by editor | Feb 5, 2014 | K-12 Classroom Resources, Questioning strategies
Rivers reveal their secrets to Idaho students researching water quality through rigorous scientific inquiry
Photos and story by Suzie Boss
Squiggly blue lines cover the map of Idaho, a state with more than 2,000 lakes and hundreds of miles of rivers. From the perspective of veteran science teacher Bob Beckwith, all that water means that nearly every Idaho student has easy access to a creek, a stream, or a lake. “Probably 95 percent of the state’s population lives along a watershed,” he estimates. And where there’s water, Beckwith can promise you, there’s a science project worth pursuing.
On an early winter morning, for example, Beckwith and fellow Eagle High School biology teacher Steve DeMers loaded three classes of warmly dressed sophomores and armloads of scientific gear onto a school bus and headed off on an all-day investigation of water quality along the Boise River. By the day’s end, students had made four stops to gather data between the mouth of the river and headwaters in the mountains west of Boise. They waded midstream to collect invertebrates and dipped their hands into icy currents to test ph and oxygen levels. They checked and rechecked their measurements, keeping careful track of resulting numbers for future analysis.
Despite the frosty weather and the high spirits that come with escaping the classroom, students resisted the urge to hurl snowballs. And all day long, there was no whining. Every student participating in the trip was there by choice, doing what Beckwith calls “real science.”
Since he began teaching in 1972, Beckwith has been using projects to introduce his students to the scientific method. There’s no shortage of evidence that it’s an effective strategy. Beckwith himself is a past recipient of the Presidential Award for Excellence in teaching secondary science. Several of his students have won regional and national honors in elite science competitions, and many have gone on to launch careers in engineering, biology, medicine, and other fields that require a deep understanding of science. Even students who aren’t destined for technical careers, Beckwith points out, gain the benefit of “learning to ask a question and figure out the answer. That’s how I define science literacy.”
On the banks of the Boise River, three girls from Eagle High interrupted their fieldwork to explain the appeal of project-based learning. “We learn so much more this way compared to reading a book,” said one. “You get to experience it yourself, so you really understand what something like turbidity means,” added another. “This applies to me,” explained the third girl. “This is a river where I might want to swim or go fishing. The quality of this water matters. It’s important. And I have the tools right here to find out whether or not it’s clean,” she said, holding up a vial of river water she was evaluating for the presence of nitrates. Although she knew there would be more analysis to be done later, back in the classroom, she had already gained one insight from taking snapshots along different parts of the river: “Upstream, away from the city, the water gets cleaner.”
photo, kids gathering specimens from the river bottom
photo, examining a screen for macro invertebrates
photo, testing water quality
photo, giving the results to the teacher
During a winter day spent collecting data along the Boise River, students in hip waders used a kick screen to gather specimens from the river bottom (at top); examined the screen for macro invertebrates; tested water quality; and, finally, reported their numbers to teacher Bob Beckwith (bottom, right, with clipboard).
Sharing Skills
Through an ambitious effort he launched several years ago, Beckwith also helps other Idaho teachers acquire the skills, equipment, and confidence they need to incorporate project-based learning into their classes. Project SITE—which stands for Students Investigating Today’s Environment—engages students and teachers across the state in projects involving scientific inquiry into water quality, noxious weeds, and other real-world concerns.
Beckwith co-directs SITE with David Redfield, dean of health and science at Northwest Nazarene University in Nampa. Support for the project has come from a variety of sources, including several Idaho colleges, school-to-work partnerships, the state department of education, Idaho Rangeland Commission, and private funders such as the J.A. and Kathryn Albertson Foundation.
More than 200 teachers have gone through SITE training, which immerses them in the same kind of project-based learning they will later orchestrate with their own students. The core of training is an intensive, five-day summer workshop that reminds teachers why science is best understood through active learning. Little time is spent listening to lectures or reading texts. Instead, teachers do real fieldwork, rafting the Salmon River to collect data that relate to water quality or surveying plant life to assess the spread of noxious weeds.
“It’s not lecture/read/do a canned experiment,” Beckwith says. “We might talk for short periods about things they don’t understand very well, then provide them with an experience where they can pose questions and do research to figure out the answers. So it’s a steep learning curve. We model how science works. Science is not a textbook—that’s a history book of facts that scientists have already learned by asking questions. Those facts are an important foundation,” he acknowledges, “but real science involves going out and answering new questions.”
Between Monday and Friday of a typical training week, “teachers learn everything they need to be classroom ready,” Beckwith says. Participants also come away with armloads of gear provided by SITE. “We don’t just train them and then expect them to find a way to buy their own equipment,” he says. “We give them all the stuff they need,” he says, such as test kits, digital cameras, and a manual he wrote in accessible language to guide students through nine scientifically valid field tests designed to measure water quality.
In return, teachers agree to take their students out on data-gathering projects at least three times during the school year. They also bring SITE students together to present their projects during an annual Idaho Student Showcase Day in the spring. By fulfilling their end of the bargain, teachers can earn a stipend.
Providing teachers with such extensive support means that the SITE organizers have had to devote considerable energy to writing grants and reaching out to potential funders. The program invests about $1,500 per teacher on training and supplies, Beckwith estimates. But the investment pays off, he says, by “freeing teachers to focus on teaching.” Water quality —which integrates biology, chemistry, and physics—continues to be a prime focus of fieldwork, but funding for research on weeds has led to new SITE projects in the area of life sciences. “As long as we can collect data, work as a team, and ask questions, then it’s a valid project,” Beckwith says.
To be sure, project-based learning puts high demands on the instructor. “This takes energy,” Beckwith admits at the end of a cold day spent outdoors with a busload of teenagers. But for teachers who enjoy being learners themselves, this style of teaching “helps prevent burnout,” he adds. “It lets teachers engage in questions, too. They have to know enough to help students figure out the answers. As a teacher, you have to allow students to go places even if you don’t know the answers.”
