Although it is unspectacular in appearance, dead wood is one of the most ecologically important resources in forests. Fallen logs, dead standing trees, stumps, and even cavities in live trees fulfill a wide range of roles. Prominent among these is that they provide habitat for many organisms, especially insects. Fourth-grade students at Fox Prairie Elementary School in Stoughton, Wisconsin, discovered this firsthand when they and their teacher participated in a unique collaboration. An environmental education outreach specialist from the nearby University of Wisconsin-Madison Arboretum partnered the class, which had been studying ecological restoration topics, with a graduate student from UW-Madison who was studying the insects of oak savannas, a highly endangered native ecosystem. This article describes how the three educators led students on a six-week exploration of the biology and conservation of dead wood-inhabiting insects. The collaborative project, which included three educator-led group discussion sessions and five hands-on periods where students collected and recorded insect data in the classroom, was conducted two years in a row and culminated the second year with a scientific presentation by the students at a statewide ecological restoration student conference. (Contains 4 figures, 4 resources and 6 online resources.)