PM40069238

Mindfulness in the Classroom | School Garden Summer Camps | Yarn Science: A Bracelet-making Activity | Envisioning a Nature Kindergarten | Urine Science | A Computer Lab goes Green | The Art of Scientific Observation

PLUS

SUMMER 2014 | ISSUE 103 | $7.95

EDU

CA

TIO

N fo

r PL

AN

ET E

AR

TH

BirdingBeginnersfor

Visit our newly-designed website and enjoy more free articles and teaching ideas than ever before, including:•Readwholearticlesandexcerptsfrom ourmagazineandbooks

•Commentonanddiscussrecentarticles•ConneCtwitheducatorsthrough ourwebinars

•ShaRearticleseasilywithfriends andcolleagues

M Follow uS on twitteR @GreenTeacherMag

C Find uS on FaCebook facebook.com/GreenTeacherMagazine

GreenTeacher.com

PM40069238

Thrivingin an OutdOOr EnvirOnmEnt

Recycling Prescription Drugs | Harvesting Native Plants | Studying Decomposition in Kindergarten | Becoming Stormwater Stewards | Using Multiple Intelligences in Nature Education | Teaching Green Home Design

PLUS

WintEr 2014 | issuE 101 | $7.95

Edu

Ca

tiO

n fo

r PL

an

Et E

ar

tH

SubScribe now to receive full acceSS to:

25+ back issues of the magazine 40+ webinars

(PluS education certificates for the webinars at no cost)

ViSit greenteacher.com or e-mail info@greenteacher.com

for more information

moRe than juSt a magazine

A similar ebook is available en française:

Apprentissage en Plein Air $4.99

Visit profsverts.com/apprentissage-en-plein-air

Finally! Teachers have been looking for an accessible guide to outdoor teaching, one that identifies barriers and the bridges over those barriers. This collection of clever, thoughtful, and well-written articles gives them what they need. Kudos to Green Teacher, yet again! —Gareth Thomson, Executive Director, Alberta Council for Environmental Education

Green Teacher‘s Teaching in the Outdoors is a must read for classroom teachers, non/informal educators, preservice teachers and parents alike. This practical and down-to-earth guide will help both new and seasoned educators successfully turn the outdoors into an engaging and hands-on learning laboratory. —Laura Downey,

Executive Director, Kansas Association for Conservation and Environmental Education

Teaching in the Outdoors provides a practical guide for getting students outdoors along with helpful suggestions for maximizing the learning experience when they get there. These seven articles will inspire grand plans but at the same time provide the direction and tools to begin the journey in small, manageable steps.

Teaching in the Outdoors

$5.99Available in EPUB, MOBI and PDF formatsTO LEARN MORE, visit greenteacher.com/teaching-in-the-outdoors

A new ebook from Green Teacher magazine

What people are saying:

Green Teacher 103 Page 1

Issue 103, Summer 2014

Green Teacher is published quarterly in September, December, March and June.Subscriptions: Canada-CAD $34, USA-USD $34, all others USD $42 air mail

ISSN 1192-1285; GST Registration No. 124125337; Canada Post Publications Mail Agreement No. 40069238 US Postmaster: Send address changes to Green Teacher, PO Box 452, Niagara Falls, NY 14304-0452.

Canada Post: Send address changes to Green Teacher, 95 Robert St., Toronto, ON M5S 2K5. Return postage guaranteed.Printed in Canada.

Page 21

Page 38

Page 7

Features

Departments

Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . /44

Birding for BeginnersBy Renee Bachman and Ted Watt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . /3

Mindfulness in the ClassroomBy Caren McDonald . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . /7

Starting a School Garden Summer Day CampBy Julie Johnston . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . /11

Rethinking Sustainability with Post-it NotesBy Elissa Brown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . /15

Mapping for ChangeBy Scott Lenhart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . /18

Urine Science: The Human Body as Recycling MachineBy Giuliano Reis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . /21

The Art of Observation: Developing Scientific Inquiry SkillsBy Shannon Walz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ./26

Art, Science, and Fun Intertwined: A Bracelet-making ActivityBy Edith Pucci Couchman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ./29

Outside the Classroom, Adventure AwaitsBy Cindi Smith-Walters and Christa Campbell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ./33

Envisioning a Nature Kindergarten By Enid Elliot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ./38 An Interview with a Tree By Erin Van Stone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . /40A Computer Lab Grows in San FranciscoBy Linda Lewin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . /42

Green Teacher 103Page 2

Issue 103, Summer 2014

General EditorTim Grant

Editorial AssistantIsabel Slone

EditingIsabel Slone, Tim Grant, Becca Lewis

Regional Editors

CanadaGareth Thomson Alberta (403) 678-0079Laurelei Primeau British Columbia (604) 942-0267Bob Adamson Manitoba (204) 261-7795Raissa Marks New Brunswick (506) 855-4144Craig White Newfoundland (709) 834-9806Steve Daniel Northwest Territories (867) 873-7675Janet Barlow Nova Scotia (902) 494-7644Barbara Hanbidge Saskatchewan (866) 254-3825Remy Rodden Yukon (867) 667-3675

United StatesKaren Schedler Arizona (602) 266-4417Kay Antunez de Mayolo, N. California, 650-773-4866Helen de la Maza S. California (714) 838-8990Kary Schumpert Colorado (303) 772-2548Mary Lou Smith Connecticut (860) 455-0707Phillip Smith Florida (850) 526-3226Kim Bailey Georgia (770) 888-2696Pat Sullivan Illinois (217) 322-2865Cathy Meyer Indiana (812) 349-2805Shelene Codner Iowa (319) 404-1942Laura Downey-Skochdopole Kansas (785) 532-3322Jeanine Huss Kentucky (270) 745-2293Sandra Ryack-Bell Massachusetts (508) 993-6420John Guyton Mississippi (228) 324-4233Bob Coulter Missouri (314) 442-6737Lois Nixon North Carolina (919) 467-6474Sara Ivey Oklahoma (405) 702-7122Catherine Stephenson Pennsylvania (724) 357-5689Anne DiMonti Rhode Island (401) 245-7500Tim Brown Utah (801) 596-8500Jen Cirillo Vermont (802) 985-0331Dan Waxman Virginia (703) 993-7782

Green Teacher is a nonprofit organization incorporated in Canada. We are grateful for the financial support of the Ontario Media Development Corporation.

Design and ProductionCover photo by Renee Bachman; cover design by Lisa Rebnord; printing by Annex Publishing and Printing, Simcoe, Ontario, on Forest Stewardship Council® certified paper.

