Learning in Place: Inspired by "Audubon Adventures", we create a "Nature Discovery Center"

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Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Inspired by "Audubon Adventures", we create a "Nature Discovery Center"

Posted by rachael_shay at 3:48 PM

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"Intelligence is not so much the capacity to learn as the capacity to wonder."

- Oliver Wendell Holmes

Making My Place

Hiking 170 miles of the PCT, summer 2013

About Me:

My name is Rachael Button. Since August 2012, I've lived in a remote village in Washington's North Cascades and worked at the community's tiny public school.

In the past, I worked as a naturalist teaching everything from marine science and forest ecology to archery and boating to 5th graders from the Tacoma/Seattle region. Prior to moving to Washington, I taught composition and environmental literature at Iowa State University.

I'm interested in student-centered education that fosters a connection between classroom and community. I love learning that engages the senses and evokes curiosity.

For the purpose of this blog I refer to my students by the first letter of their names in order to ensure their privacy.

Content

Elementary School Science:

-Mushrooms, Bug Traps, and Trees

-Insects: Head, Thorax, Abdomen

-The Science of Baking Bread

-Wild Worms-Powerpoint

-Wild Worms/Worm Bin

-Trees, Trees, Trees

-Discovery Hike (with cards)

-Guest Speaker Gus Becker and Bears of the North Cascades

-Reptile Slideshow

-Autumn Equinox

-Building a terrarium to learn about the water cycle

-Mold gardens, jar gardens, precipitation, evaporation, condensation

-Cycling Water, Painting with salt

-Ecosystem Posters

-Nature Discovery Center

-Water water everywhere

-Abiotic and Biotic Scavenger Hunt

-The Carbon Cycle Game

-Oh Deer! Predators!

-Water Cycle in Action: Drainfield field trip

-Life and Death in the Forest

-Ecotone Photography Adventure

-Games, Poster Making, Observing, Collecting

-Adding to our Nature Discovery Center

-Eggshell planters, bird feeders

-Place-Based Education

-Autumn Leafs: crafts, games, science

-Decomposition Experiment

-Kitchen Geology

-Volcano and Earthquake Demonstrations

-Snickers Bar Science and the Crayon Rock Cycle

-Our seeds start SPROUTING!

-Plant Experiments

-Plant Cell Models and Metaphors

-Sorting and Testing Rocks

-Three fossil activities

-Charting Taxonomy

-Plant experiments and an inventory of what we know

-Celery Experiment: How a plant transports water

-Arthropod Poster, Hoarfrost on the playground, and Activity sticks for active second graders

-Practicing the scientific method

-Lichen observation and watercolor paintings

-Friction, friction, friction

-Exploring Atoms and molecules

-Movement models with Clare: Forest Fires, Glaciers, and Plate Tectonics

-Exploring molecules

-Molecules in the atmosphere

-Happy Earth Day!

-Silkworms: Science and Math

-Biology Walk with Peter

-Silkworm dying experiment

-Silkworm posters

-Silkworm Update: Ants, Cocoons

Elementary School Creative Writing:

-Elementary Ecotone poems

-Library gardens and poetry rocks

-Poems for kids: Carl Sandburg and Beverly McLoughland

-Some Nature, Some Drawing, Some Poetry

-Student Poetry

-On memorizing poetry

6th Grade Language Arts:

-6th grade Washington State Reading Standards, simplified

-Number the Stars: Day 1

-Number the Stars: Day 2

-6th grade Washington State Writing Requirements, simplified

-Number the Stars: Day 3

-Number the Stars: Final Chapters and Project

-The Giver: Career Cruising

-6th grade writing samples

-Tuck Everlasting

-Facts, poems, reading, writing

-Novel vocabulary: an inventory

-Sarah Kay, spoken word poetry, and ten true things

-The View from Saturday: Knowledge Bowl

-K's Tuck Everlasting paper

-"In a Wrinkle in Time Madeleine L'Engle argues"

-Our hands: A group poem

-Field Trip (Written Reflection)

-Field Trip "Moments"

6th Grade Social Studies:

-Day of the Dead/All Saints Day/Halloween

-Day of the Dead Boxes

-National Geography week preparations

-Mapping apple pie

-The average American's food travels 1,500-2,500 miles before reaching his/her table

-Eating geography

-Evolution, TED talks, Radiolab, comic strips

-Back after a winter break hiatus

-Comparing (several prominent) Religions of India

-Harappan Seals and Mughal Block Prints

-End of Unit Indian party

-The Ancient Celts

-Celtic snacks, sculptures, and roundhouses

-Garbanzo Beans for Breakfast

-Ancient Chinese block prints

-Making an Abacus

High School Literature:

***"Speaking in Place: The Environmental Language of the Here and Now" Syllabus***

-Desert Solitaire/Friday Afternoon Literature Hike

-Mapping Powerpoint Activity

-Huckleberries and Henry David Thoreau

-A Thousand Mile Walk to the Gulf

-The Land is YOUR Land

-Manifesto: Mad Farmer Liberation Front

-Becoming a Redwood

--Daring, Defiant, Free: Mark Jenkins' essay on superclimbers in Yosemite

-Assignment 1: Rhetorical Analysis

-Rhetorical Devices

-Holden High School David Shringley Imitation

-Our Last Day of Wandering

-Environmental Literature: Unit 2

-Consider the Lobster

-The Pleasures of Eating

-Analyzing cookbooks

-Environmental Lit: Food TED talks

-Roosevelt's "Speech at the Grand Canyon"

Elementary School Art:

-Wassily Kandisky: Abstract Expressionism for 2nd graders

-Matisse inspired pastel drawings (with Picturelab Powerpoint)

-Andy Goldsworthy: environmental art day 1

-Andy Goldsworthy for kids, making environmental art about the changing seasons

-Organic and Geometric Shape Sculptures

-More geometric art with Lisa

-Blind contour drawings, charcoal sketches

-One Billion Rising

-Performance art with Mimi Allin

-Painting with Lisa

High School Physical Education:

**Holden High School Individual Fitness Syllabus**

-Mushroom Hike, led by Kristian

-Desert Solitaire/Friday afternoon Literature Hike

-Physical Activity

-Individual Fitness: Goal Making and Heart Rate Monitoring

-Exploring a frozen waterfall

-Running outside on a December day

-After the storm

-Skiing for Physical Education

-Slack-lining and group initiatives

-Volleyball with Katie

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