School of the Wild

 Reflection

     On a cold October Friday, I was fortunate enough to experience the School of the Wild at the MacBride Nature and Recreation Area. Of course four of us girls got lost in the process of finding the groups in the area, so when we arrived, we jumped in on a lesson in the garden. What a great place to start! Gardener Jason was extremely knowledgable and passionate about the garden, which rubbed off onto the 6th grade Solon students. There we learned about basil, tomatoes, squash, garlic and much more. One of the best parts about it was that we got to taste test! During this lesson, we did mostly learning versus teaching of any sort. Like the article of Environmental Education, we were getting immersed in the first step of awareness, "increasing student knowledge about the environment." We followed behind and listened to the information that the gardener gave us as well as watched how he interacted with the kids to keep them engaged. He had them try the things he would present, such as tearing off the basil in the right area so that it grows properly as well as standing on a rock and kicking your leg up like a karate kid to show balance (for fun). It was fascinating to see how he told jokes, made real life connections for the students to understand the concepts and how he was constantly on the move to keep the kids alert and interested for more.

     After the garden it was lunch time, so we had a break to prepare for our activities. Since the grade had been split up into four groups prior to lunch, us four girls were able to join a group that was going to the area next that related to the theme of our activity. I'm not sure what it is about lunch and recess, but man do they go hand in hand! The kids had SO much energy after lunch when it was my time for the activity! That was helpful though. I presented my activity and the kids actually enjoyed it greatly. Despite the few resources (hoops) and low number of students, the students were able to grasp my activity just fine. The students understood the concepts being presented about migration which taught me to always assess where student's understanding is prior to an activity. Here the students were interacting with the objective of knowledge from the Environmental Education article. The activity went quick and it was time for SPIDER POND!
     I was very excited to visit Spider Pond. I love nature, I love canoes and I love exploring the depths of an untouched pond. The instructor of Spider Pond led us to the shed in which we got our PFDs and of course, being an ex-canoe instructor, I just had to quiz the students on PFDs and canoe safety. (this pond was not going to be dangerous, this just happens to be second nature for me now... how great). We sent out on our way down a wooded trail to the quiet hallows of Spider Pond. When we arrived, the instructor gave us a tutorial about what Spider Pond was all about. Here the students were introduced to the issues ecosystems have with humans intruding and causing problems. This is the third step in environmental education, attitudes; to learn of the values and gain feelings of concern for the environment (Braus, Wood p. 5-6). We then discussed that our goal was to find anything amongst the pond that was interesting or moving; like a frog! We took turns in the canoes and pulled ourselves along the ropes across Spider Pond to explore the duck weed covered ecosystem.

     We learned lots about that ecosystem such as how frogs "hibernate," that bubbles come up to the surface from trapped methane gases and how the vegetation collects at the bottom of the pond creating a form of "muck." As I participated like a student, I also observed what kind of things the students found interest in as well as how the instructor went about explaining things. I noticed that the students learned best when given visuals, such as the duck weed particles in hand and the "seaweed" like vegetation. Also, they asked more questions once they felt comfortable with me and knew that I was curious and passionate about the whole experience.

As for the instructor, I admired his abundance of questions. Whenever he was explaining something, he prodded the kids with questions that led them to the answers rather than him lecturing about the content. Also, he would have students look at things in more than one way; i.e. canoeing as a human and canoeing as an animal in the waters. Unfortunately, it was past our time which meant the fun was over.

     In that quick amount of time, I made new friends in the elementary aged form, frog form named Bob and educator form but more importantly engaged in a lesson about nature that will forever stick within my memory as something that I want all of my students to experience. I find great relation of my experience and hopefully of the Solon students, to this quote; "Experiential learning has been shown to increase retention, motivate students to learn, and encourage group cooperation... nothing can replace first-hand experiences to help students understand their community, natural systems and environmental issues" (Braus and Wood p. 9).

Below is the activity that I did during my experience. I copied it from my word document because I couldn't figure out how to upload an attached word doc.

School of the Wild

Allie Meyer

Migration Activity

*Birds migrate south so they avoid harsh winter weather.

Materials:
*Hoops (if accessible)

Activity

1.    Divide hoops so that half are on one end of the field representing wintering grounds and the other half on the other side representing their summer/nesting grounds.

2. Discuss with students the reasons why wetland habitats are being lost. For example, could talk about the impacts of drainage, drought, fire, pollution and contamination of water, urban expansion, conversion to farmland, illegal hunting and diseases.
3. Students will then represent the thousands of water birds that migrate back and forth across the playing area as the teacher signals.
4. The hoops represent wetlands that can only hold two birds (people) at a time. If the birds cannot find a place to land then they must die. They must move off to the sideline.
5. The students on the sideline can then call a disaster that might lead to another loss of wetland and therefore the removal of another hoop, for example, an area is drained for an urban housing development.
6. Some of the dead birds can then become hunters or diseases that might result in loss of bird life.
7. As the story progresses and there are more on the sideline than migrating birds, students on the sideline can join in the migration by thinking of suitable conservation activities that might result in the saving of a wetland. For example, they could think about replanting boggy areas, fencing wetlands, purchasing wetlands as reserves, regulation of hunting to particular areas, and restoration of wetlands.
8. Conclude the story when you think the issues have been explored. 

Questions:

What did this activity demonstrate?

What are your feelings and thoughts about their experience?

Discuss the links to lost habitat and loss of animal life?

Why are wetlands important areas to migrate birds?