Some teachers need a little “nurturing,” Beckwith admits, to gain the confidence to launch students on challenging projects outside the confines of the classroom. “For others, this way of learning fits so well with their teaching style—it’s natural. They pick it right up.” When Beckwith explains SITE methods to teachers who already believe in active learning, “you just have to put the idea on the table and then run to get out of their way!”
photo, girl using water quality equipment
Students use scientific equipment to measure water quality indicators— not once, but three times. Later, back in the classroom, their numbers will be added to a statewide database. Their first field lesson: accuracy counts.
Pleasant Surprises
Shannon Laughlin was in her first year of teaching middle school science when she saw a flyer about Project SITE. She signed up for two weeks of workshops last summer, including a five-day raft trip along the Salmon River.
“You work your tail off,” she recalls, laughing. “You’re on the river nine hours a day, then talk more about science at night. It’s wonderful!” Although Laughlin holds degrees in both plant science and entomology, she had never done fieldwork. “This kind of hands-on training gives you a chance to prepare,” she says, “so you’re ready when it’s time to take your kids out.”
Last fall, Laughlin began introducing her students at Marsing Middle School to project-based learning. For students and teacher alike, Project SITE has been a journey of surprises. “My kids started by asking me, ‘What are we going to find out?'” Laughlin would tell them: “I don’t know. You’re the scientists.” Project SITE is worlds removed from what Laughlin calls “canned labs, where you can guess what the results should be. What’s neat about this is, you don’t know ahead of time what you’re going to learn. I like to do things where I don’t know the answers in advance.”
Laughlin’s students have been using SITE protocols to test water quality along the Snake River, which runs right through their community and is only a five-minute bus ride from the school. “They fish in this river and swim in it. The river is a part of their life. So they have a personal stake in asking: Is it clean?” That question has led them to others, such as: What affects water quality—agriculture? pollutants? animals?
Although Laughlin says SITE has opened the door to powerful learning opportunities that build science literacy, that’s not the only benefit she’s witnessed. Using field-tested SITE methods, she asked her students to break into teams and choose their own captains. “The ones they chose as captains are not necessarily the usual leaders. But these kids blew me out of the water,” Laughlin admits. “Natural leadership does not always show up in the classroom. These kids did a great job, and it gave them a chance they might not have had otherwise to demonstrate their leadership, their competence.” She enjoyed sharing that observation with her principal, who came along on the first field trip and has become an enthusiastic supporter of the project.
Power Of Teamwork
Beckwith knows from experience that teamwork is a valuable component of SITE projects. “The tasks are such that one person can’t do it alone,” he explains. “Students have to work in teams, and team members have to depend on each other.” Back in the classroom, teams share test results as part of their quality assurance. “If the teams get similar results,” he explains, “they know they’re on target.” Because data are entered into a SITE database that students all over the state can access for research, accuracy is critical.
What’s more, the team approach to research allows all learners to contribute, no matter how diverse their skill levels or how different their learning styles. “Out in the field, they all can be active participants,” Beckwith says. “Nobody’s sitting on the bench. When they come back into the classroom, they can share their data. Every number offers some valuable information.
David Redfield, a professor of chemistry at Northwest Nazarene University in addition to being co-director of SITE, is convinced that such projects “are not just for the elite students. It’s amazing to see kids who are not particularly strong in traditional classroom settings step up and take on a leadership role on a team. They all can use their strengths.
At the university, teamwork skills are valued, Redfield notes. The depth of science literacy that SITE fosters should help prepare students for the rigor of college-level work. “By the time they reach the university, we should be seeing students who are further along as scientists,” he predicts.
SITE not only introduces students to the process of scientific inquiry, Redfield says, but also gives them enough practice in fieldwork so they can start to become confident researchers. “It’s important for them to go out at least three times during the school year to gather data,” he explains. “The first time they do the tests, it feels like a lab exercise. They’re just learning how to use the equipment, take the measurements. But by going into the real world to gather data, then returning to the classroom to analyze results, they can start to look for patterns. They ask questions to figure out why they got the results they did. It becomes a real experience—the numbers have relevance.”
As students repeat the data-gathering process, “the repetition builds their skills,” Redfield says. “If the data seem off, they can take a close look at how they’re collecting samples. That’s a problem-solving exercise right there—to figure out how to correct their methods in the field. They start to know enough to question results if the numbers seem flawed or wrong. That takes confidence.” As students repeat the cycle of posing a hypothesis, gathering data, and analyzing results, “it takes them deeper and deeper into understanding what’s happening, and why,” Redfield says. “When they’re confident about their numbers, then they can move on to ask: What are these numbers telling us? Why did the oxygen go down? What else changed? Is there a relationship, a pattern?”
Beckwith also takes a long-term view of where Project SITE might lead. “Once they learn to use this model, students should be able to apply scientific inquiry to questions of their own. There should be some students in every class who get really excited, really curious. They can take off on their own investigations,” he says.
He’s seen it happen. One of his former students became curious about Mars, and went on to design an experiment that won a national competition sponsored by NASA. Another girl had to miss some class time because her family was traveling to India. She packed along a water quality kit and tested samples of the Ganges and other rivers, which she compared to the water quality of Idaho rivers.
Recently, Beckwith received an e-mail from a student, now a junior in college, asking for a letter of reference for graduate school applications. It was in his biology class, doing Project SITE, that she did her first fieldwork and became inspired to become a scientist. Beckwith will know when project-based learning really takes off in Idaho and transforms the culture of the classroom, “because we’ll be flooded with letters like that one. It’s far better than any test score,” he says, “for measuring success.”
What’s in SITE?
Teachers currently involved in Project SITE recently came together for an all-day workshop to share information about their classroom activities. Their experiences show that project-based teaching methods can work in a variety of settings and appeal to a wide range of learners. Among the examples:
At Kuna High School, students can start participating in SITE activities as freshmen, in Ken Lewis‘s ninth-grade biology class. “We focus on ecology, and use SITE to explore biotic indicators like macro invertebrates. Working in groups, they come up with some great hypotheses,” he says. Later, when students take chemistry and physics, they use SITE inquiry methods again. “I see a bump in their understanding,” says teacher Mike Weidenfeld. “They have better techniques, deeper understanding.” In chemistry, for example, he uses SITE “as a springboard.” Collecting water samples “gets kids to ask questions like, Why is ph important?”