Contact Us95 Robert Street, Toronto, ON M5S 2K5, CanadaToll-free: (888) 804-1486 Fax: (416) 925-3474info@greenteacher.com www.greenteacher.comU.S. address: PO Box 452, Niagara Falls, NY 14304

Editorial

Editor loses his dry cleaning – and an election

DURING THE PRODUCTION of this issue, I found myself in the middle of a provincial election – and not as a voter. I was a candi-date for the Green Party of Ontario in my hometown of Toronto.

For the past 2 months, I’ve knocked on doors in downtown Toronto neighbourhoods in an effort to put sustainability on the public agenda. As someone interested in both politics and education I realized a few

years’ ago that elections provided good opportunities to engage people in discus-sions about solutions to our most vexing problems. During an election, most adults do pay attention to the issues of the day, and many are open to innovative new ideas. As a candidate whose day job is associated with environmental learning, I knew I’d gain lots of insights from the experience.

What made the door-knocking worth-while was how much downtown residents embraced the solutions we put before them. For example, we argued that it was time to put health back into health care – by taxing junk foods and using the money to ensure the poor had access to healthy

food. Europeans have long implemented such measures in order to boost overall health, cut costs and invest the savings in much better health care systems than we enjoy in North America. We also contended that it was time that drivers paid additional fees in order to reduce traffic congestion and build the transit we need. (Toronto’s drivers face the longest daily commute in North America.) To promote walking and cycling, we argued that at least 1% of the province’s transportation budget was needed to pay for pedestrian and cycling infrastructure.

Apart from offering solutions such as those mentioned above, we also set out to have fun. On my election sign, I was the only candidate photo-graphed riding a bicycle. I soon found myself being criticized by seven year-olds who wanted to know why I was not wearing a helmet; none of whom were satisfied by my explanation that it was a staged photograph. So we printed hundreds of stickers of bike helmets in 3 colours. When residents opted to have one of our signs on their lawn, they could choose which colour of bike helmet they wanted to put on top of my head.

Being a candidate in an election is not for the faint of heart. With so many things to juggle in such a short period of time, there are times when – to be frank – your brain goes mush. For example, halfway through the election, I picked up 4 pairs of pants from the dry cleaners, and rode home on my bicycle. Four days later, I searched in vain for those pants, and realized they did not make it home that day. Presumably I stopped to talk to someone and put them down, but I had no idea where.

In the end, I am sorry to report that I lost the election, and still haven’t found those 4 sets of pants. But thousands of conversations later, it was a rich experience I won’t soon forget.

—Tim Grant

Green Teacher 103 Page 3

By Renee Bachman and Ted Watt

WE SAT QUIETLY IN THE FOREST, swatting mosquitoes and listening intently to the many species of birds singing in the trees around us.

Sarah carefully pressed the button on the boom box, broad-casting the breeding call of the male black-throated blue warbler. Within seconds, Kevin focused his binoculars above us and whispered excitedly, “There he is!”

In response to our taped calls, a male black-throated blue warbler had zipped into the tree above us and was calling – bzzz-bzzz-bzzz-bzzzeeee. Denise carefully checked ‘singing male’ in the correct column on our data sheet and we grinned at each other across our little circle.

This was the culmination of weeks of focused study and discussion in our fifth grade classroom – about songbirds, their annual migration journeys, songs, calls, plumages, behav-iors, and how they depend on specific habitats for breeding. Students investigated the ecosystems in the forest preserve across the street from our school, gathering and analyzing data about birds and their breeding habitats.

The program had been designed to build excitement for

Birding for BeginnersTeach scientific inquiry skills using this citizen science field study unit

on native songbird breeding behaviour

both students and teachers about outdoor learning, and relies heavily on methodology from Birds in Forested Landscapes, a citizen science initiative from the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology. As we learned more about the program’s meth-ods and requirements, we became increasingly confident that we could use it to assist our fifth graders in developing the necessary knowledge and skills for gathering meaning-ful data. Students gather and submit data on what they dis-cover about species identified by Cornell as of conservation interest. Student groups examine their data critically and ask scientific questions that could be answered by the class’ data. The study is fun and involving for the students and can lead to extensive discussion about birds and the forest and the process of doing science. The goals of the unit are to:• identify four selected bird species in the field using

visual and auditory cues • describe and evaluate a variety of characteristics of for-

ested habitats• gather and record field data on bird song and behavior• ask scientific questions that could be answered by our data• analyze data and draw conclusions to determine breeding

presence of selected bird species as well as determining answers to other questions

Green Teacher 103Page 4

PreparationIn preparation for the field study it is important to gather certain information before heading out into the field. Famil-iarize yourself with the general topography and habitat types in the forest preserve near your school, using an iPhone GPS app, or through field exploration. Analyze the available habi-tats and choose probable breeding birds from Cornell’s list of species of concern. For our project, we identified veery, wood thrush, black-throated blue warbler, and eastern wood-pewee as birds we might encounter in the field.

Review the field methods described on the Birds in For-ested Landscapes website and set up a grid of survey points in the preserve according to the protocol identified by the Cornell program. These points identify the locations of your bird song surveys and set the stage for fieldwork. Assess the

vegetation, slope, and proximity of each site to a variety of human and non-human habitat features

including water availability. The Cornell protocol specifies how to

gather and record these data.Then gather the necessary equip-

ment: quality binoculars, one pair each; photographs of target bird species; portable

CD players, one per group (we found that iPods/mp3s weren’t loud enough); CDs of target bird

species’ calls, clipboards, data sheets, pencils, com-passes, and maps of the forest area where the study

points were located.Identify the skills that students will need to succeed

in this endeavor and plan how to structure their classroom learning prior to the field data gathering. We carefully envi-sioned the outdoor field work and identified group members’ roles:• operating the audio player with the bird song CD;• tracking time on the stopwatch and playing the repeated

song broadcasts;• recording sightings on the data sheet; and• watching the trees intently for birds.

After careful planning, we realized we would need at least four parents or community volunteers to help us with this study. Our volunteers had to commit to one after school training and three mornings to conduct the research with the students. The volunteers also had to learn to identify the tar-geted species of birds.

Classroom StudyI stood at the door greeting my students as they entered the classroom that Monday morning late in March. I had cov-ered the whiteboard at the front of our room with pictures of birds, which we had been watching and identifying at our window birdfeeder since September. Students began to enthusiastically identify the birds they saw.

A Checklist for Teaching the Unit

Prior to Classroom StudyLocate a study area, choose the species you are going to target, review the field methods, set up a grid of survey points, assess the study site characteristics, gather equipment, identify skills students need to be successful, identified group members roles, and find and train volunteers.

