Teacher Field Trip Preparation & Follow-Up Ideas

Transcription

1 Teacher Field Trip Preparation & Follow-Up Ideas Thanks for taking part in a Nearby Nature school nature walk. The following pre- and post-walk discussion ideas and activity suggestions will help you and your students make the most of your outdoor experience. Some activities and ideas are focused on the themes of our specific walks. Others are more generally about nature. Feel free to pick and choose among the topics and projects, focusing on concepts that are age-appropriate or particularly relevant to your students. Nearby Nature also offers classroom visits related to a number of our teacher preparation and follow-up ideas (underlined in the text below). For more details about these programs or to set up a visit, see nearbynature.org, info@nearbynature.org, or call Before (or After) Your Walk... Updated February 2016 Cycles: Discuss a few examples of cycles in nature such as the insect or amphibian life cycle, the plant life cycle, the water cycle, the energy cycle (food chains and food pyramids), the oxygen-carbon-dioxide cycle (and photosynthesis) or decomposition. Talk about how human recycling (paper, metal, plastic, compost, etc.) mimics nature s cycles. Illustrate the water cycle by discussing the journey of a raindrop that falls in the Cascade Mountains. Use a map to trace the route this water drop would take from the mountains to the sea. Do Nearby Nature s Water Cycle Boogie. (Contact us for a copy of this activity.) Use photographs to illustrate the life cycle of a specific insect or amphibian (such as a dragonfly or a frog) that starts its life out in the water. Do Nearby Nature s Frog Hop or Dragonfly Dance. (Contact us for copies of these activities.) Invite Nearby Nature to do a Mountain Melt classroom visit (during which kids play an active game that models the water cycle), an outdoor Power of Plants classroom visit (focused on plant lifecycles and plant relationships to other living things), or a Run Salmon Run classroom visit (focused on salmon lifecycles). Interdependence: Have your students create a model food chain or food pyramid. Who are the primary producers (plants)? primary consumers (vegetarians)? secondary consumers (meat-eaters)? decomposers? Don t forget to include people in your models! What happens when you remove one link in a food chain or one building block from the bottom of a food pyramid? Discuss the concept of the web of life. Talk about the plants and animals that make up our community s web of life. Sing Nearby Nature s Great Big Sun song. (Contact us for a copy.) Discuss the Kalapuya web of life. What plants and animals were particularly important to Kalapuya people before pioneer settlement? Habitats: Discuss the four components of wildlife habitats: water, food, shelter, and space. Talk about the different habitats in the park you visited (meadows, woodlands, etc.) and what plants and animals you might expect to find living in each. Invite Nearby Nature to do a Race for the Pond classroom visit (focused on Pacific tree frogs and their habitats). Or invite Nearby Nature to do a River Walk classroom visit (focused on the riparian animals and plants). Or invite Nearby Nature to do a Living Lightly classroom visit (focused on human homes). Invite naturalists from WREN ( ) to do a classroom program on wetlands.

2 Adaptations: Discuss the concept of plant and animal adaptations for survival. List some of the ways that specific plants and animals keep from getting eaten, how they stay warm, or how they stay cool. Talk about why particular plants or animals are well suited to where they live (water, deserts, forests, etc.) or what they eat. A few examples of adaptations that you might want to consider include: mouth parts, feet, body coverings, size, color, and shape. Discuss the differences between how people adapt to changes in the seasons and how animals and plants adapt to winter s cold and summer s heat. Invite Nearby Nature to do a Dress for the Water classroom visit (focused on aquatic animal adaptations) or an outdoor Adaptation Antics classroom visit (focused on adaptations useful to predators and prey). Native vs. Non-native Species: Discuss the concept of an introduced or non-native species. Explain that non-native plants and animals sometimes become invasive (out-compete native plants and animals for resources) because they don t have natural predators, parasites, or diseases to keep their populations in balance with the rest of the ecosystem. The bullfrog and the nutria are two examples of non-native animal species that inhabit local waterways. Non-native blackberries, Scot s broom, and English ivy are three non-native plants that are particularly invasive in our area. Have your class of older children join Nearby Nature for an Alton Baker Park service project focused on removing invasive plants and/or planting natives. Call Nearby Nature at to arrange a time and place. Walama Restoration ( ) is also working on a prairie restoration/butterfly meadow project in Alton Baker Park. Have your kids do a restoration project in Hendricks Park. To arrange a project, contact Mieko Aoki with the City of Eugene at or mieko.e.aoki@ci.eugene.or.us. Human Impacts: Have your students list some examples of human impacts on a particular environment they know well. Use your schoolyard, a nearby park, or a community waterway (such as the Willamette or McKenzie River) as an example. Talk about both negative human impacts, such as pollution, habitat destruction, and over-development, and positive human impacts, such as creating wildlife habitat, picking up litter, restoring wetlands, removing invasive non-native species, and planting native plants. Have the kids keep track of all the water they each use in one day. Talk about where this water comes from and where it ultimately ends up. Invite Nearby Nature to do a Who s Polluting the River classroom visit (focused on water pollution over time in the Willamette River). Or invite Nearby Nature to do a Model Watersheds classroom visit (focused wetlands and human impacts on water systems). Lifestyles: Talk about how different lifestyle choices affect the health of our community s environment and its inhabitants. Discuss the kinds of energy people use to get to the park (gasoline for private cars, gasoline for buses, human-power for walking or bicycling), how people use the park (for walking, picnicking, bird-watching, dog walking), and even what people bring on picnics (throw-away packaging or recyclable or reusable containers). Invite Nearby Nature to do a Conservation Walk classroom visit (focused on how humans can use nature as a model for conservation). Invite BRING Recycling ( ) to do a classroom presentation. Talk about where food comes from and learn about local farmers. See lanefood.org for lots of good information on this topic. Public Lands: Talk about how parks and other public lands belong to us all. We can all enjoy them and we all have a responsibility to care for them. Explain that Nearby Nature school walks take place in Alton Baker Park, which is a public space that is open to all community members. Hundreds of volunteers spend thousands of hours every year taking care of this park. Contact Nearby Nature at to set up a service

