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First off, if anyone reads this, I apologize to the group for being late to post this week. I had a family emergency over the break. My father had another stroke and I drove to Kansas to be with him in the hospital. He is in physical therapy and recovering his speech and ability to walk. I had planned to analyze the data collection I have done so far during break, but it will have to wait until this weekend and into the holiday.
I have also had to adjust my data collection because I also thought I would have more time to collect. Right around the time I realized this, we lost another week of class due to the fires. Then these past rainy days and the ones to come threw a wrench in my plan for a walking field trip to the local trail. What I have done instead is a quick data collection on campus using iPads I was able to get from other teachers. Ok, no more excuses. Luckily I feel I have enough data to make some tentative, humble findings on the power that tech integration into outdoor learning can have. Just yesterday, I took the kids outside with the iPads to do a scavenger hunt. The kids were tasked with finding as many different plant species that grow on campus. They took pictures of each species. Back in the class, we counted the number that each pair of children found. We averaged the number of plants they found. It turned out to be around 54 species! The enthusiasm the kids had during this activity was really amazing. My admonitions to not run with the iPads fell on deaf ears. They were running around and snapping pictures like crazy. The loved it! Student motivation was definitely higher than in the "low tech" nature journal activities we have done so far. I was going to upload a video I took of the activity, but I'd have to upgrade my Weebly account for $39.95. Knowing me and my tech skills, I'm reticent to do this out of fear of failure! My growth mindset is limited by my pocketbook. Haha. But, I think I have found a "keeper" lesson for years to come that I can develop and improve. Unfortunately, neither I nor our district tech person was not able download nature apps onto the iPads. He has to download apps for all of the iPads at the same time, once a year. I'll ask him to do this next year when he does the downloading. Maybe just maybe I can convince him to take the time to do this for just the devices we'll be using on our next field trip. I do not have access to do this. Luckily, four of my students have their own smart phones. Today we downloaded the app Seek, which is a plant identification app, onto all four devices. Tomorrow we will share these devices. We will point their phones at the pictures we took to identify the plant names. This actually works. The app does not mind if it is looking at a screen image. It's pretty amazing how the app is able to do this. We shall see if the students think it is as neat as I do. Finally, I have made a new, simple student survey to collect measurable data on their preferences for high vs low tech activities. Here it is: Student Survey #3 Drawing plants and writing in my nature journal was: Great! Good So so Not good Taking pictures of plants with the iPads was: Great! Good So so Not good Planting seeds for the garden was: Great! Good So so Not good Identifying plants with the Seek app was: Great! Good So so Not good I'll give this as soon as we get everyone able to use the app tomorrow to identify a few of the plant species they took pictures of. We shall see what the results are. One thing I already know for certain is how much my students love being outdoors while they engage in scientific inquiry. They loved the nature field trip. I have another survey I took of their preferences for the activities we did during this field trip. The problem with this data is that we did not have devices on the field trip. They did, however, use microscopes. I suppose I can consider this a tech device. I have started to compile the findings for this trip. I asked them if they preferred the nature walk, drawing in their journals, the microscopes, or the indoor talk where they were able to touch mountain lion fur and deer bones. I will include this data in my report. We have also been working on animal reports that are based on the local animal species we learned about on the field trip. These reports are "low tech". They are being done in a "lap book" format with written essays and colored pencils to render the animals. Our next animal reports will be "high tech" where they will use Google Slides and images they find from the Internet. Again, no data yet to compare tastes, but the reports are going very well. I hope to talk about these findings in my capstone project. My tentative feeling is that the integration of tech devices into outdoor learning experiences is a very powerful and positive addition to our science curriculum. The iPads are a powerful tool in the hands of the kids. As I discover more possibilities, We'll be able to use them in more interesting ways. If I can get the nature apps onto the devices, I think we'll be able to add our data to the iNaturalist database shared by people around the world. I love people's suggestions. If anyone has any more ideas on how I might collect better data I am very open. |
AuthorJeremy Smith teaches third grade at Calistoga Elementary School. Archives
July 2020
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