Roy Gasparotti teaches a yearlong projects class for seventh-graders at New Plymouth Middle School and says SITE “fits right in. Interdisciplinary projects are part of our curriculum.” He asks students to assess whether water samples “are good or bad. Then they develop PowerPoint presentations with their data. It’s more fun for kids to work with their own numbers, to graph data they have collected. It’s more meaningful to them.” Fellow teacher Craig Mefford works with the same students on writing their hypotheses and making carefully worded observations.
Will Zollman, who teaches agricultural science at Midvale Junior-Senior High, took a SITE training session on weeds last summer, along with his superintendent and a school board member. So district support for project-based learning is a given. “This has added to my teaching,” he says. “It’s made me look at weeds in a different way—how do they affect rangeland? What can we do about them?” Those are questions he hopes to have his students exploring through fieldwork this spring.
Steve DeMers, who teaches at Eagle High School, has been involved with SITE for three years. “I want to take it a step further,” he says, to get students to consider deeper questions after they have gathered data. He has students use their test results to create graphs with Excel software. “Then I ask them to look for trends. What should a graph look like? Can they explain what’s happening, and why? I’m trying to get them to recognize patterns.”
John Pedersen, a middle school teacher in Nampa, took a SITE workshop early in his teaching career and has been using project-based methods ever since. This year, students are doing water and weather studies. “One student trains the next to enter data,” he explains.
Chad Anzen at Fruitland High School is starting to see students who have had the benefit of project-based learning as early as middle school. “We have a middle school teacher who does SITE, and I’m getting those kids now in high school. They take off so much faster. They act like teachers themselves,” he says, “helping their classmates understand how to do field tests.” By the time the same students take advanced biology, he adds, “they’re ready to go to the step of analyzing. It’s exciting.”
by editor | Jan 25, 2014 | K-12 Classroom Resources
The deal was: if we saw a bald eagle on the beach the morning of the fifth annual Newport High School Senior Walk, I, the teacher, would cancel the killer vocabulary final because the appearance of a bald eagle on a publicly-owned Oregon Coast beach always instills a mighty beneficence in me and I act accordingly. Really, you should hang out with me when it happens.
This walk was my final walk at Newport High School, a tradition I inaugurated with my Honor’s Senior English students back in 2008, my first year teaching at the school. Since then, The Walk has established itself as one of the best things I’ve ever done with students. There’s never an agenda when we hit the free socialist sands at 5:30 a.m. and walk together as friends, Oregonians, and countrymen. We just walk, run, skip, strut, dart, talk, laugh, fiddle with our phones, ride piggyback, climb the North Jetty, build cairns, play, throw rocks, pose, dance, and then rally at Pig N’ Pancake where I buy breakfast for anyone who gets up at dawn to walk with their teacher a final time before the Real World beckons, commands, subsumes.
In three out of the last four years, it had rained on us, and I relished every drop. The condensation enhanced the photographs and made the drip black coffee at the restaurant all the more writerly. We are all writers on The Walk, whether any of us ever write a word about it.
As I said, this was going to be my final walk with seniors. No, I wasn’t quitting my job; it was simply time to evolve, move on, and devote my professional energy exclusively to teaching the creative arts and not a traditional English course. I’m entering the third and final phase of my career, and teaching the creative arts in an era when severe pressure exists to eliminate them from the curriculum is my only mission left as a teacher.
On May 28, I awoke at four a.m., did my usual writing, and then headed out. I arrived at the Fishermen’s Memorial in Yaquina Bay State Park 15 minutes early. Naturally it was raining. One by one the students lumbered in and we congregated near my truck, waiting for the slackers. Finally, 14 hearty teenagers and I commenced The Walk.
We cruised through the dunes quoting epic film lines from the Lord of the Rings trilogy and then emerged onto the beach, Oregon’s Great Birthright. Everything was properly gray. We inspected the remains of several driftwood forts and hunted for limpets. We discussed the fate of the earth and the death of rock. Then we just started running for no reason. If you’re teacher at any level and have never run with your students for no reason, you really have no idea what you’re missing. Running on the beach and in rain is even exponentially better. I would say it’s damn near transcendent.
At some point, we all turned and looked upward. A raptor-like bird appeared in the distance. Hark! Could it be? There were squeals of delight from the tiny tots with their wet eyes all aglow. Their prayers, conjuring, and Facebook posts had worked!
It was a hawk! I laughed at the sky. Soooooooooo sad for the seniors. The bald eagle never appeared and never would appear to forestall a vocabulary final. I had communed with him the night before and expressly asked that he stay away.
In the Pig N’ Pancake we had a banquet room all to ourselves and were happily served by the best waitress I’ve encountered in nearly two decades. The loathsome smell of crozzled bacon nearly induced vomiting in this vegetarian, but hey, I only have to endure it once a year—after The Walk.
I ate my two pancakes and marveled at Fernando, the Brazilian foreign exchange student who inhaled 20. Across the table, a plate full of congealed biscuits and gravy seemed to frighten Allie. To my left, Lily kept drinking creamer from tiny plastic cups. To my right, Cherilyn twirled a frothy blintz with a fork and did her best imitation of some celebrity or television character I’d never heard of nor would ever hear of.
It was our Last Breakfast and there would never be any betrayal. I will miss them all dearly.
As I paid the bill, the waitress said, “Have you ever been a waiter?”
It was one the oddest questions I’d ever been asked in my life.
“No, why do you ask?”
“It’s just the way you communicate and organize…it’s what good waiters and waitresses do.”
I instantly recognized a new candidate for a creative metaphor for good teaching.
She told me she was attending community college and studying communication. I had no doubt she would go far in life. She’d just handled a table of 14 hungry and texting teenagers with perfect and delightful efficiency…and took our photograph as well!
I tipped her like the eccentric-millionaire-who-teaches-for-pleasure I am, said goodbye to the crew, and walked into a floating rain, thinking harder about the “good teacher as good waiter” metaphor.
There might be something in that.
