[Odonata-l] More on Getting people outside

[Mark McPeek]

JohnBelshe wrote:
> 	When the university decided to form a Department of Science  
> Education and hire new faculty to teach the courses, the field work  
> was quickly done away with in favor of a bunch of theoretical  
> garbage.  Teaching was no longer done by example.
> 	I think all of you can predict what happened, the teachers no longer  
> had any experience and most would not venture outside the classroom.   
> If you know of any elementary teacher or school in particular with no  
> field or outdoor experience in their curriculum, I suggest you visit  
> with them and volunteer to assist in the planning and execution if  
> necessary of some kind of experience.
> 	If you think it would be scary to take your experience and organisms  
> into an elementary classroom, think of what it is for an elementary  
> teacher to plan and execute a program of instruction including a  
> field experience when he or she has no experience themselves.  I know  
> first hand that the inexperienced teacher is most afraid of failure  
> and will avoid the situation if necessary.

I would simply like to echo what Dr. Belshe says above about getting 
involved in your local school system.   My experience here is that K-12 
teachers are simply dying to do these types of activities with their 
students, but they are not that confident about the usefulness or 
success of going outdoors.  However, when they learn that they can 
construct some relatively sophisticated hypotheses to teach 2nd graders 
about the process of science with what they may have in a local woodlot 
or field or creek or pond, they perk right up.  And in so doing, kids 
see creatures they never noticed before.  An exercise as simple as "what 
are we going to find in this field as opposed to this woodlot (and why)" 
can teach kids amazing things about the process of doing science and 
expose them to an amazing variety of plants and animals.

Mark