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Week 1 · Nature Detectives · Scholar (ages 11–14)

The Mystery of the Missing Ducklings

Role: Investigator

Briefing

Your local ecosystem is more fragile than it looks. As Steward, you'll audit a piece of land — your yard, a park, a creek — find three real weaknesses, and propose specific fixes a family or town could actually implement.

Evidence File

  • EX-01Ecosystem health has 5 markers: native plant diversity, pollinator activity, water quality, predator presence, soil health.
  • EX-02Suburban ecosystems often have low native plant diversity (lawns instead of meadows).
  • EX-03Most streams in the U.S. show some level of nutrient pollution.
  • EX-04Apex predators (hawks, foxes, owls) are often missing from human-managed land.
  • EX-05Healthy soil contains billions of organisms per teaspoon.

Weekly Milestones

  1. Day 1
    Choose your audit site. Walk it once with no notes — just look.
  2. Day 2
    Build a food web of 10 species you observe or know to live there.
  3. Day 3
    Score the 5 health markers on a 1–5 scale with a one-sentence justification each.
  4. Day 4
    Identify the 3 weakest markers and research 2 fixes for each.
  5. Day 5
    Write a 1-page audit report and share it with a parent.

Your Deliverable — Scholar

Ages 11–14

1-page ecosystem audit with 3 weaknesses and 6 proposed fixes.

Other tracks tackle this same case at their own depth — see the catalog.

Rubric

Specificity

Each weakness is tied to specific, observed evidence.

Food web

Includes producers, herbivores, carnivores, decomposers.

Fixes

Each fix is realistic for the site's owner to actually do.

Writing

Report could be handed to a stranger and understood.

Badge

Steward — Audit Badge

  • ✓Completed audit with all 5 markers scored.
  • ✓10-species food web.
  • ✓Audit report shared with a real adult (parent, neighbor, or pastor counts).

Notes for the Parent / Mentor

This is the most demanding Week 1 mission. Help your scholar pick a small, knowable site — not 'the planet.' One backyard, one park, one creek. Specificity beats ambition every time.