By Common Ground Students Taylor Pauls, Erik Lopez, Kathiana Torres,
Sophia Ginnow, Georgia Basso and Corrie Folsom-O’Keefe
The lab classroom is silent as eight Green Jobs Corps students from Common Ground High School peer under microscopes, sorting and counting insects with a methodical intensity. 
They pause to jot down a few notes, make a quick sketch of an insect, or flip through the dichotomous key to double check the difference between flies and wasps. Occasionally a triumphant cry rings out from one of the tables, “I’ve finished counting the Homoptera! 15 different species, 213 individuals.” Smiles and encouragement come from the other tables, “Yeh!” “Way to go!” There is a sense of camaraderie among this crew, with thou-sands of insects left to identify- we are all in this together…
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