An important component of my approach to teaching science is providing students each year with a significant long term project that gives them an experience of the scientific process in continuity.  Seen here, students engage in a fields studies project, covering several weeks, centered on the premise that they are a scientific team hired by a city council to collect data. Their findings will help the council evaluate which organization the council is proposing to sell the land to is best suited for purchase of the land.  Each company has certain criterion that must be met based on environmental parameters. To gather this data, students use Vernier probes, Garmen GPS unit, computers, walkie talkies, quadrats, solar panels, and assortments of chemicals for an array of soil analysis tests.  Additionally, after writing their reports, students present their findings to the class by role-playing as the scientific team while the other members of the class play the role of the city council scrutinizing the data presented in a follow-up Q&A.  The project provides the students with a real life walk through of the life of a scientist from inception of the experimental design, team work deployment for accurate and efficient data collection, data analysis and evaluation, and finally data presentation and recommendations of the findings to an audience.