The main purpose of the ‘Woodland Habitat’ is to provide students with a ‘real woodland ecosystem’ that is characteristic of southwestern PA, and can be used by teachers as an additional teaching tool. With valuable habitat rapidly disappearing due to suburban sprawl finding good quality natural areas for students to study nature is difficult. Having this ‘Woodland Habitat’ eliminates time and cost involved in busing children to parks or nature reserves, and also eliminates the need to create ‘models’ inside the classroom for studying certain science concepts such as decomposition.