Matt Love lives in on the Oregon Coast with his husky, Sonny. He teaches at Newport High School. His latest book, Of Walking in Rain, is available at nestuccaspitpress.com and independent bookstores. He can be reached at lovematt100@yahoo.com
by editor | Jan 17, 2014 | K-12 Classroom Resources
“The librarian tells me that there have been skirmishes over books, especially on topics we’ve been discussing in class. She and the librarian see this as a problem but not me. I see small steps towards victory with my class. The interest [in Environmental Literacy] is ‘kindled’ and I hope to have a ‘forest fire’ by May.”
— Second Grade Teacher
“Roaches and other small insects continue to lose their lives under the hands and heels of my well-meaning students. How can I change the way they feel about these creatures, especially when their parents feel the same way and have instilled this in their offspring?”
— Pre-Kindergarten Teacher
by Carole Basile and Cameron White
nvironmental literacy is not just learning to read and write about the environment; it’s about acquiring knowledge, skills, dispositions, and feelings that transfer to the real world. It’s about developing a concept of literacy that is more global in nature. Environmental literacy is about helping even our youngest citizens gain knowledge, understanding, and wisdom about the world around them. Citizens who respect living things; can learn about the perspectives of others, share their own views, solve problems, make reasonable decisions; and can take appropriate action. In this time of high stakes testing where literacy has become the primary focus in schools today, environmental educators need to continue to find ways of offering the environment as a contextual framework.
In literacy, context is often forgotten in the midst of phonics worksheets and testing. As Coles (2000) suggests, the meaning of literacy is diminishing and the goals are narrowing. “The narrower the goals, the more they reinforce narrow instruction aimed at a narrow conception of children’s education (p. 108)”. This passion and enthusiasm in the early years is what helps encourage students to enjoy reading and writing. Routman (1996) emphasizes that inquiry and language in authentic use is at the heart of curriculum. Meaning and knowledge are constructed from the learner’s experiences. This step will ultimately be important as the child makes decisions relevant to what they study and what they choose to write about as they get older. The goal is to involve students by encouraging the social construction of knowledge through student-centered approaches (Brooks and Brooks, 1993).
The Environment as a Context for Literacy
We propose four components that teachers should think about as they begin to think about the environment as a context for literacy: (1) teaching children the basic science concepts that they need to understand how environmental systems work, (2) nurturing children’s respect for all living things, (3) facilitating the processes of problem solving, decision making, and critical thinking, and (4) developing environmental citizenship.
Teaching About The Environment
During these years, effective environmental literacy development should begin by providing a knowledge base that is developmentally appropriate, but it should also be meaningful and relevant to students and involve them actively. The use of non-fiction is critical here. There is a myriad of basal readers and picture books for children at all levels that are non-fiction and teach children about environmental systems. Observation of nature can be used as a purpose for writing in a variety of genres.
A group of kindergartners did observations in their schoolyards and wrote the following (translated from inventive spelling):
”I found a ladybug. It tickled me. My friend let me have her ladybug. Then I found a doodlebug. Then my Mom said she was going to help me find the bugs.” “A butterfly was going to land on my house. Then there came another butterfly.”
“I saw a bee was eating my little flower. I scared it. There was stiging at me because I scare it.”
“I found a butterfly and he didn’t bite me. He was my friend.”
“A bee was going to sting me. The grasshopper was bouncing in my hose. I saw two ants eating some food.”
Nurturing Respect
Nurturing respect is a critical component in this process. It teaches children to be not only respect and protect living things but to be tolerant of each other. Literature can enhance discussions about honoring living things and working for peace. Read-alouds using books that focused on respect and peace stimulated conversations and reflections like these with young children.
Gabby, age 7
”Yesterday, we were playing outside and we saw a bird. I think it’s called a killdeer. It doesn’t live in a tree; it lives in the dirt on the ground. I was running and my friend and me were playing and I almost tripped over it. People were coming over and it was acting like it had a broken wing. My teacher was telling us to move away from it. If you kill the bird or step on it, or step on its eggs, or smash them, you will be killing the environment because birds are part of all life. If we just watch the animals outside, if we just leave them alone, we’re not trying to mess with them, so we won’t get hurt and they won’t get hurt either. If we bothered plants and animals, we couldn’t admire anything or we couldn’t smell the flowers or have any energy. One time outside in my backyard I saw an orange cocoon. My brother and his friends were poking at it and I asked my mom if they were supposed to be doing that. She told them to leave it alone and go play somewhere else. I told my mom I was helping to save the environment.”
Ignacia, age 5
“Insects are good for dirt, like rain. And like pill bugs and ladybugs, they help everything. They help the leaves from bad insects; the ladybugs eat little insects that are bad. So we have to take care of them and not kill them or give them poison stuff; we have to be nice to them.”
Beverly, age 6
“We’ve been learning and doing things outside. We must catch and release insects we find because if you keep them, they might die. We are writing about what we see. I see a big bird that is black. I hear all the birds singing. I saw a mommy bird go by; it was finding food. I saw it find a worm and take it back to the nest to feed the babies. We caught a butterfly and took it to our class. We are going to release it now. We need to stop killing animals because sometimes they help us. Once my sister was about to step on a caterpillar. I yelled, ‘No!’ and the caterpillar got away. I told her that they can help us. I told my teacher all about it.”
Jonathan, age 7
“Respecting living things means being nice to stuff outside because its nature and you have to take care of it. What if that was you and somebody was bothering you, doing something bad to you. You wouldn’t like it.”
Facilitating Processes
Environmental literacy is more than just reading and discussing. It’s giving children opportunities for examining processes, problem solving and decision-making. Learning occurs when children are engaged in the process; it’s not necessarily the content itself, it’s what children do with the content that facilitates learning. For example, learning the parts of an insect or the five senses becomes meaningful when the children are engaged in the process of the classification, analysis, and synthesis of the data they collected. Students begin to understand issues when they are involved in the issues.
Young children do have their own issues – not global issues like acid rain, global warming, or habitat loss – but little kid issues like: Should I take this lizard or frog home for a pet?, Should I feed the animals I see in the park?, Why do I need to stay on the trails in the nature center?, Why should I turn the lights off when I leave the room or turn the water off after I get a drink?, Why can’t I throw trash down the storm sewer or out in the schoolyard? Reading, writing, and debating the issues with young children can begin to build foundations and practice the skills necessary to examine larger issues later in life right in their own neighborhood or school community.
