Guest teacher leads lesson about ecosystems

GOSHEN — Fifth grade students in Elizabeth Jung’s class at Goshen Intermediate School were visited recently by retired teacher Len LoBreglio, who taught an interactive lesson titled “Oh, Deer!”

The students are studying ecosystems in Jung’s class, and the interaction of abiotic and biotic factors in an environment. Abiotic factors are the non-living parts of an ecosystem, and biotic factors are the living parts. For example, at Goshen Intermediate School (ecosystem), abiotic factors include walls, desks and books, and biotic factors include students, teachers and custodians.

LoBreglio led the children in 15 rounds of “Oh, Deer!” to show how the deer population either increased or decreased based on the factors of food, shelter, and water. He also showed them the natural progression of increasing and decreasing populations using the example of grass, bunnies, and hawks.

LoBreglio is a retired biology teacher from Monroe-Woodbury High School and husband of speech pathologist Carole LoBreglio.