Classroom Work Preceding Field StudyConduct a pre-assessment, research bird species, breeding requirements and habitats, study bird calls, teach the protocol and make children aware of the implications of using recorded bird calls in research.

Classroom Review of the Scientific ProcessFormulate scientific questions and teach how to write an “If…then…because hypothesis.”

Field StudySet up and conduct a practice run, conduct first survey count, and share data with one another.

Share What You DiscoveredShare ongoing data collection with your community (make a bulletin board), finish research, analyze data, run correlations, make graphs, draw conclusions based on the data collected and celebrate the work!

Green Teacher 103 Page 5

Alex said, “Hey, that’s a black-capped chickadee.” “And that’s a blue jay,” Denise responded.Though I wasn’t planning on teaching science until later

in the day, I couldn’t resist the opportunity to make this a teachable moment. The discussion we had in class provided an informal pre-assessment for this study. I now had a lot more information about what I needed to teach in preparation for our study.

There were a few bird photos the children couldn’t iden-tify and four of them were our study species. Later that day, I introduced those four to the class and we went to the com-puter lab to do some research about these species using the Cornell website, All About Birds. We spent three forty-five minute sessions in the computer lab over the next two weeks researching these birds and their breeding habitat require-ments, as well as learning their calls and songs. The students gained familiarity with the calls and sounds of other com-mon birds they might encounter in our woods. We also dedi-cated a couple of days to studying and learning the Cornell field research protocol.

Since we would be following the Cornell protocol and broadcasting taped bird songs into active breeding territo-ries we also discussed with students the effects this has on breeding bird behavior and stress levels and cautioned us all to minimize this way of using bird song playbacks.

Formulating Questions and HypothesesFollowing the Cornell protocol and participating in citizen science is an engaging and educational experience in itself, but you may want your students to participate in additional original, inquiry-based investigations. If students ask lots of questions and express interest in knowing more about study species, you have the opportunity to guide them into for-mulating their own questions that can be answered from the data you will be collecting. Most of our students’ inquiries dealt with what the birds needed in their environment to sur-vive including food, water, and shelter, and in one instance, wondering about parasitic species.

Each of our six field groups formulated questions, such as; Will there be a larger variety of bird species counted in the sites near water? Will the black-throated blue warbler be at all the count point sites? Will any groups see or hear the cowbird? Use similar questions to teach the class how to develop formal hypotheses.

Field StudyIf you will be incorporating parent and community volun-teers into your site visit, it’s a good idea to organize a prac-tice site visit with them before heading out to do the real thing. On our first visit, we hiked to our points in the forest, set up the audio player, and followed the protocol step-by-step. Each group needs a copy of the field data sheet to prac-tice filling out, marking the birds that they hear and/or see. Get students to review the steps of the protocol and practice their bird identification skills.

On our first trip, the students were in awe and couldn’t believe there was such a diversity of birds living in the for-est right behind their houses. When we returned to the classroom I allowed the enthusiasm to guide my teaching. We looked at the notes from our computer research on birds and discussed what we had seen in real life. We discussed

the behaviors of the individual birds and the differences in their body shapes and plumages. We marveled at their intel-ligence and their beauty.

Our first official field survey day finally arrived. Every-one was there and we had 6 functioning audio players. We donned our binoculars and hats and embarked for the for-est to locate our survey points. Compass in hand, I led my group through mountain laurel thickets, pine scrub and oak forest following the compass bearings and pacing out required distances. I was looking for two huge tulip trees that we had seen when we set up the survey points. As we balanced along a fallen tree, I looked up and right in front of us stood the two trees with an orange flag tied to a nearby branch. At that moment, I felt quite capable as an orienteer. We settled into our area and began our survey.

When all the groups returned, students shared their find-ings, many with great stories. The protocol stated that the survey dates should be about a month apart. During the intervening month we continued to review the birds and their calls, readying ourselves for the next survey. Based on the data gathered that first, day we added a couple of new bird species and their songs to our ‘preserve list.’

Sharing our Learning and Authentic AssessmentYou may find that rather than simply presenting a study, you want to involve the community as the project progresses. We designed a dynamic, evolving bulletin board on the wall outside our classroom and incrementally added each step in our study. We began with the study’s title, a Google Earth aerial photo of the forest preserve, and descriptions of our six survey points. As the study continued, each new dimension was added to the bulletin board, including students’ drawings and photos of our target study birds as well as student questions and hypotheses. After our two survey days, the groups analyzed their data, constructed graphs, ran correlations, and wrote conclusions about their investigations. All of this work was combined to finalize the bulletin board making it into one giant poster session. At our end-of-year celebration the students presented their findings to their parents and the school community.

Outdoor Safety FirstBy going out into the field, you risk wasp stings, tick bites, bramble scratches, poison ivy, countless mosquito bites, tum-bling over loose rocks and tree trunks, and even getting lost in the large forested area. Make sure you send home detailed permission slips describing the potential hazards and how you plan to prepare and accommodate for them. Emphasize the importance of proper clothing and footwear, and offer families the choice of opting out of the field study. Hazards in outdoor learning are significant. In my experience, our school’s five-year engagement with outdoor learning had pro-moted a respect for these challenges while fostering student and faculty enthusiasm for exploring the natural world.

ConclusionThe excitement and motivation generated in our students through this study was evident to us, our fellow teachers, and the school community. The real world connections and sense of being able to contribute to bird conservation in authentic ways through their own observations resonated with our students.

Green Teacher 103Page 6

Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) (USA) ConnectionsBy aligning classroom practice with the NGSS, it is possible to connect your unit to evolving best practices in science education. This unit combines a number of NGSS practices, ideas and concepts into an interdisciplinary experience for students. See the chart below for connections to the NGSS as well as cross-curricular integration opportunities with the Common Core.

Unit Learning Activities

Science and Engineering Practices

Disciplinary Core Ideas

Cross Cutting Concepts

Math, ELA and Technology Integration

Pre-teaching activities

Watching bird feeder

Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information

LS4.D: Biodiversity and Humans

Patterns - Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating information

Day 1-3 Researching birds and listening to calls

Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information

LS2.A: Interdependent relationships in ecosystems

Patterns

Day 4-5 Reviewed Cornell data-gathering protocol

Evaluating methods and tools for collecting data

RI.5.10 Read and comprehend informational texts

Day 6 Wrote inquiry questions and hypotheses

Asking questions that relate one variable to another

LS2.C: Ecosystem dynamics, functioning and resilience

Day 7 First site visit Collecting data on site conditions

LS4.C: Adaptations Patterns

Day 8 First survey day Collecting data LS2.A: Interdependent relationships in ecosystems

Day 9 Analyzed the data Interpreting data Patterns

Day 10 Second survey day

Collecting data LS2.A: Interdependent relationships in ecosystems

Day 11 Made posters with all data and information

Analyzing dataRunning correlations

LS2.A: Interdependent relationships in ecosystems

Patterns Math-Make graphsW.5.2 Write conclusions

Day 12 Poster session reports

Reporting discoveries MP.3 Construct viable arguments

This unit offered students the opportunity to engage in debates about the evidence they collected. We had many discussions around cause and effect vs. correlation and simple mathemati-cal averaging. Conducting this field-based investigation enabled students to absorb the practices, ideas and concepts underlying the immediate research activities. It also engaged them in real field science at a level appropriate for their grasp of the scientific process. Students also showed appreciation for the diversity and beauty of our native forest bird species and connected to the world around them in ways that many do not fully appreciate.

