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The article presents information on Earth Odyssey, an outreach program and a Web site for children of grades four to six. The program is developed by the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and supported by American Honda Motor Co. Inc. The program starts with a one-hour inservice for all participating teachers. During the inservice, teachers and museum instructors discuss how to prepare students for the museum instructors' visits, such as dividing the students into science teams and practicing basic observation and illustration activities. During the program, museum instructors depart from the traditional "show and tell" model of most museum outreach programs and instead work with students and teachers over the course of one month to conduct field observations of living things in the schoolyard and in a local park. Students then compare the rates of biodiversity observed in both areas. Museum instructors "adopt" a school so that the students interact with the same instructor throughout the program. Rather than sitting and listening to a lecture, students are full, active participants in authentic fieldwork and are responsible for collecting the data on plants, birds, and invertebrates they will later analyze.

Presents a science activity designed to investigate the behavior of earwigs. Characteristics of inquiry-based learning; Reasons for using earwigs; Materials needed for the project; Procedures.