Fullerton Arboretum

For a science field trip we went to the Fullerton Arboretum located next to campus. We learned how to implement many different activities that could be done on an elementary school field trip.










The first activity we did was learn vocabulary words that we would be able to find examples of in the arboretum. We started the vocabulary activity by getting into small groups; each small group was given one vocabulary word. The small groups had to define the word for the rest of the class and make up a hand signal to help the other students remember the definition. Then, when we were walking through the arboretum we took pictures of objects we thought represented the vocabulary words we discussed. Two examples of pictures I took are on the right. The first picture is an example of erosion. The water from the pond is wearing away the soil around the edge of the pond. The second picture is an example of conservation. The arboretum has placed chicken wire around a new plant to protect it.

A second experiment we did gave us an opportunity to visualize how pollution spread in the groundwater.





We started with rocks in a cup to represent the soil. We pushed all the rocks to one side to create a lake on one side of the cup. Blue colored water was then added to the rocks. This represented clean ground water.

We then added a small amount of red water to the rocks. This red water represented pollution on the soil. The pollution seeps into the ground water below the surface.

The red water slowly starts to mix with a small amount of the lake water and turn it purple.








More blue water was dumped on top of the soil to represent rain. As the rain came down on top of the soil more pollution started to leak into the lake water turning it purple.












By the end of the experiment the entire lake was purple. The small amount of pollution that started under the soil had completely polluted the entire lake.











These two activities would be great to do on a school field trip to the Arboretum. When a school goes on a field trip to the Arboretum they are provided with a docent that walks with the students around and teaches them about the different plants. These two activities would be great supplemental activities to include along with the docent tour. The first activity would give the students an opportunity to see actual examples of the different vocabulary words they are learning. The second activity is a great way to show the students how pollution can affect large areas of land and water. This could lead into a discussion on ways they personally can prevent pollution from entering the groundwater.