Renee Bachman is a teacher at Leeds Elementary School in Northampton, Massachusetts who cherishes any opportunity to get children outside and involved in real life science. Ted Watt has worked at the Hitchcock Center for the Environment in Amherst, Massachusetts as an educator and naturalist since 1984. He loves exploring outdoors with young people and adults, observing, wondering, and looking for connections.

ResourcesArizona State University’s Global Institute of Sustainability: Ecology Explorers http://ecologyexplorers.asu.eduCornell University’s Laboratory of Ornithology: Birds in Forested Landscape www.birds.cornell.edu/bfl/Cornell University’s Laboratory of Ornithology: All About Birds www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/searchDoris, E. 2010. Doing What Scientists Do. Portsmouth, NH: HeinemanneBird, sponsored by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society http://ebird.org/content/ebird Elliot, L. 2010. The Stokes Field Guide to Bird Songs: Eastern Region. New York: Little, Brown & CoHeinrich, Bernd. 2004. Bumblebee Economics: Revised Edition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University PressNational Research Council. 2012. A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas. Washington, DC: The National Academies PressPeterson, R.T. 1980. A Field Guide to the Birds East of the Rockies. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.Sibley, D. A. 2000. The Sibley Guide to Birds. New York: Alfred A. Knopf

Green Teacher 103 Page 7

By Caren McDonald

I NEVER KNEW THERE WERE so many different flavors to a strawberry,” said a 14-year-old freshman, when attempting a mindfulness eating exercise.

“I never thought about what it really looks like,” another student said, giggling self-consciously.

A third student took a risk. “This is the first time I’ve ever had a strawberry.”

“And how was it?” I asked.She shrugged. “Sweet first, then sour, then sweet again.”“Like life, maybe?” I asked. The intention of the activity was to mindfully eat a

strawberry, an exercise I facilitate on the first day of teach-ing mindfulness to my students. The word mindfulness has recently found its way into the mainstream lexicon, though it has been in humanity’s lexicon for over 2,400 years. Only recently are people becoming aware of this idea of “paying attention.” Often this is the first time students have ever put so much attention on eating. Through this simple task, they begin their own personal journey into themselves, and ulti-mately, grow an increased awareness of their environment.

As a teacher and a former social worker, I have person-ally noticed the attention span and emotional capacities of my students being compromised. This generation of stu-dents exist in a fast-paced, high-expectation culture where they are asked to think nonstop. To put it bluntly, our kids are stressed. Three years ago, this inspired me to begin teaching mindfulness.

In the simplest terms, according to Amy Saltzman’s Still Quiet Place curriculum, mindfulness means “paying attention with kindness and curiosity”; an age-appropriate way to define it to young people. Jon Kabat-Zinn, the first person to begin studying mindfulness from a scientific point of view, defines mindfulness as “paying attention in a particular way; on pur-pose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally.” Thanks to Kabat-Zinn and his successors, the mindfulness movement has transcended any negative stereotypes about being hippie-dippy, touchy-feely stuff. On the contrary, the more we teach our students to pay attention to the present moment, the more they begin to heal from the everyday trauma of adolescence - as well as the deeper traumas like poverty, suicidal thoughts, abuse, sleep deprivation, health issues, etc.

I teach both English and Mindfulness in a small char-ter high school in East Palo Alto, California, a low-income community in the shadow of Silicon Valley. Nearly 30,000 residents are packed into the 2.5 square miles of this commu-nity, with an average income per capita of $17,600. The daily challenges of poverty that my students face are evident in the classroom: poor attendance, lack of academic confidence, and very little parental engagement. These conditions are chal-lenging not only for the students, but also for the teachers.

Since I began teaching my students to pay attention to their breathing, our school has expanded its mindfulness-based wellness program, and we are working with a Stan-ford PhD candidate to measure the impact of our wellness program on specific indicators such as suspensions, truan-cies, tardies, referrals, and academic progress.

Paying Attention with Kindness and Curiosity

Teaching mindfulness helps high school students decompress from the fast-paced, high expectation culture they are immersed in

“

Green Teacher 103Page 8

Mindfulness ClassesThis year, I have taught mindfulness to students in grades 9 to 12. We have an advisory program, so I taught Introduction to Mindfulness for 8 weeks to the incoming freshmen with 20 students per class. I also have two classes with a 15-stu-dent roster in our regular block schedule: Mindfulness Com-munity (grades 10-11), and Mindfulness for Seniors (grade 12). Additionally, I spend the first 2-5 minutes of my regular English classes leading a mindfulness breathing exercise with my students. This helps them to transition from “hall-way culture” to “classroom culture,” and has become criti-cal to the efficacy of my classroom management. Those 2-5 minutes set the tone for a more intimate, productive learning environment. As I reflect on this past year, there are three significant lessons I learned from the various cohorts of students I have been working with: 1) freshmen need move-ment, 2) seniors need resting time, and 3) the most effective mindfulness curriculum out there today is the teacher’s own personal mindfulness practice.

The cohort of kids who seemed to manifest the most authentic mindfulness this past year are the tenth and elev-enth graders in my Mindfulness Community class. Origi-nally, my intention was to have them be the school leaders; teaching mindfulness to others, and exploring big ideas like ethics, compassion, and empathy. I had also hoped they would be able to spearhead a student-generated recycling program. But within six weeks of the class’ inception, I real-ized I was way ahead of myself. Most of my students are on their way to becoming first-generation high school gradu-ates; preparing for college is an overwhelming process for them and their families, let alone saving the environment. It became clear to me that I needed to start there – with the overwhelming feelings they were experiencing. So, I tossed my lesson plans aside and changed the class into a goal-set-ting study skills class grounded in mindfulness.

