. Species variance: Do you see differences in the types and number of ladybugs of each type that you find throughout the school year within your local area? 
   2. Geographic variance: Do you see the same patterns across locations throughout North Carolina? 

After teaching about common ecosystems (e.g., oceans, lakes, forests, salt marshes) last week, Mr. Jones notices that his students interchange the terms ecosystem and habitat. He would like to help students understand the difference between the two and that habitats vary in size based on the organism. He plays a short video explaining the difference between the terms and introduces the range of habitat sizes by contrasting a Black bear’s range of roughly 60 square miles with a frog who lives within a small pond. Mr. Jones directs students’ attention to the “habitat” section of their recording sheet for the Lost Ladybug Project and asks what they notice. Although students have been recording these data (e.g., garden, pavement, bushes/shrubs, building) throughout the year, they had not considered the specificity and the importance of these small habitats, often referred to as “microhabitats” by scientists. Mr. Jones refers students back to their schoolyard map and asks students to consider what would happen if the bush outside their classroom where they’ve found several ladybugs were removed. Students express concern over this idea, recognizing that aphids and other insects would not have the bush to feed on, and therefore, ladybugs would not have those insects to eat. Mr. Jones then asks students what could be added to their school grounds that could likely serve as a microhabitat for ladybugs and gives students time to generate ideas with a partner. Once students list ideas, Mr. Jones challenges them to support their ideas for habitat improvements with data collected by their own class or another  class. Mr. Jones provides the following example: “I think we could add more flowering plants near the entrance of our school, because the other  class found several ladybugs on flowers planted near the entrance to their school at the beginning of the school year. We only found one near the entrance of our school even though we looked there five times in the first couple months of school.”

During this month’s activity, students will be comparing where ladybugs have been found on your school grounds with another location’s grounds in terms of different habitat features and the specific features of these locations. As mentioned in the March Science Content support, these are direct connections to the interdependence of ladybugs with the plants that are present in a habitat.

Students could use your class data recording sheet, your class (or another location’s) submissions on the Lost Ladybug website, or the list created during this activity to connect findings and consider improvements that might be made to your school grounds to attract more ladybugs. In addition, the pie chart feature on the Lost Ladybug website (found under the tab: LLP Data & Mapping) could be used to further distinguish the types of habitats where ladybugs are found in the state of North Carolina (or other states, Canada, or Mexico) for extension opportunities.

Model this process for students by working as a class to construct an explanation related to the overarching scientific questions. Have students consider the data they and another school have collected to determine whether it supports or refutes their most recent predictions. Alongside the posted questions and predictions, construct an explanation that states the class answer to the question and provides a rationale based on the collected data.  

Then have students respond to the following prompt: We are hoping to observe more ladybugs on our school grounds next year. What recommendations do you have about possible changes we could make to the school grounds over the summer break that would attract more ladybugs? 

Scaffolding prompts to help students as they construct explanations: 

• What types of recommendations would make sense? (For example, recommendations regarding factors beyond human control such as changing outdoor temperatures are unreasonable.)
• What attracts ladybugs? 
• How do the data collected provide evidence for this idea? 
• What is a change we could make to the school grounds that would use this attraction? 
• How does the ladybug’s role in the food web impact where you may find it? 
• How does the data collected provide evidence for this idea? 
• Ladybugs are consumers. Where would you expect to find ladybug prey? 
• What change could we make to the school grounds that would attract ladybugs based on what we know about them as predators or as prey?

The media guide contains resources for deepening student understanding of various ecosystems and plants native to North Carolina. As students begin to consider habitats where ladybugs are most likely to be found compared to the data they have collected thus far, knowing more about the various ecosystems can support student sense-making.

It is helpful to remind students often of the expectations for outdoor learning. Refer back to the Outdoor Protocols and review these with students, as it may be more likely that you will find ladybugs on your school grounds now that the weather is warming.

We are hoping to observe more ladybugs on our school grounds next year. What recommendations (at least two) do you have about possible changes we could make to the school grounds over the summer break that would attract more ladybugs to our school grounds? 

Check student responses for the following: 

• Students identify at least two recommendations for changing and/or maintaining school grounds in a particular way to attract more ladybugs. 
• Students recognize and use the term microhabitats in their explanation. 
• Students use specific data as evidence to support each recommendation. 
• The data used as evidence is explained in relation to the recommendation.

Reductions in insect populations can drastically affect the food chain, and conservation efforts are necessary to restore the balance.

• Refer to the following article for more information on declining insect populations, reasons for the decline, and the importance of conservation: Where Have All the Insects Gone?
• The Lost Ladybug project grew out of the desire to restore the nine-spotted ladybug population.The Lost Ladybug Rescue emerged as a result of the data collected on the project’s website. Refer to the Lost Ladybug Rescue page for more information regarding the conservation efforts of the nine-spotted ladybug. 

Some states have local efforts in restoring insect populations. For example, in North Carolina, the Growing Small Farms NC State Extension is a great resource to search for more information regarding the conservation of beneficial insects.