Developing Environmental Citizenship
There is an old saying, “think globally, act locally”. Young children need to “think locally, act locally”. The process of environmental literacy must lead to citizenship. Community projects can include: creating a new bird/butterfly habitat where children write their plans or write reflective books about the process; writing school community environmental information bulletins, brochures about recycling, water conservation, or energy conservation, building bat boxes or bird feeders and reading “how to’s” and writing about the process or posters; or creating stories or poems for an Earth Day celebration.
This is an example of a book that was written and illustrated by a group of 2nd graders after they created a garden in their schoolyard. This book along with other they wrote throughout the year were placed in their school library for everyone to see and read.
“Proper Planting Procedures for Wildflower Seeds”
Rake the area to get good seed/soil contact. Remove trash and dead grass from the planting area. First you open the seed packages. Then you pour them into a bucket so you can mix them up. You want to mix the little seeds with the big seeds. Pour half of the mixed seeds into a second bucket. Plant the seeds in two directions: north/south and east/west to make sure the entire area is covered. This is called “feed the chickens” method and is done because most of the seeds are so small. It also allows you to see how much seed has been planted and how much seed still needs to be planted. Next lightly rake the area. Next step on the soil to provide good soil/seed contact. Lightly water the seed to provide moisture for the seeds to germinate. Label a planting pot or bucket with the type of seeds planted in the wildflower area. Put potting soil in the pot and add a pinch of seed to the soil. Water lightly. This labeled pot will make identification of sprouting seeds more easy. Continue to lightly water the area until the seedlings sprout and are several inches tall. The End.
Giving Children Voice
If we can successfully use the environment as a context for literacy, we give young children voice – intellectual, emotional, and social voice.
We often read words that we don’t use in every day language, but these words help us in an intellectual way to understand more about what is happening in the world. The vocabulary that is part of environmental literacy is important and we shouldn’t be afraid to take kids to those levels. It’s fun to hear first graders talk about habitats and symbiosis and find second graders who use words in their writing like recycle, respect, and responsible. It makes them feel smart and gives them language that spurs a higher level of imagination, creativity, and thought.
The intellectual voice allows for the development of critical thinking and problem-solving as children interact with each other, they have more words to use, to express how they feel. The intellectual voice comes from reading and writing about the environment, developing an awareness of what is living around them, showing them how they are part of the ecosystem, and how they affect their world. The emotional voice comes from teaching children to respect living things and developing their passion about protecting and conserving life and natural resources. Giving them the words of feelings, this passion is often transferred home and shared with others. Social voice comes from kids developing their own language, one where they are able to develop their own sense of identity and connection to the world. It embodies a language of both critique and possibility; a language that allows students to locate themselves in history, find their own voices, and establish convictions and compassion necessary for democratic civic courage (Freire and Giroux, 1989). These young children can influence their peers and their families because they have the intellectual, emotional, and social voice — that’s what makes a difference.
Developing Voice through Children’s Literature
As we have seen using children’s literature as an integrating factor can open a new world for literacy learning and teaching. Having literacy discussions within or across grade levels allow teachers to understand what children think about a variety of issues that are meaningful and relevant to them and help children develop their voice about the environment.
The following is a list of suggested children’s literature. This is far from a comprehensive list, but questions following each reference give teachers a look at possible discussion topics.
Baker, J. (1991). Window. New York, NY: Greenwillow.
How has our neighborhood changed? If you could live anywhere, where would it be: country or city? Why?
Bash, B. (1990). Urban roosts. San Francisco, CA: Sierra Club
What are the animals in our neighborhood? How have they adapted to being around people?
Bunting, E. (1991). Night tree. New York, NY: Harcourt Brace.
What are ways we can appreciate mother nature?
Cooney, B. (1982). Miss Rumphius. New York, NY: Viking-Penguin.
What kinds of things can we do to make the world more beautiful?
Fleming, D. (1996). Where once there was a wood. New York, NY: Henry Holt.
How are things in our neighborhood changing? How do you think the changes are affecting the wildlife?
French, V. (1993). Caterpillar, caterpillar. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press.
Why is it important to preserve different plant species? What can happen if we don’t preserve them?
Hoose, P, & Hoose, H. (1998). Hey, little ant. New York, NY: Scholastic.
Should we kill insects or other living things just for fun? Is there ever a time to kill living things?
James, S. (1990). Sally and the limpet. New York, NY: McElderry.
Should we touch or catch animals in the wild?
James, S. (1991). Dear Mr. Blueberry. New York, NY: McElderry Books.
How do we find out about things we don’t know or understand?
Larson, G. (1998). There’s a hair in my dirt. New York, NY: HarperPerennial.
What can we do to find out about the real stories of how nature works?
Lasky, K. (1995). She’s wearing a dead bird on her head. New York, NY: Hyperion.
How can we let others know about things we care about? Is there anything we care about that we would like others to know about?
London, J. (1993). Voices of the wild. New York, NY: Crown.
What is our relationship with other animals and living things?
Mazer, A. (1991). The salamander room. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf.
Is it okay to take animals out of the wild? When we take them out of the wild, how can we take care of them?
Peet, B. (1966). Farewell to shady glade. New York, NY: Houghton-Mifflin.
What things do we see changing in our neighborhood?
Ryder, J. (1996). Earthdance. Markham, Ontario: Henry Holt.
How can we learn more about our community and our world?
Schimmel, S. (1993). Dear children of the earth. Minnetonka, MN: Creative Publishing.
What is man’s responsibility to other animals and living things? How can we respect living things?
Stewart, S. (1997). The gardener. New York, NY: Farrar, Starus, and Giroux.
How can we create natural habitats in the city?
Ward, L., & Jacques, L. (1993). A walk in the wild. Watertown, MA: Charlesbridge.
Why is some land protected for refuges or parks?
Wood, D. (1992). Old turtle. Duluth, MN: Pfeifer-Hamilton.
What is our relationship to other animals and living things?
At The End: Teachers’ Voices
Literacy, especially environmental literacy, development means much more than promoting traditional reading and writing skills. In fact, just as important to our kids is for us to allow the connections promoted through the use of the environment as a context. We can’t keep censoring our children’s lives by only providing literature that is bland and writing that is meaningless. We can’t take the chance that they’ll get it sometime, but right now they just have to learn to read and write. They should be learning to read and write about something, why not the environment.
