Ah-HA! This has got to be one of my all-time favorite posts on ecolog.
My own great fortune was that my parents "neglected" me. My playground was
the woods and fields, and my mostly-Cherokee grandmother took me out into
"the field," including weed patches, as soon as I could walk. This
"education" was imperfection, and I am imperfection personified. I consider
myself fortunate to have maintained at least a semblance of ignorance
despite all the best efforts of several institutions of "higher" learning to
beat the bliss out of me, to keep my thinking in line, to instruct me in the
proper way of thinking and knowledge. Pushing at the edges of my ignorance
is such fun, and each step upward reveals an ever larger sea of ignorance
before me. I will die ignorant. But at least I kicked hard right rudder and
saved myself from linear verticality before too much damage was done.
This is not to say that institutionalized knowledge is all bad; only that it
can be a significant barrier to thinking as well as, at its best (and
unfortunately at its rarest), a highly stimulating surrogate for immersion
into reality. My memories of my various institutionalizations are of the
exceptions, those who rose above instruction, disregarded professing, and
taught by challenging each student much as my grandmother did.
Apart from rising up from our keyboards, freeing ourselves from
pixel-prisons, and opening up the book of Nature right in our back yards and
letting our minds play freely, I hope to read more such posts, and a
building upon Teresa's many, many jewel-like points buried between, as well
as in, her lines.
Here are a few books worth reading when one is too confined to breathe free,
and I hope y'all will add to the list. Mind you, they are not perfect, but
all contain at least some jewels that can be catalysts, springboards,
connective tissue and the like, to help to counter the great gulf of
rigidity that persistently threatens to drown the divergent.
Animals in Translation--Temple Grandin
Fuzzy Logic--Daniel McNeil
Deschooling Society--Ivan Illich
The Log From the Sea of Cortez--John Steinbeck (with Ed Ricketts)
The Gift--Lewis Hyde
Homo Ludens-Johann Huizinga*
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman, and What Do You Care What Other People
Think?
Well, you get the drift . . . diversity (convergence AND divergence)
WT
a.. "A happier age than ours once made bold to call our species by the
name of Homo Sapiens. In the course of time we have come to realize that we
are not so reasonable after all as the Eighteenth Century, with its worship
of reason and its naive optimism, thought us; hence modern fashion inclines
to designate our species as Homo Faber: Man the Maker. But though faber may
not be quite so dubious as sapiens it is, as a name specific of the human
being, even less appropriate, seeing that many animals too are makers. There
is a third function, however, applicable to both human and animal life, and
just as important as reasoning and making - namely, playing. It seems to
Huizinga that next to Homo Faber, and perhaps on the same level as Homo
Sapiens, Homo Ludens, Man the Player, deserves a place in our
nomenclature." -blurb from Beacon Press edition, 1955.
Note: In my opinion, this book needs a new translation. Dutch scholars
please take note. The translation I read was done by an Englishman.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Teresa M. Woods" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, December 22, 2008 10:14 AM
Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] Need suggestions for hands-on activity about trophic
efficieny/biomass pyramids
One of the most difficult things about educating children, and actually
older students up to adults, is how difficult it is to understand
abstract concepts without a great deal of practical, meaningful and
authentic experience. Learning theorists emphasize this point
repeatedly. Hence, the move toward hands-on and inquiry learning.
However, when our hands-on activities are also abstract representations
of reality, it may not actually be any easier for students to make the
connection. If you haven't read Richard Louv's book, /Last Child in the
Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder/, I highly
recommend it just to get a taste of how -- in general -- today's
children are deprived of basic experiences in nature most of us had
growing up. These experiences are the foundation upon which concepts
of nature can be cultivated.
So if you have the opportunity, I strongly recommend getting the
students actually exploring out in nature themselves to gather direct
experiences related to this concept. It is often erroneous to assume
they have such experience. (Louv has galvanized the movement called No
Child Left Inside, with a bill passing the House -- yet to go to the
Senate -- see the Children and Nature Network --
http://www.childrenandnature.org/)
One of the most effective activities I've used (and actually learned
from a favorite prof of mine) was to imagine oneself as an insect-eating
bird such as a nuthatch or brown creeper in the winter, and go out and
try to find in the bark of trees what they are eating. Watch their
utter amazement at what they find! A follow-up discussion can then
center around how many insects per day they think a bird eats. What do
the insects eat? Does anything rely on eating the birds? What happens
if the microbes the insects eat disappeared?
Whatever trophic webs exist in the region you live in, including urban
areas, you can think of similar examples of having the students go out
and try to find the organisms at lower trophic levels. Some will be
plentiful (pastures for cattle; fields for grasshoppers, fields and
woods for deer, mice, etc.), some not so. It's interesting to juxtapose
a challenge with a plentiful resource and a scarce resource.
Nothing takes the place of direct discovery in the authentic
environment, with hands-on experiences that are real, not a hands-on
substitute of the real thing. Coming back into the classroom and doing
the math (as well described in a previous post), then, is so much more
relevant, and they can be awed by the conceptual discovery then too.
Examining their own dinner menu is a great follow-up exercise. Or
exercises of calculating how many heads of cattle can be supported by so
many acres of land, etc.
I am indeed disturbed by the dearth of direct experience many students
have with nature, though the ones that do are a breath of fresh air! It
may sound just too simple, but starting at a very young age, children
need such direct experiences. There's also a growing body of research
supporting the very beneficial aspects of unstructured free play in
nature for children (from developing observation skills to
problem-solving skills and innovation as well as increased degrees of
self-efficacy). I know it's often not possible to take students
outdoors, but when it is, it's important in ways that go beyond just our
specific lesson plan.
I know -- I'm preaching to the choir. So I'll stop. The cold day
outside beckons............
Teresa
Teresa M. Woods, M.S.
Coordinator
Olathe Educational Partnership
K-State Olathe Innovation Campus, Inc.
18001 West 106th Street, Suite 160
Olathe, KS 66061-2861
Office: Olathe Northwest High School
21300 College Blvd., Rm. 1833
Olathe, KS 66061
Tel: 913-780-7150
Mobile: 913-269-8512
Jim Biardi wrote:
I work with a local environmental education group that is developing
curriculum on local watershed issues. They are currently searching for a
hands-on activity appropriate to primary (4-6) grade levels that can
illustrate the energetic principles underlying biomass pyramids. We¹ve
discussed several ideas, mostly centering on OEforaging¹ for beads or some
other counter used to represent food items, but haven¹t yet come across
anything that avoids a lot of bean-counting by the students.
If anyone has suggestions or leads to a tried and true activity on this
topic, we¹d appreciate feedback. I¹d be happy provide a summary of
responses
to others interested in this.
Thanks,
Jim
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