Student Learning
I feel that my MM Lesson went well, but I don’t think they were quite ready for the concept of natural selection. I sprinkled MMs in a grassy area before the students came over, and then explained the activity to them I explained that there were MMs or “animals” hidden in the grass and they (the students) were the predators. On my word, the students ran into the grass to find as many MMs as possible before I said, “Predators freeze.” At that point, I asked them to show me and each other the MMs that they found. Unlike my prediction, the bright green MMs had been very easy to find (along with red, orange, etc), but luckily the students had very few brown ones! I compared the brown MMs to well-camouflaged animals and explained that camouflage helped them “survive” the “predators.” I tried to briefly explain the idea that the brown “animals” survived and would have more babies with good camouflage, but the brightly colored ones did not “survive.” The group was fading fast, so I asked for other suggestions of traits that might help animals survive. One student suggested size; large animals will be stronger and win in a fight. I tried to relate his example back to natural selection by reiterating that the large animals would continue to survive and reproduce just like he said, and the weaker animals would not survive. I think the students enjoyed the activity and related it to camouflage, but did not take away any new concepts that they did not previously know.
My Learning
Although natural selection is a pretty high level science concept for sixth graders, I definitely think the fault is mine. They could easily have understood the concept if I had planned better. It seems so obvious now, but since I did not know the students and felt like I had little control over the group, I ended up telling much more than I questioned. It would not have necessarily been an inquiry lesson, but if I had asked students, “How can you relate this to real predators and prey?” or “What will happen to the brown population if this keeps happening? What will happen to the red, orange, and green population? What then? What does this mean?” Even those questions are not excellent because they have rather specific answers I am looking for, but it would have been better than just telling. I also realize that under stress I reverted to teacher-talk instead of engaging the students! This helps me to know that in unfamiliar situations I need to plan, plan, plan. I admit that I did not do that in this case because I “planned” to go with the flow and just have fun with the kids. Which, I guess if that was my goal, we accomplished it. I should have focused myself on a learning goal and decided how I would assess their understanding.
Future Teaching
This short activity helped me to see that Environmental Education is not hard. (It takes planning, but it is not impossible.) Despite my short mini-lesson/activity, I was also able to observe Meredith teaching the students in one of her “outdoor classrooms.” She did tell them some information, but asked a lot of simple questions. She was also not afraid to let kids tell about experiences and share knowledge that they had. By connecting what they had to say (which I would probably have deemed irrelevant), they felt valued and probably made a better connection to what she was teaching about. Braus and Wood point out in Environmental Education in Schools that “in many places, outdoor experiences are not a regular part of instruction; instead of occurring throughout a student’s schooling, outdoor experiences are often limited to a few outings in primary grades” (9). As soon as I read this I instantly knew it to be true. At very best an intermediate or high school teacher might conduct normal class outside on a sunny day. I do prefer to teach early primary grades, but my comfort with upper elementary students is growing, so I may very well be the responsible for creating environmental education opportunities for students who have not experienced it for several years and certainly not in any of their other classes. I agree that environmental education is a beneficial practice, but I am going to need to research and find solid go-to resources and lessons if I am honestly going to implement it.
Braus and Wood also explain that “many educators link environmental education exclusively with science education. …it also requires an understanding of economics, math, geography, ethics, politics and other subjects” (8). It is certainly my tendency to associate the outdoors with science, but I do not know how to truly integrate math with the outdoors. If not measuring and calculating for science exploration or just using outdoor materials for math manipulatives, how would I fully integrate all those subjects with environmental education?
I am somewhat overwhelmed by the whole idea, but I am also relieved that an environmental education is better than none, and I do have the flexibility of cross-curricular application in the outdoors.
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