When my Mindfulness Community students walk into the class, the first thing they do is rearrange the room. They push the tables and chairs aside, and they go to the area of the room where I store the yoga mats and meditation cushions. They know which mats they like and which cushions they prefer. We gather in a circle, and when everyone has settled, we meditate. In the first few weeks, it was five minutes a day, three days a week. By the third quarter, my students built the capacity to do mindfulness meditation for 15 minutes a day, three days a week. I learned very quickly that some morn-

ings my students’ energy was too low for them to sit quietly, and their occasional defiance and whining about “not want-ing to do the mindfulness stuff” forced me to think on my feet about how I could help them increase their heart rates so early in the morning. So, I started taking the class out for mindful walks in the neighborhood. During these walks, the exercise is to not talk, text or even look at their cell phones, just to simply observe their senses. When we return from the walks, they journal and reflect on their experience.

One day in the autumn, I had them pick up a leaf from under a pear tree. Naturally, many of them thought it was weird, and some cracked jokes, but I stuck to my agenda. A couple of brave kids bent down and found a leaf, with the rest of the class following. Several of my students com-mented that this was the first time they had ever held a leaf. I asked them to hold it with them all day, just to remind them of this moment, and of their connection to nature. This opened up an entire conversation about our relationship to the earth. It’s a conversation that never would have hap-pened in my traditional classroom. Because California’s sea-sons tend to shift with subtlety, I have made it a point to ask my students to observe the subtle changes in that pear tree throughout the year, always directing them to observe their thoughts, feelings, and body sensations whenever we walk past it. This pear tree has become a symbol for our class, and two of my students have told me that they pay atten-tion to it now on their walk to and from school. One of my students wrote in his journal, “I never paid attention to trees and stuff, but now I do. I get what you’re saying about how they change, like us, and how we are all connected.”

As it turns out, our school offers optional weekend hik-ing trips several times a year, which culminates in extended backpacking trips. Interestingly, many of my mindfulness students signed up for the hiking trips as a result of our mindful walks. When they returned from the last weekend camping trip, my students shared with me that despite the rainy weather and the physical challenge of hiking, they now appreciate nature even more.

One of my more savvy students replied, “It’s because of the stuff you’ve been saying this year on our mindful walks about nature, and being open to it. Things looked different on this camping trip, and the rain felt more real.”

I’m happy to report that one of my more advanced mind-fulness students has applied to attend a mindfulness nature retreat in Northern California through an organization

Green Teacher 103 Page 9

called Inward Bound Mindfulness Education (iBme).In addition to the mindful walks, we meditate on potent

words like “pass,” “fail,” “school project,” “family,” “love,” “hope,” “gangs,” “shooting,” and any other words that are floating in their word bank that day. In addition to semester goal setting, we also do daily goal-setting of a very specific type. The final results are not in yet, but the preliminary results show promising success, with over 70% of the class meeting or exceeding their GPA goals.

One of my greatest challenges has been the freshmen. The freshmen are a squirrely little bunch transitioning into their first year of high school, trying to fit in and find their place. They have a lot more energy than the seniors. After a challenging first semester, in which I tried to stick to the curriculum I was using, I brushed the curriculum aside and returned to my objective: to introduce the kids to mindful-ness – my way. I bought some hula hoops, jump ropes, and a parachute, and I opened every class with a kinesthetic activ-ity. I talked to them more about mind-body awareness, but always brought them back to paying attention to the breath. The warm-up seemed to be the game changer for the fresh-men, particularly the gender-conforming males.

Many of my seniors have to work 20-30 hours a week to support their families, so they came to love Fridays in our Mindfulness for Seniors class because we have resting time for the last 20 minutes of class. During this time, the entire class rests on their yoga mats, and I play calming music. All of their digital devices must be turned off, and they cannot talk to each other. Some kids fall asleep, while others simply take in the quietness of the moment; something that is hard to come by in their lives. I took a poll one day, and learned that my seniors average 5.5 hours of sleep a night. We know that they need 8-10 hours, and that sleep deprivation impacts their brain chemistry. I was surprised with how little they knew about the importance of sleep, and how to actually rest. “My idea of resting used to be listening to my loud music, being on Facebook, plus texting my friends,” wrote one senior. “Now I turn everything off and tell my family to leave me alone for fifteen minutes, and do the deep breath-ing. It works.”

This level of self-reflection has been a critical tool not only for my students, but also for myself as both a teacher and a mindfulness practitioner. The greatest lesson I have learned this year is that my own personal practice is the best curriculum I can use for my students. I have had to maintain

a lot of personal and professional discipline to be an effec-tive mindfulness instructor. I have been diligent about keeping notes after each class, reflecting not only on what I observed in my students, but what I observed in myself – cognitively, emotionally, and physically. Additionally, I have maintained the discipline of my own mindfulness medita-tion practice, sitting 20-30 minutes every morning, as well as meeting regularly with my mindfulness teacher, attend-ing day-long sittings throughout the year, attending confer-ences, and staying in touch with other mindfulness instruc-tors. Ultimately, it was that 20-30 minutes of sitting a day that created the space needed to transmit the lessons down to my students.

When I ask any of my mindfulness students to write down what they remember the most from each mindful-ness meditation, they all write “drop the judgment.” We ask our students to think critically, but what we tend to forget is how self-critical they are. By giving them the space to drop the judgment, I am observing their hearts opening up, at least in my one small classroom. We know that when kids are in a place of fear, their brains shut down, which impacts their learning. To see my students opening their hearts in my class, gives me a sense of hope that their minds are also opening up.

Incorporating MindfulnessThere are so many ways for green educators to incorporate a mindfulness practice into their classrooms. One does not need to be a zen master to have his or her own practice nor does a teacher need to have a full block scheduled class (like I have) to teach mindfulness. My English students benefit tremendously from 2–5 minutes of mindfulness before we tackle grammar, writing strategies, and literary analysis. Also, K-8 students are the most receptive to mindfulness due to their openness. Like most teachers, we can modify curriculum to fit the age we are teaching.

If you want to learn and teach mindfulness, the first and foremost qualification you must have is willingness and an open mind and heart. I would recommend that a willing teacher find a mindfulness beginners class online or locally. Mindful Schools has become increasingly popular and well-received, probably because the creators of this organization are former teachers, so they understand the needs and limita-tions of teachers. They offer a Mindfulness Fundamentals class online for $125, which includes an online instructor,

Green Teacher 103Page 10

text, audios of short mindfulness practices, and some rich lectures from Jon Kabat-Zinn. There is also a forum that pro-vides teachers the opportunity to share with other teachers. From there, you can cultivate your own mindfulness practice, which could look like breath practice five minutes a day, two to three times a day, and could build up to 20-30 minutes a day. There is new research indicating that practicing five minutes a day three to four times a day has the same effect as sitting for 20 minutes a day. The key is to be consistent, and to do it daily. Sitting with others can lessen the feeling of isolation for the social personality as well as create a sense of community. After establishing a mindfulness practice, a novice can start each class with a quick breathing exercise. Trust me, once the students get comfortable with it, they will be requesting it as my first group of students did three years ago. (They used to yell at me when I would forget to start the class with mindful breathing.)

