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Lesson Plan: Introduction to Field Ecology

Me: Write a lesson plan for this field ecology lesson: "1. Introduction to field ecology: This session will provide an overview of field ecology, including its focus on studying organisms and their interactions with each other and their environment." The students are aged 11-14. There is a 10-acre field beside the school. The lesson is outdoors- experiential education. There is no whiteboard. ChatGPT Lesson Plan: Introduction to Field Ecology Objective: To provide students with an overview of field ecology, including its focus on studying organisms and their interactions with each other and their environment. Materials: Handouts with information about field ecology and its key concepts Field guides for local plants and animals Binoculars Magnifying glasses Clipboards and pencils for taking notes Procedure: Begin the lesson by introducing the concept of ecology and explaining how field ecologists study ...
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A Field Ecology Course Outline

  Me: Write a course outline for ten sessions of field ecology for middle school in a 10-acre urban grassy field with a few trees and a small stream.   ChatGPT:  Course Outline: Field Ecology for Middle School Introduction to field ecology: This session will provide an overview of field ecology, including its focus on studying organisms and their interactions with each other and their environment. Observing and recording data: In this session, students will learn how to make observations and record data about the plants and animals in the field. Identifying plants and animals: This session will introduce students to common plants and animals found in the field, and teach them how to identify them using field guides and other resources. The role of plants in the ecosystem: This session will focus on the importance of plants in the ecosystem, including how they provide food and shelter for animals and help...
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Hidden Quadratics

$ x^2 $ The diagram shows the curve $ y = 7  \sqrt{x} $  and the line  y = 6x + k  $  , where  k  is a constant. The curve and the line intersect at the points A and B. 
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A Water Feature - For the Birds?

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Like humans, birds enjoy taking a daily bath.  Bathing cleans their feathers and helps remove parasites.  After bathing the bird looks for a sunny perch, to fluff its feathers.  Finally, the bird preens carefully.  Birds have an oil gland at the base of their tail which is used during preening to add a protective coating to the feathers.  Screenshot from a short video Malaysia’s climate is equatorial, that is to say   hot, humid and rainy throughout the year with particularly heavy rainfall during the northeast and southwest monsoons.  In the rainforest there will be small puddles, streams, and pools below waterfalls.  However, in the city there can be a shortage of fresh, clean water.  Hence, a water feature in your garden will prove attractive to most birds.  What makes a good bird bath?  Experts say a good bird bath should mimic  a natural puddle.  It should not be too deep and, like our own swimming pools, there sho...
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Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker / Sepah Puteri Merah

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I might translate this bird’s name from Malay as   ‘scarlet red princess’ with two cautions.   Firstly ‘sepah’ actually refers to the colour of betel juice.   However, I believe betel-juice- red princess fails as translation because it is overly literal.   Scarlet seems more appropriate.   Secondly, ‘puteri’ means princess- whereas it is actually the male which is brightly coloured.    So my translation would become "Scarlet Royal".   Males are a handsome navy blue above with a red stripe from the crown to the tail coverts.   The female is duller, only the rump and upper tail coverts are scarlet.  (See the bottom photo.)  Juveniles appear similar to the female but have an orange bill.  Flowerpeckers are small stout birds, with short necks, legs and tails.   On average, they are a mere 9 cm long, weighing only 7 to 8 grams.   Flowerpeckers appear to be closely related to sunbirds.   As evidence of ...
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Gray-rumped Treeswift / Layang-layang Berjambul Kelabu

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Treeswifts are a family of birds closely related to the true swifts.  Unlike true swifts, they have a non reversible hind toe, which is used for perching on branches.  (True swifts cannot perch.)  Other differences from true swifts include softer plumage, crests or facial ornaments and long forked tails. Like true swifts, they feed on insects, although exact details of the prey taken is unknown. Ttreeswifts often forage in the air in the company of swallows and swiftlets.  They can also wait patiently perched on an exposed branch to hunt by sallying. Perched treeswifts have a very recognisable silhouette; the wing tips cross over the tail.   The gray-rumped treeswift is found in from Thailand to Indonesia and, due to its extensive range, is listed as an IUCN ‘least concern’ species.   However information about the population trend is limited.    Whereas the other   treeswift species are adapted to a particular type of forest, grey-rumped tree...
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A Visit to Sungai Congkak- Part 2

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eBird reports that 236 species have been observed in the Sungai Congkak Recreational Forest.  ebird.org/hotspot/L3510944   Of those I saw about 20 species, fleetingly .   I only managed to get two photos, both poor quality.     A tit-babbler skulking. A leafbird, which is out of focus and by an accident of alignment seems to have a twig growing from its crown. Unfortunately, I am very poor at identifying bird calls.   This is a skill I am working to improve by listening to bird songs and calls on the  xeno-canto  website .   A related, but perhaps more difficult, problem is that I find it very difficult to pinpoint the bird.  I can definitely hear it calling, but I cannot narrow down the location.  Is it in the canopy? Or  mid-level?   To my right or my left?   I dream of rigging up some hardware (three microphones) and software (spherical trigonometry) to give me the bird’s coordinates. Once I have fou...
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