A Brief Note on Middle School Math in Nature

How do middle school age students learn math if they are outside? 

Pathfinders were put into three groups of one, three, or four students. They timed themselves while they collected 50 garlic mustard plants (an invasive plant we control at the farm). We used these times to calculate a unit rate for each group in plants/minute. (We used the unit rates to calculate how long it took to collect 50 plants since some groups collected more than 50 plants.). Then, we graphed our data. A pathfinder recognized that the graph represented an inverse proportion between time and the number of people on the collecting team. Students extrapolated how long it would take a team of two to collect 50 plants. So many math skills were used in this real world problem along with the benefit of removing the invasive plants!