Ultimately, an educator with a mindfulness practice can take some next steps in supporting his or her green students in the one area where all students need support – self-aware-ness. As Stephanie Kaza says in her book Mindfully Green, “When we come to see ourselves as part of the green web of life... we are naturally drawn to respond with compassion.”

Teaching students to know themselves deeply through a mindfulness practice can help them build the self-awareness that is necessary to thrive in this complex world. Addition-ally, on a more practical level, research indicates that a stu-dent’s executive function skills increase with mindfulness practice. This includes not only concentration and memory, but also emotional regulation. We all know that being an

activist can be very draining, and emotionally taxing. The burnout rate is high for those who take on the responsibility of creating a cleaner earth. Mindfulness can help create the extra capacity young people need to tackle climate change, or other environmental issues. Our own internal environ-ment must be well maintained before we expand out to the external environment. Teenagers, in particular, who may feel stressed and overwhelmed with the work that lies ahead of them, can learn to go easy on themselves with the support of a healthy mindfulness practice.

Lastly, as I stumbled upon this year, a short mindful walk, and paying attention to a static element of nature (our pear tree) throughout the year could also deepen a student’s rela-tionship to the earth. Teenagers especially, are deep thinkers with tremendous capacity to make personal connections. Bringing them back to that same pear tree every week, and asking them to explore their thoughts, feelings, and body as they curiously explore the intricacies of that one tree can lead to some profound insights. Although they may not be able to express them with great articulation, they are ultimately tap-ping into their core self, which is more than any 21st century teacher can ask for.

This past year feels like just the beginning of something new and meaningful for me as a teacher, and hopefully feels the same for my students. Mindfulness may not be the pana-cea to our educational dilemmas, but it can be the balm we have been seeking for our classrooms. It provides students the opportunity to build that necessary inner resiliency, and it helps prevent teacher burnout. If we can teach our young people to turn off their screens, close their eyes, and explore their own inner screens, then we are providing them with the wealthiest piece of technology on the planet – their minds.

Caren McDonald teaches high school English and Mind-fulness in East Palo Alto, California. Before becoming a teacher, she was a social worker and a playwright, having produced plays in Boston, Alaska, New Mexico, Michoacán, and Los Angeles.

ResourcesKabat-Zinn, Jon. Mindfulness for Beginners: Reclaiming the Present Moment and Your Life.Gunaratana, Bhante Henepola. Mindfulness in Plain English.Schoeberlein David, Deborah and Suki Sheth. Mindful Teaching and Teaching Mindfulness: A Guide for Anyone Who Teaches Anything.Saltzman, Amy. A Still Quiet Place: A Mindfulness Program for Teaching Chil-dren and Adolescents to Ease Stress and Difficult Emotions.Lantieri, Linda. Building Emotional Intelligence: Practices to Cultivate Inner Resilience in Children.Broderick, Patricia C. and Myla Kabat-Zinn. Learning to Breathe: A Mindful-ness Curriculum for Adolescents to Cultivate Emotion Regulation, Attention, and Performance. Websiteswww.mindfulschools.org/training/mindfulness-fundamentals/?gclid=CjkKEQjw75CcBRCz2LiEs5OPsZoBEiQADgUma33-LV4T3c4fZIpMp0j0lw4hK7c_TbxC3hx4ekTVNfbw_wcBhttp://mindfulnessinschools.org/www.garrisoninstitute.org/www.care4teachers.org/http://ibme.info/www.niroga.org/

Green Teacher 103 Page 11

By Julie D. Johnston

ANYONE INVOLVED WITH a school garden knows the frustration of putting it to bed when school is in full swing, then saying goodbye to it at the end of

the school year just as growth in the garden is taking off. We create school gardens to teach our students how to grow food, but much of the growing happens while they’re on summer vacation. Your students miss out on a significant part of the growing cycle, which leaves a gap in their under-standing of how plants grow. But there are enjoyable and learningful ways to extend the school gardening season. You can invite children back to the garden during the summer or offer a year-round school garden club.

Summer Garden Day CampOne fun and easy way to enhance students’ access to the school garden is by running a garden day camp in the sum-mertime. This day camp can be held one day per week throughout the summer, like Saskatchewan’s Greenscapades program does at five different school gardens around the city of Saskatoon. Their program leader develops a theme for each week, such as Seed Frenzy, Garden Folkfest and Plants that Make Us Feel Better, which is then offered at each school on a different day of the week.

I’ve followed a more traditional day camp model. The Gulf Islands Centre for Ecological Learning (GICEL), which runs nature day camps in the southern Gulf Islands between Vancouver and Victoria in British Columbia, allowed me to add a garden day camp to their roster of summer eco-logical exploration programs. Running your school garden day camp under the auspices of a school district or other non-profit organization makes promotion, fundraising, reg-istration, accounting and liability insurance issues go more smoothly. You don’t have to be the day camp leader – but you might be the right person to plant the seed to get a pro-gram going.

The program we run at the school on Pender Island lasts five days, Monday to Friday, from 10 am to 4 pm – why start early when it’s vacation time? Each day is organized into chunks of time for garden chores, science, art and fun – which sometimes includes a hike to the nearest beach for swimming. We intersperse these blocks with games, songs, snacks, quiet reflective time in the garden, and field trips to local farms or food gardens. The ground rules we maintain are:1. Safety first 2. Respect yourself, others and the rest of nature3. Have fun!

I’ve found that I only had to add one rule to the regular outdoor education ground rules: “You can pick one treat when you go into the garden. The rest is for sharing.”

Starting a School Garden Summer Camp

The school year always ends just as the school garden is starting to blossom – extend learning by running your own summer garden day camp

Green Teacher 103Page 12

If we have a harvest feast planned for Friday, that means starting sprouts on Monday morning. We also survey the garden early on to see what crops will be ready for picking, preparing, and sharing. This introduction usually involves a scavenger hunt to refamiliarize the children with what’s been growing in their garden. Kids can collect items providing it won’t harm the plants, draw items, hang markers on what they find, or run back and forth telling you their answers. Since day camps usually include a wider age range than the usual classroom, be sure to pair pre-literate children with older kids in any activities that involve reading or writing.