3 learning project for your students. Have your students research the history of a specific park or piece of public land in your schools neighborhood. When did it become public? Who uses it? Who takes care of it? Why does it have its particular name? See if you can set up a service learning project in this park for your students. Get out some state or national maps and have kids identify more distant parks and natural areas. Share with them how blessed Oregon is to have such an abundance of parks and natural areas. Have your students research a national or state park, wildlife refuge, state or national forest. When did it become public? Who uses it? Who takes care of it? After Your Walk... Share Experiences: Give each group of children a chance to share their nature walk experience with the rest of the class. What kinds of creatures or signs of creatures (birds, insects, mammals, etc.) did they see? What did they learn about the natural and human history of the park? What kinds of games did they play? What did they learn about the various park habitats? Start An Oral History Project: Get your students excited about history by having them interview older community members (try grandparents) about the land use history of their school grounds, a nearby park, a shopping center, or neighborhoods near Amazon Creek. What did the area look like when these folks were kids? Was the land developed? Was it farmland? Was it wooded? Have students conduct individual surveys or invite guests to the school for group interviews. Resources for oral history projects are numerous on the Internet. Go on a Complementary Field Trip: Visit the University of Oregon Natural and Cultural History Museum (natural-history.uoregon.edu/). This museum has a variety of programs that complement Nearby Nature walks, such as tours focused on animals, geology, or the native peoples of Oregon (including the Kalapuya). Go on a guided tour of Mt. Pisgah Arboretum (mountpisgaharboretum.org). Go on a guided tour of the West Eugene Wetlands with WREN (wewetlands.org). Visit the Science Factory Children s Museum and Planetarium for a tour of their current exhibit or a planetarium program (sciencefactory.org). Visit the Cascades Raptor Center (eraptors.org). Walk through the University of Oregon campus and check out the many different trees on its grounds. Learn about life for pioneers, trappers, and Kalapuya Indians in our area on a field trip to Singing Creek Educational Center (singingcreekcenter.org). Adopt Your Schoolyard or a Local Waterway: Brainstorm ways to make your school grounds more earth-friendly. Start an environmental caretaking project on your school grounds. With the consent and assistance of your school s administrative and maintenance personnel, create butterfly or food garden, plant native species, put up bird feeders, create a no-mow zone to attract wildlife, do a playground clean-up, plant trees, or remove non-native plants such as Scot s broom, invasive blackberry, and English ivy. Invite Nearby Nature to do a Green the Scene classroom visit. For information about creating a school garden, contact the School Garden Project of Lane County at or see schoolgardenproject.org. The Internet also has many resources for schoolyard projects. Green Your School: Have your kids work with school staff to come up with a school water, energy, or paper conservation plan. Determine where water, energy, or paper can be conserved and educate other students and staff about how to make the necessary changes. Good places to look for water waste include bathrooms,