As children are developing not only their intellectual being but their emotional and social being why not facilitate their natural engagement in learning and transfer early on through the integration of the environment. Let’s not just make them literate, let’s make them environmentally literate. But don’t take our word for it, listen to the teachers and children. “As a teacher, I wear many hats. I have enjoyed my new naturalist hat. I plan on wearing it every day of every year. I found that I can start my children on a path to being naturalists too. I now include issue-based literature and challenge the children to think about their actions towards the world and the living things on it. I teach them about their relationships with nature – how they are in the web of life. I don’t just teach them about insects anymore. I teach them about respect for life, no matter how small the creature is. I have shown the children that they can be problem-solvers and be active in doing something that will benefit everyone. The children are not passive listeners but active doers. The classroom environment has changed as well. The children protect living things. They cry out when someone is going to kill a bug. They pick up trash when it is not in its place. I have grown as a teacher and I have seen great growth in the children as well.” “We have come a long way baby since that first day in August. I would love to move up to third grade with my class but can’t. I just hope they will remain conscious of the world around them and will continue to nurture it and in turn spread this belief to others. The have truly become environmentally conscious, stewards of the land.”
Children’s Voices
“I think that the world is beautiful. There are things I can do to make the world more beautiful. One of the things that I can do to make it beautiful is I can plant flowers. I would probably plant tulips and amaryllis just like my father. I would plant them in parks, forests, and gardens (2nd grader).”
“I would make a difference because I would recycle lots of stuff and plant some trees and get some of my friends to help me clean up the city not the whole city some of it and plant more plants and make the world a better place (2nd grader).”
“If I could make a difference I would save energy. If you don’t save energy you might not be able to use it again (2nd grader).”
An Earth Poem (3rd grader)
Every day we leave we have
An opportunity to make this world better by
Recycling and cleaning our streets
Today I did my part, tomorrow
I Have to start again.
References
Brooks, J. and Brooks, M. (1993). The case for constructivist classrooms. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Coles, G. (2000). Misreading reading: The bad science that hurts children. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann
Routman, R. (1996). Literacy at the crossroads: Critical talk about reading, writing, and other teaching dilemmas. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Carole Basile is on faculty at the University of Colorado at Denver in the Initial Teacher Education program. Cameron White teaches social studies education at the University of Houston.
by editor | Jan 3, 2014 | K-12 Classroom Resources
NATURAL TEACHERS: 10 Ways You Can Add Vitamin “N” to your Classroom & Beyond.
from the Children and Nature Network website
http://blog.childrenandnature.org/2013/03/23/natural-teachers-10-ways-you-can-add-vitamin-n-to-your-classroom-beyond/
by editor | Jan 2, 2014 | K-12 Classroom Resources
By Pamela Jull, PhD
Applied Research Northwest
t’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of planning the activities of an environmental education program. Programs are neat. They are often fun and innovative and they usually give participants a memorable, positive experience.
Sometimes in the thrill of innovation, the concrete goals of a program get lost. By planning your evaluation as you plan your program, you can better insure that you produce the results you intended when you came up with your great program idea.
An evaluator thinks of program planning this way:
• What are the specific skills and knowledge you intend your audience to acquire?
• How will you know if your audience has acquired the skills and knowledge you intended for them? What will it look like? What will they be able to do? What will they be thinking?
• What systematic information can you observe or collect to verify your belief that they have learned what you expected?
The best program design makes evaluation possible without it being an added burden to the program staff, and it provides useful information that the staff values in a timely way. Asking these questions early in the planning gives you the opportunity to embed the evaluation in the design. If this happens too late, the program agenda is often too firmly set and structured, and you may lose the flexibility to integrate good assessments into your program.
For example, perhaps you have a registration form for participants. That form could contain a few well-crafted questions that enable you to set a baseline or capture some information about your learners. Maybe as a result of planning, you will decide to add an initial reflection to show program staff their learners’ attitudes or understanding of the topic. Do you want to know if they used what they learned? Contacting people after their educational experience is not difficult if it’s planned for in advance, for example by collecting email addresses and priming participants to look for a follow up from your organization.
Perhaps one reason evaluation is sometimes stuffed to the margins is the fear factor. People often ask me “What if we find out our program is not working?” Failure is a depressing prospect, but my response is clear:
• Environmental education programs are designed by thoughtful highly motivated people. There is always success to be found in at many elements of the program
• Even negative findings nearly always produce a positive sense of efficacy among staff. It is really nice to know what’s working as well as what is not rather than guessing.
• Program staff almost immediately start puzzling through potential solutions, highly motivated to improve upon what they’ve accomplished.
The motivation to improve generates optimal program results. Staff might ask: Was there something unexpected about the group of learners that would account for the outcomes? Do the results point to an opportunity to make an easy adjustment, for example by giving a specific learning module more emphasis, or better clarifying an important concept? Reviewing program implementation is also helpful: Did something in the program delivery change from the plan due to some unforeseen constraint that may have removed an effective component?
Getting help is a good move. A good evaluator will help program managers think about their program as a system. Systems thinking can lead to a stronger sense of cause and effect, and a stronger program design. Solid evaluations are recognized by funding agencies as the hallmark of thoughtful program developers, and a great evaluation can set you up for more easily obtaining more program funding. The American Evaluation Association (www.eval.org) has a list of evaluators by region. Find someone close by who has an interest in your area.
Dr. Jull is a Cornell-trained sociologist and applied social scientist with more than 15 years experience in research and program evaluation. Her clients have included school districts, educational service districts, non-profits and local and state agencies engaged in environmental and K-16 education.
by editor | Jan 2, 2014 | K-12 Classroom Resources
by Shamin Graff
Lake Katherin Nature Center & Botanic Garden
Palos Heights, IL
he sat quietly for several moments, watching and waiting. Suddenly, a streak of yellow flew by and then another. She quickly snapped a few photos on her phone as they flew off. Excitedly, she uploaded her photographs to iNaturalist, the first goldfinches that had been added to the biodiversity project she joined. She loved to see as all the new species being added by her and other citizen scientists like herself.