Garden Scavenger Hunts • Find and list everything edible in the garden• Sensory awareness (find something blue, something that

smells good, something tickly, something that makes a noise in the wind, something that’s been eaten by some-one else)

• Rainbow diet (find something purple, green, yellow, orange, red, multi-coloured)

• Edible parts of the plant (find 1. a root: carrots, radishes, sweet potatoes 2. a tuber (underground stem): potatoes, yams, sunchokes 3. a stem: rhubarb, asparagus, celery 4. leaves: lettuce, kale, garlic (underground leaves) 5. flow-ers: broccoli, cauliflower, artichoke 6. a fruit: tomatoes, squash, bell peppers 7. some seeds: corn, peas, sunflower seeds 8. a seed pod: green beans, okra, chili peppers)

• Garden-to-table (find the plant that matches each finished product: a bag of quinoa or other grain, dried oregano in a spice jar, strawberry jam, a jar of pickles, a can of tomato sauce, a French fries bag, some poppyseed cake, an herbal remedy made from calendula flowers, potpourri, etc.)

ThemesHere are some of the daily themes we have used over the years. They change according to what was planted in the garden before school ended, the time of summer (there’s more to do in early July but more to harvest in August), weather, or which guest presenters are available. For example, kids love Pollination Day if you can snag a professional beekeeper to bring in real bees.

Monday• The Sun’s Energy – Source of Life on Earth• Life Cycles in the GardenTuesday• Pollination• The Water CycleWednesday• Soil – The Most Important Part of the Garden• Predator and Prey (Insects)Thursday• Photosynthesis • Garden GiftsFriday• Gratitude• Harvest Feast

When I was young, singing was a big part of summer day camps, and I’ve brought back the tradition. Each par-ticipant receives a combination journal (blank pages for art or writing during garden spot time) and songbook. We learn a new song that relates to the day’s theme each day, and reinforce songs we’ve learned in previous years. By the end of the week together, we have a loud, proud, and confident garden chorus. Examples of songs you can sing are: Johnny Appleseed, Connie Kaldor’s “Seed in the Ground,” “Put Me in the Compost Pile” by Stan Slaughter, “Inch by Inch (The Garden Song)” by David Mallett, and “Goin’ on a Picnic” and “Kitchen Sing Sing” by Raffi.

When it comes to the garden chores, invite community experts to help out as mentors. It means more learning for the kids and less expertise needed by you. For example, I invited a retired doctor who is an expert on fruit growing to help us set up an espalier system for our two little cherry trees. Here are other garden chores to do during a summer garden day camp.• Create new garden beds• Build supports for berry bushes in your Berry Walk• Create companion plantings or guilds (groupings of

plants that support each other, much like the traditional Haudenosaunee Three Sisters: corn, beans and squash)

• Plant winter crops

Typical Daily Schedule of Summer Garden

Day Camp

10-10:30 Garden Fun

10:30-11 Garden Chores

11-11:15 Snack

11:15-12 Garden Science

12:12:30 Lunch

12:30-2 Garden Art

2-2:15 Snack

2:15-4 Field Trip

Green Teacher 103 Page 13

• Put up mason bee boxes and/or small bird houses• Collect and dry seeds• Water and weed • Turn the compost• Share some harvest with the local food bank or shelter• Build an insect hotel

Garden science learning in the summertime has to be hands-on, but that can be a challenge in a large group. I always have a partner and one or two junior camp counsel-lors to help out. Here are some of the garden science explo-rations you can do:• Teach about soil fertility. Healthy soil is teeming with

life or organic matter such as bacteria, fungi, protozoa, nematodes etc. Have kids examine a thimbleful of gar-den soil to see what they can find with their bare eyes.

• Experiment with soil to analyze its texture (percentages of sand, silt, clay), and to determine acidity and N-P-K levels. Make mud pies to test absorptive qualities.

• Learn what different types of weeds can tell you about your soil.

• Use a refractometer to take a Brix reading of different crops to test their nutrition level.

• Track the sun across the sky over the school garden. Observe which plants are heliotropic. Check placement of plants based on their height and need for sunlight. Build a solar oven. Dry some herbs for tea or flowers for potpourri.

• Learn how to “build” soil (layering browns such as dead leaves or paper towels with greens such as lawn clip-pings). Take the temperature of the compost bin. Do some compost experiments in clear plastic jars with Monday’s lunch leftovers. Go on a worm hunt.

• Learn what butterflies need to survive, such as nectar sources and host plants. Plant an autumn butterfly garden.

• Learn about garden pests. Act out a garden food web.• Learn what seeds need in order to thrive. Plant (soy) milk

carton gardens or windowsill herb boxes out of plastic salad containers, to take home or donate.

• Create a terrarium.

The possibilities for garden art are endless. Some of my favourite afternoon activities include: painting rocks, braiding grasses or corn stalks to make dolls, weaving simple baskets, sewing dream pillows and stuffing them with sweet-smelling herbs, creating fairy doors, and other garden art. I also have a number of favourite garden games I like to play with the

HEAD HEART HANDS

Week 1 Brainstorm possible garden projects Make “favourite veggie” name tags and add to Garden Club bulletin board

Follow the leader to visit the garden

Week 2 Draw garden plans Pick something that overwintered (say thank you) for a hand salad

Tidy up the garden

Week 3 Learn about seeds and how to sow them

Read Dr. Seuss’s Oh Say Can You Seed? Plant cool weather crops outdoors (oriental greens, peas, garlic, broad beans, kale, turnip)

Week 4 Do soil testing experiments Explore and learn about the abun-dance of life in a teaspoon of soil

Start seeds indoors (broccoli, tomatoes, onions, peppers)

kids: garden tag, human bean, photosynthesis relay, photo-synthesis dodge ball, and the pollinator game.

At the end of the week, everyone—including a volun-teer parent or two—enjoys contributing to the harvest feast. Each person helps with the harvesting (make sure you have lots of bowls or baskets on hand), then the foodies head into the school kitchen to do the cooking. The outside kids set up the serving table, lay out some tablecloths, pick bouquets for centerpieces, and finish up the garden chores.

The menu depends on the harvest, but ours usually includes mini-quiches or frittata because we gathered eggs when we visited the farm. There’s also a bean medley, our sprouts in a rainbow salad, sun tea (made with chocolate mint and nettle), kale chips, mashed potato salad, fruit leather and/or popsicles (made the night before), and berries for dessert. Last year, the kids churned butter and slathered it on homemade scones topped with fresh strawberries.

Year-Round Garden ClubIn some regions, the cold season is so long that without some wintertime learning and indoor growing, a school garden would be next to impossible. Some school garden clubs take the same break that farmers and gardeners take; after the harvest and the food preservation are finished, the garden is put to bed. Though you’ll want to give your students time to both reflect on the previous season’s garden successes and failures, and plan for the next year of gardening. Depending on where you live, your garden club might take a hiatus in November, December and January – but get revved up and dreaming again in February.