4 kitchens, and outdoor sprinkler systems. For energy waste, check out lighting and heating systems. For paper waste, check in classroom trashcans. Encourage kids do similar projects at home with their parents. For help with this project, join the Oregon Green Schools program. For more information, a local contact, and lots of resources, see oregongreenschools.org. Get Creative with Words and Pictures: Have your students write poems or draw pictures about their outdoor adventures. Or have them write stories like the nature tales they heard on their walks. Send copies of student work to Nearby Nature and we will publish as much as we can in our newsletter or on our website. Have your students start nature notebooks that feature observations about natural areas near their homes, backyard birds, schoolyard wildlife, or seasonal changes. Create a classroom bulletin board featuring one of the topics students learned about in the park (animal adaptations for winter survival, the life cycle of a tree, the water cycle from the perspective of a drop of rain, the life cycle of a dragonfly, etc.). Share some Kalapuya words with your students. (Word lists available from Nearby Nature.) Have kids enter local art and writing contests. The locally published magazine Skipping Stones also accepts youth art and writing. See skippingstones.org. Build A Model Home: Have your students build scale models or make drawings of earth-friendly human homes. Ask them to keep in mind nature s ways with waste, water, and energy. Have them consider how nature uses solar energy and shade for heating and cooling, how animals keep warm (insulate) themselves in the winter, how nature deals with waste, how nature conserves water, and what sizes animals make their homes. Invite Nearby Nature to do a Living Lightly classroom visit (kids help build a model eco-home). Have kids build model Kalapuya split plank/frame houses out of natural materials. Have kids try building bird nests or other animal homes with natural materials. Create Art: Have your kids get creative with nature s art materials (leaves, shells, pebbles, lichen sticks, seeds, etc.). If you collect natural materials, make sure never to take the last of anything. Invite Nearby Nature do an Earth Art classroom visit and we can provide that natural art materials. Have kids put their creative impulses to work making art from recycled materials such as yogurt tubs, cereal boxes, tin cans, old magazines, and jar lids. A great source for FREE and low cost recycled and unusual art materials for teachers is MECCA, the Materials Exchange Center for Community Arts in downtown Eugene. Check out their web site at materials-exchange.org for information about store hours and MECCA programs. BRING Recycling also helps with educational recycle-art programs for kids. Call BRING at or see bringrecycling.org for more information. Be Dramatic: Have kids act out all of the parts of a tree (heartwood, cambium layer, bark, roots). Assign all of the parts different sounds and have kids make their sounds all at once when you declare that the tree is alive! We can help you do this as part of our Power of Plants classroom visit. Have kids re-enact the life of a drop of water from a rainstorm to the ocean. Make rain sticks, use clapping and snapping sounds, or record actual water for sound effects. We can help you do this as part of our Mountain Melt classroom visit. Have kids act out the life cycle of an insect such as a dragonfly that starts its life out in the water or a butterfly that goes through metamorphosis. Do Nearby Nature s Water Cycle Boogie, Butterfly Glide, or Dragonfly Dance. (Contact us for copies of these activities.) Have a costumed Nearby Nature Kinder Critter visit your K-2nd grade classroom. These naturalists (costumed as local animals) do 30-minute presentations that include information sharing, storytelling, and movement. Call Nearby Nature at to set up a visit.

5 Spread the Word: Have your students create an educational display following up on the concept that people can use nature as a model for energy and water conservation. A few topics they might want to address include: conserving water, imitating nature s way with waste (reducing, reusing, recycling, and composting), dressing for the weather (indoors as well as outdoors), creating energy-efficient homes, eating lower on the food chain, or using more people power and solar energy. Exhibit your students work at school or in a public place where others can see it. Look for Nature Nearby: With the help of some parent volunteers, take a walk with your students around your school grounds or to a nearby park or natural area (or even just around the block). Have your students use their newly sharpened observation skills to take an inventory of schoolyard or neighborhood plant and animal life. Even if your local environment is highly impacted, your students should be able to see insects, find plants that have adapted to pavement or gravel, and hear birds. If you are interested in having Nearby Nature do an outdoor field trip for your classroom in your own neighborhood or nearby natural area, let us know at info@nearbynature.org. We are hoping to facilitate more such field adventures in the near future and would love to hear from interested teachers. Play Games and Tell Stories: Reinforce the concepts your students discussed on their walks by having kids teach each other the nature games and stories they learned in the park. A few examples of the games they might share include: Find Your Tree, the Duplication Game, the Ant Hike, Who Am I, and Web of Life. A few of the stories they may have heard include: the Douglas fir cone story, How Frogs Lost Their Tails, How Raven Made the Rivers, and Mother Nature s Gift. Have older kids spread the word further by sharing games and stories with younger kids at school who did not go on the walks. Invite Nearby Nature to do a Conservation Walk or a River Walk classroom visit (both have musical cake walk style format), a Mountain Melt classroom visit (a water cycle relay game), or a Run Salmon Run classroom visit (an active salmon lifecycle game). Have Nearby Nature do a Nature Tales storytelling visit at your school. Invite Kalapuya Elder and Storyteller Esther Stutzman to visit your classroom to talk about Kalapuya life and lore and/or to tell Kalapuya stories. Contact her at kalapuya71@live.com to set up an hour long program for $75.