Through this structured inquiry experience my students had a wonderful opportunity to get out in the world that surrounds them and investigate the natural environment that they enjoy being a part of here in the Pacific Northwest. By investigating the local forest areas they were able to see the variety available in an ecosystem and also see invasive species and how they affect the plants in the local ecosystem.
The first thing the students did was take pictures of the plant life in the forest area. This let them get a nice close look at the plants and take them back to work with, without destroying the environment by taking pieces of it back instead. 
Students then created a PowerPoint presentation with their images and specified what category they fell into and whether they were an invasive species. If I were to do this in the actual classroom and had additional time to spend on the lesson, I would give the students a few days to investigate the species, and other details about the plants and give more information on them.
In their science journal, students then would answer the following question: If one thing about your ecosystem were to change, such as the amount of rain it gets, the amount of sunlight, or the minerals available how do you think that would affect the plant species available within your plot of land?
Though I will always feel that open inquiry will provide the largest return for learning, I also understand where this type of lesson falls in well with the content we want students to learn. It also provides for more succinct use of classroom time compared to open inquiry and therefore would be used more often.