Across the United States, large institutions such as the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History and the Field Museum of Natural History have developed spaces where visitors can watch scientists in action and ask questions about the work being done (Smithsonian Institution, 2013; The Field Museum, 2008). At the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, an entire wing dedicated to the pursuit of science recently opened, which includes opportunities to engage visitors in citizen science (North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, 2012).
If your institution is anything like mine, creating a space for science and engaging visitors in citizen science programs may seem to be a greater project than time or financial resources can support. However, the resources put into a successful program can pay dividends over time for both the institution and its visitors. Knowing this, we dedicated a small space in our nature center to science and chose existing citizen science programs that could be tailored to meet the needs of our institution. The following is the evidence-based framework we created for doing so, based on extensive research that has been done in free-choice learning environments, including nature centers and museums.
The Case for Citizen Science
Citizen science is not a new idea, as participation in citizen science programs dates back to the 1700s in Europe where amateur bird enthusiasts recorded bird sightings (Dickinson, Zuckerberg & Bonter, 2010). Utilizing the Internet, today’s citizen science programs rely on crowdsourcing, or having large groups of people who each make a contribution, to collect data or classify previously-collected data. With many people sharing the work in this way, large data sets can be compiled that otherwise would not have been possible (Dickinson et al., 2010). These large data sets can not only be used to monitor a population or phenomenon, but also serve as a starting point for new questions to be researched (Bonter & Hochachka, 2009). For example, there is a project that asks participants to help transcribe old maritime records that can then be used to study climate change (www.zooniverse.org/project/oldweather) and several that ask people to help identify animals caught on camera traps. Both tasks require enormous amounts of man-hours and would be not feasible without the help of citizen scientists.
Besides the research benefits, participating in citizen science projects also have potential to increase scientific literacy. It can be difficult to assess, but research has shown that content knowledge can be gained through participation (Brossard, Lewenstein & Bonney, 2005). When participants are specifically instructed in science inquiry and the significance of the research being done, it may be possible to affect participants’ understanding and attitudes towards science in a positive way (Trumbull, Bonney & Grudens-Schuck, 2005; Jordan, Gray, Howe, Brooks & Ehrenfeld, 2011). Though more research is needed (Jordan et al., 2011), using citizen science to engage visitors over the long-term may also be a way to increase appreciation for nature and a caring attitude toward nature and biodiversity (Brewer, 2006), something we all strive for in environmental education.
Creating a Space for Science
Although your institution may not have a wing to dedicate to science, there may be an area that can be used to introduce visitors to science, provide reference materials and perhaps even offer scientific equipment for visitors to use. For us, we needed a space that allowed visitors to overlook not only our site, but also our planned bird feeder installation and this guided our selection. As research in free-choice learning environments has shown, the physical attributes of a learning environment can affect visitor learning in both positive and negative ways. Visitors often feel more comfortable in smaller exhibit areas (Maxwell & Evans, 2002), so do not be discouraged by limited space. Although it is tempting to create an immersive environment where visitors can feel they have been transported to someplace else, this may actually overshadow any educational messaging (Pedretti & Soren, 2006). Instead, working to minimize distractions can increase visitor attention and potentially visitor learning (Maxwell & Evans, 2002). For us, that meant separating the area from the high-traffic by the entrance and shielding noise from the adjacent area for young children. Simply rearranging and strategically placing furniture created the ideal space for us. We also included a comfortable seating area to provide visitors a place to rest and that may encourage longer stay-times.
Choosing a Citizen Science Project
Choosing the citizen science project that fits the needs of your institution is important to the future success and support of the program. We chose projects with a local focus that visitors could participate in at our site in order to fit our institution’s mission. There are a wide variety of citizen science projects to consider. SciStarter (http://www.scistarter.com) provides a searchable database of citizen science projects around the world that may assist you in finding a suitable project.
Institutional resources should be considered when choosing a project. The time investment for some projects will be greater than others. Some projects require frequent reports, sometimes even daily. Still others have fees associated with participation, require specialized training, or use equipment that must be specially purchased.
It is also crucial to consider the target audience when choosing a project. Many projects will not easily lend themselves to being used with visitors. Some data collection may be too intensive for the visitor experience while others may have strict restrictions on reporting. In these instances, you may choose to participate as an institution and then share your contributions to the project with visitors. This could be expanded by offering visitors a similar activity to participate in, as we did with Project FeederWatch, a bird monitoring program through the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Also, some projects may have data collection periods that may not coincide with times of highest attendance. For example, Project FeederWatch only runs from mid-November through early April each year (Bonter & Hochachka, 2009), when many nature centers in northern climates have a decline in attendance.
Developing Materials
When developing site-specific materials for your chosen citizen science project, you should consider including an explanation of scientific inquiry and the role visitors are taking by participating. This may help them develop a better understanding of how science research is conducted and the importance of citizen science (Trumbull et al., 2005). Research at science museums has shown that visitors often come away with a changed view of science, but it is one that sees science as a set of facts, not a collection of knowledge that is always evolving (Rennie & Williams, 2006). We can help science literacy by showing visitors that though some scientific knowledge has been rigorously validated, there is still much that is not fully understood, even after years of study. Without addressing these misconceptions directly, we may unknowingly undermine science literacy goals.
Our institution does not have naturalists or docents who are available to facilitate the citizen science area, a major hurdle for a project like this. To support self-directed learning and participation in citizen science projects, easy-to-follow materials are recommended (Banz, 2008), such as signage, brochures and worksheets. These self-guided activities can also provide visitors with a framework designed to help them conduct their own inquiries, allowing them to see firsthand the nature of science (Allen & Gutwill, 2009). Hopefully, this will also promote repeat visits to the area and enhance learning (Banz, 2008).
Program Assessment
While developing a citizen science program, program assessment should be discussed. Simply having visitors participate was our initial goal, and multiple iterations of materials and methods are still being used to reach that goal. However, research on the impact of citizen science is limited and contributions are needed in both data and research methods (Brossard et al., 2005). If resources allow, assessment of content knowledge, scientific inquiry, impact on stewardship and changes in conservation values are highly encouraged, and are in the planning stages for our project.
