On the Prairie

It's September and that means the new class of 7th Graders from Heritage E-STEM Middle School are visiting Dodge Nature Center's Lilly Prairie as part of a year-long study of ecosystems. Today the first groups came out to make detailed observations of a group of prairie plants we'll work with throughout the year, doing various projects like identifying with dichotomous keys, determining the average number of seeds per seed head, scarifying and stratifying, and planting the seeds. 

Drizzling rain didn't deter the students (although it did make things rather soggy - my hiking boots are still wet.) It was great seeing small groups of students talking, comparing, questioning - their drawings and notes showed a lot of effort. 

As the last group of the day finished up, one of the students noticed this lovely creature hiding among the grasses. 

It's lime green body blends in seamlessly with the grasses and leaves of the flowering prairie plants. While its long legs help it jump efficiently, this one walked slowly across the tree stump where we placed it so we could watch it. Can you identify it? I "did." (hint, hint, hint...)