All of the activities in which students engage, individually and collectively, are modeled on the core research activities in systematic biology carried out by Museum scientists. Students get out of the classroom and conduct an inventory of plants and arthropods at a site of their choosing. They make observations, gather information, and analyze their finds. Students learn how scientific investigations are conducted and then apply the same skills and techniques to their own fieldwork. "My students get so excited about doing fieldwork," says Gina Lyon, a middle-school teacher from Ulysses, Kansas. "I take them outside to do their work, and when they come back to the classroom and read about the scientists, they say, 'Hey, we're doing what they're doing.' It really inspires them to continue with their own scientific research."

During the 1998-1999 school year, Biodiversity Counts was piloted in 114 schools in 27 states. One district, the Cambridge Public Schools in Cambridge, Massachusetts, introduced the project district-wide. Museum scientists and staff visited several schools during the 1998-1999 pilot and gave two-day professional development workshops, hosted and led by mentor teachers, in Vermont, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Massachusetts.

"We hope that Biodiversity Counts increases the awareness and consciousness of the biodiversity crisis and forms a growing community of young citizens who will be responsible stewards of the planet," says Ellen V. Futter, President of the American Museum of Natural History.