The Framework in Action
At Lake Katherine Nature Center & Botanic Gardens (LKNCBG) in suburban Chicago, Illinois, the first implementation of a citizen science program following this framework is underway. With only three full-time staff members, resources are limited and minimal funds were used for the project. However, as our mission seeks to “promote environmentally sustainable choices through education, outdoor experiences and scientific research,” it has been important goal for 2013 to begin to introduce citizen science to the 26,000 visitors that come through the nature center annually (LKNCBG, 2013).
The physical space for our citizen science center was formed using a 130 ft2 area inside our nature center. The area provides a small reference library, comfortable seating and views of our bird feeders. There is literature for each citizen science project located in the citizen science center, along with worksheets and identification guides. There is also a chalkboard for visitors to record and share their data.
Three citizen science projects were selected to help us reach our goal. As an institution, we are participating in Project FeederWatch (www.birds.cornell.edu/pfw/), a program that collects bird counts at feeders. For visitors, we are offering a paper-based activity similar to the actual data collection for the project. We have also started a project online at iNaturalist (www.inaturalist.org) that allows visitors to record observations of wildlife seen at our site in order to compile a biodiversity atlas. Finally, we have joined Project Budburst (www.budburst.org) as a Botanic Gardens Partner to encourage visitors to gather data about seasonal changes in ten target plant species onsite.
These specific projects were chosen mainly to help build visitors’ ecological knowledge. Research has suggested that as cultures become more affluent, this ecological knowledge is lost (Pilgrim, Cullen, Smith & Pretty, 2008). The projects we have chosen offer an opportunity for visitors to learn about species and their roles in local ecosystems, which we hope will help address this loss of knowledge. Also by increasing ecological knowledge, visitors may become more aware of their local environment and the issues it faces (Cooper, Dickinson, Phillips & Bonney, 2007), potentially leading to greater support for restoration and preservation of natural lands, including our own site.
Although it is a modest start, and interest from visitors is just beginning, we hope that citizen science will become an integral part of the visitor experience to LKNCBG and will inspire other environmental education institutions to develop similar programs. We expect that it will take time to build a culture of science at our institution and this is just one step in that process. In the future, we plan to evaluate our program through visitor surveys to not only improve our own programs, but also to share with the environmental education community.
Taking the First Step
A citizen science center may be a great way to further your institution’s mission and goals. Using this research-based framework as a guide, it is possible to create a place to engage visitors through citizen science, even when resources are limited. Through these programs, environmental education institutions can play a key role in increasing their visitors’ science literacy and ecological knowledge. With time, visitors may start taking a more active role in stewardship and provide greater support for local environmental causes. It all starts with taking the first step.
References
Allen, S. & Gutwill, J. P. (2009). Creating a program to deepen family inquiry at interactive science exhibits. Curator, 52, 289-306. doi: 10.1111/j.2151-6952.2009.tb00352.x
Banz, R. (2008). Self-directed learning: Implications for museums. The Journal of Museum Education, 33(1), 43-54.
Bonter, D. N. & Hochachka, W. M. (2009). A citizen science approach to ornithological research: Twenty years of watching backyard birds. In T. D. Rich, C. Arizmendi, E. Demarest, & C. Thompson (Eds.), Tundra to Tropics: Connecting Birds, Habitats and People (pp. 453-458). Proceedings of the 4th International Partners in Flight Conference, McAllen TX.
Brewer, C. (2006). Translating data into meaning: Education in conservation biology. Conservation Biology, 20, 689-691. doi: 10.1111/j.1523-1739.2006.00467.x
Brossard, D., Lewenstein, B., & Bonney, R. (2005). Scientific knowledge and attitude change: The impact of a citizen science project. International Journal of Science Education, 27, 1099-1121. doi:10.1080/09500690500069483
Cooper, C. B., Dickinson, J., Phillips, T. & Bonney, R. (2007). Citizen science as a tool for conservation in residential ecosystems. Ecology and Society, 12(2), 11.
Dickinson, J. L., Zuckerberg, B., & Bonter, D. N. (2010). Citizen science as an ecological research tool: Challenges and benefits. Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics, 41, 149-172. doi: 10.1146/annurev-ecolsys-102209-144636
Jordan, R. C., Gray, S. A., Howe, D. V., Brooks, W. R. & Ehrenfeld, J. G. (2011). Knowledge gain and behavioral change in citizen-science programs. Conservation Biology, 25, 1148-1154. doi: 10.1111/j.1523-1739.2011.01745.x
Lake Katherine Nature Center & Botanic Gardens. (2013). 2012 Annual Report.
Maxwell, L. E. & Evans, G. W. (2002). Museums as learning settings: The importance of the physical environment. The Journal of Museum Education, 27(1), 3-7.
North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences (2012). New wing opens with 24-hour celebration Friday, April 20. Retrieved from http://naturalsciences.org/about-us/news/new-wing-opens-24-hour-celebration-friday-april-20
Pedretti, E. & Soren, B. J. (2006). Reconnecting to the natural world through an immersive environment. Canadian Journal of Science, Mathematics and Technology Education, 6(1), 83-96. Abstract retrieved from http://www.tandfonline.com
Pilgrim, S. E., Cullen, L. C., Smith, D. J. & Pretty, J. (2008). Ecological knowledge is lost in wealthier communities and countries. Environmental Science and Technology, 42, 1004-1009. doi: 10.1021/es070837v
Rennie, L. J. & Williams, G. F. (2006). Adults’ learning about science in free-choice settings. International Journal of Science Education, 28, 871-893. doi: 10.1080/09500690500435387
Smithsonian Institution. (2013). FossiLab. Retrieved from http://paleobiology.si.edu/FossiLab/index.html
The Field Museum. (2008). DNA Discovery Center. Retrieved from http://archive.fieldmuseum.org/dna/
Trumbull, D. J., Bonney, R. & Grudens-Schuck, N. (2005). Developing materials to promote inquiry: Lessons learned. Science Education, 89, 879-900. doi: 10.1002/sce.20081
Shamim Graff is a volunteer at the Lake Katherine Nature Center & Botanic Gardens in Palos Heights, Illinois.
