Background: Students should understand that insects are all around them and are both helpful and harmful to the environment and to people.

Objectives: This activity will help students to become aware of the diversity and abundance of insects in the world as well as help them learn collecting skills. In addition, it will allow them to discover what foods insects prefer to eat.

Materials: Containers (cups), Bait (Fruit, Bread, Meat, etc), Boards, Small rocks
Procedure:  

1. Place students into groups of four or five and give each group a Styrofoam cup.
2. Have the students punch a few small holes in the bottom of the cup for water drainage.
3. Next, allow the students to dig a hole in the soil and set the cup into it with the top of the cup even with the soil surface.
4. Then have students choose from a selection of bait what they feel insects might eat. The bait should be placed in the bottom of the cup.
5. Place a few small rocks on either side of the cup and balance the board on top of them. This will create a lid for the trap, but will still allow the insects to crawl under the board and fall into the trap.
6. The following day, have students empty the contents of their cups into another container to count the number of insects and other organisms that they have collected.
7. Have students compare their insects with those of the other groups
Assessment: Discuss with students the variety of insects that have been caught and what types seem to be attracted to what foods. Ask students to make drawings of each different type of insect that they have caught and compare them with the insects in the other groups.

Going Further: Instead of releasing all of the insects back outdoors, keep several of them to begin an insect collection in a classroom-made ecosystem.