I'm happy to say that I got a return email from Holland Gistelli, Education Specialist at Pepperwood Preserve, who directed me to some interesting resources for 21st Century learning as it relates to the increasingly important skill of environmental awareness. Here's the response! Hi Jeremy, Apologies for my delayed response - I found myself wanting to include a lot of info in my response here, and it took me a few tries to bring it all together! First of all, I am thrilled to hear how inspired you are by nature journaling!! It is so awesome that you have already brought your class outdoors to get started. There are clearly so many reasons this practice can be a crucial learning tool for your students, and I can't wait to hear more about how it progresses through the year. You are always welcome to tap into the education team here at Pepperwood for support. Beyond the academic learning that can come from the practice of noticing, wondering about, and recording nature - I would speak strongly for the social and emotional growth it can help facilitate for students. And this goes for experiences connecting to nature in general - like you said about your trips with 5th and 6th graders through NatureBridge, they are having a "great time"...but what exactly is that? There is a lot of room to develop self-awareness and self-management skills, as well as interpersonal communication and empathy. There are folks currently doing some great research around the connection between Social Emotional Learning and Environmental Education - trying to answer that question of yours! This includes the folks at NatureBridge and BEETLES (Lawrence Hall of Science). I attached here a presentation from a conference I went to where they discussed these connections - you might find it interesting. NatureBridge C&NN REEP Pres 5.16.19.pdf I'd also highly recommend checking out BEETLES - (Better Environmental Education Teaching, Learning, & Expertise Sharing) These folks are incredible leaders creating field tested methods, lessons, and tools for outdoor educators and classroom teachers alike. Pepperwood's Jesse and Nicole did an institute training with them, and we heavily base our teaching techniques on the BEETLES approach. They have very helpful videos to demonstrate how these practices work in the field with students http://beetlesproject.org/about/ These practices can help you facilitate time outdoors nature journaling with your students. As for technology - what a struggle to balance using tech as a tool and keeping it from taking over completely. I love your plan of letting kids share their nature discoveries using a google slides presentation. This gives the outdoor time its due space, with the structured tech time after. They could also make observations and write their questions in their journals, and then have time to research their questions with a few carefully pre-chosen websites (for quality control). Another idea is doing some citizen science using online tools/platforms - kids make observations in the field, and then upload their gathered data to the online tool. Examples of this are iNaturalist, Nature's Notebook, and Project Budburst:
In the end, I think keeping the nature journal practice consistent will be a big step for success. With ongoing time to develop those skills, and then couple that with extension research projects, art projects, or special topic focuses - I think you'll be able to capture their engagement. If your students are doing these things at school, they'll get much more out of the Pepperwood experience and vice versa. Journaling allows room for individual choice which can increase engagement versus having everyone journal about the same thing - you can have general themes, or specific areas of the garden/schoolyard, but they get to pick their subject matter. Also stressing for kids that it is about adding details they notice, labels, and color - rather than trying to make beautiful perfect art - some kids (or anyone, really) can get caught up on how it looks, so letting them know it can be "messy" can be helpful. Keep up the great work, and we look forward to seeing you and you students in November! Holland Gistelli, Education Specialist Pepperwood Preserve 2130 Pepperwood Preserve Rd. Santa Rosa, CA 95404 (707)591-9310 x124 www.pepperwoodpreserve.org Looks like Holland did my job for me on this first case study analysis. The links she included in this email are excellent. I have checked them all out and plan to use them to prepare my students for their visit to Pepperwood and the 21st Century. She opened my eyes with the first several resources related to the social emotional benefits of children being in nature. Social emotional wellbeing is the foundation upon which all other learning must be built, and it is something missing in so many of our children today. The number of students qualifying for special services such as counseling, reading and math intervention, and medication to control ADHD, continues to grow. Here's a link to an article that explores the link between an excess of screen time to ADHD: https://learningbreakthrough.com/learning-breakthrough-blog/screen-time-adhd/ The social-emotional benefits that being in nature has for children is something I have really felt when on overnight trips to Yosemite and Marin Headlands. NatureBridge does an excellent job of bringing this out in kids through their cooperative learning activities and student centered learning. The reason I consider nature journaling to be a 21st Century skill is because it relies on students' direct observation and critical, questioning interaction with the world. In an environment where technology is advancing exponentially and requiring very quick reactions from citizens in order to realize what is going on and adapt to it, I think we really need to teach students how to closely observe and learn from their own observations. The 21st Century, I'm feeling, will need people who can see what is going on and teach themselves to adapt and benefit from it. I think traditional forms of education will be increasingly pressed to catch up with the quick changes. People really need to be able to observe what is happening and educate themselves to be prepared for it. Being able to observe and ask questions is essential to self-guided education. I have to flesh this idea out quite a bit more, (any tips?), but right now I'm seeing this return to and appreciation of nature, coupled with an integration with media technology as a form of environmental activism, as a magic formula to prepare students for the future, and ensure a viable future for them to prepare for. Here's the link again to Marty Peifer's talk on direct observation in nature journaling. He really inspired me to pursue this direction in my master's project. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAmtqGtz1UA Peace Out, Jeremy Smith
2 Comments
Megan Burton
9/21/2019 11:43:35 pm
Jeremy, I love reading about your work and where it's heading. My school has also participated in NatureBridge at Marin Headlands. Some of the best learning happens in nature!!
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Jeremy Smith
9/23/2019 07:44:53 pm
Thanks for the link! I watched it and got some great ideas about how we might involve the community into our project. Nowadays, if you have cell phone signal, you can use an app called iNaturalist to identify and map/plot where you find different species of plants and animals. Have you seen it? It is amazing! My son and I were playing with it down by the creek in Santa Rosa. You point your camera at plants or animals and it tells you what they are or gives suggestions as to what they might be. If you pin, it goes into an international database.
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AuthorJeremy Smith teaches third grade at Calistoga Elementary School. Archives
July 2020
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