Your location, climate and daylight hours will also deter-mine when you hold your garden club meetings. Lunchtime meetings outdoors will be too hot in some school yards. But bus schedules might interfere with after-school clubs. In some communities, weekend garden clubs in conjunction with the school garden might work.

The easiest way I’ve found to organize school garden club meetings is to overplan, with at least three activities for each meeting, one in each category. Head activities tend to be science-based. Heart activities are usually arts- or awe-based. Hands activities are active and practical growing chores. The order in which they happen will change each week, depending on when you want to get your hands dirty.

Here’s a sample month of early season weekly school garden club meetings. Many of the garden day camp activi-ties are suitable for garden club.

Green Teacher 103Page 14

Unfortunately, sow-ing rhymes with throw-ing. If you don’t want hours of thinning work, here are some ideas for helping pri-mary-aged children

learn to plant seeds. Tiny ones (for example,

carrot seeds) can be glued to strips of blank newsprint

using a flour and water paste. Have the children space them out the same way they put a finger between words when learning to write. For bigger seeds, practice with marbles in the sand table. Create a small furrow with your finger and have the kids plant the marbles evenly. Finally, for seeds that are usually scattered, remind your young gardeners that putting all the salt on one French fry doesn’t taste very good. Show them how to sprinkle the seeds, pretending that their hands are saltshakers covering the ground evenly.

Tips and Tricks1. Have some fun coming up with day camp or club names.

For example, have everyone choose a garden name that starts with the first initial of their first name – I’m usu-ally Julie Jerusalem Artichoke.

2. Be sure you know who has health issues such as asthma, and who is allergic to insect stings. Always have a first aid kit nearby.

3. Try to ensure some shade. A temporary or permanent shade structure (a tent or an outdoor classroom) in or near the school garden will guarantee that you’re ready for high heat as well as rainy days. It’s also a good gath-ering spot and a place to leave lunches and backpacks.

4. When talking with a group of children, always be the one facing the sun. That way, they don’t have to squint up into the light to see you. Model the wearing of a sun hat while working in the garden.

5. Take lots of photos during school garden activities, or assign someone that task. Photographs are helpful when applying for grants and they look great on bulletin boards or in thank-you cards.

6. I’ve found that young cooks are much more independent if I write each group’s recipe out on a large sheet of paper that is taped up above their work station, where I have laid out the ingredients and tools ahead of time.

7. If your school garden isn’t locked over the summer, con-sider closing it up for the week or two before your day camp starts. I know from experience how disappointing it is to discover that marauders (usually of the two-legged variety) have eaten all the berries you’d been saving for your harvest feast. Every ounce of energy that goes into organizing a sum-

mer garden day camp or a school garden club is worth it. The learning is so real, and so vital. In the words of New York politician Christine Quinn, “Teaching children about healthy eating and where our food comes from is just as valuable as teaching them how to read and write.”

As the climate change emergency deepens, today’s chil-dren need to learn the skills that will help them create their best possible future: how to build their own soil, grow their own food, and collect their own rainwater. Offering food-growing opportunities is one of the most valuable gifts we will ever give to young people. Let’s provide them with as much access to school garden learning as possible, through-out the school year and into the summer.

Julie Johnston is the resource teacher for the Spring Leaves Family Learning Program at Pender Islands Elemen-tary-Secondary School in British Columbia, where she built the school garden with her students and their parents. Julie also works with teachers around the world as a sustainabil-ity education consultant with GreenHeart Education (www.greenhearted.org).

ResourcesGreenscapades Summer Garden Program: www.aitc.sk.ca/school-garden-programs/summer-garden-programExamples of insect hotels: www.learninglandscapesdesign.com/insect-hotels/Soil organisms: www.the-compost-gardener.com/soil-organisms.htmlPhotosynthesis relay: www.ellenjmchenry.com/downloads/PhotosynthesisRelayRace.pdfGarden quotations for bulletin boards: www.greenhearted.org/school-gardens.html

Game ExamplesPhotosynthesis Dodge BallUsing the formula “carbon dioxide + water + sunlight energy = sugars + oxygen + water” (or, to be specific, 6 CO2 + 12 H2O + sunlight = glucose (C6H12O6) + 6 O2 + 6 H2O, but you might not have that many day campers), create the following name tags: Hydrogen, Oxygen, Carbon and Sun (who wears a yellow pinny), and hand them out. Everyone else (wearing green pinnies, if possible) forms a circle, representing stomata in the leaf. The chemical elements hook up as molecules, then run around in the circle dodging the dodgeball. Once a molecule is hit by the ball, it “enters” the stomata by weaving in and out of them, waiting for the sun. Once all the molecules and the sun have been hit by the ball, the molecules get to reconfigure themselves into glucose, oxygen and water. Then change teams.

Human BeansThis is a great game to play if your day campers are restless or as an ambulatory activity for getting from one place to another. Shout out different types of bean and have your kids act them out: jumping beans (jump around), runner beans (run on the spot), broad beans (stretch limbs out sideways), jelly beans (move about doing silly, fluid movements), bean sprouts (stand on tiptoes and stretch arms up), coffee beans (cough loudly), etc.

Green Teacher 103 Page 15

By Elissa Brown

RAISE YOUR HAND IF you have reduced, recycled or reused something in the past week,” I prompted. Hands shot up. “That’s good,” I said. “But is it good

enough?” I wrote a word on the whiteboard, in large let-ters: RETHINK. I asked, “What does that mean to you, to “Rethink” our world and the way we live in it?”

Most students can rattle off the three classic environ-mental R’s: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. However, there is another important R: Rethink. This means thinking outside the box to completely reinvent our systems, products and norms. When my middle school team decided to teach an interdisciplinary sustainability unit, I wanted to avoid the typical doom-and-gloom forecasts in favour of emphasizing the positive, empowering aspects of sustainability. Thus, the Rethink Challenge was born.

The goal of the Rethink Challenge was to generate as many ideas as possible of what a sustainable future could look like. We wrote or sketched them on Post-it notes, compiling a diverse collection of descriptions and images that spanned the realm of possibility. Over time, the classroom wall turned into a patchwork rainbow mosaic, each square containing a vision for a sustainable future. Some described inventions, others illustrated street layouts, and still others explained large-scale

shifts in norms. This project took a small portion of most days for a span of two months, but we continued with general cur-riculum simultaneously. I taught grades six to eight, but this can be adapted to fit any grade level.

“The thing about rethinking,” I told the class, “is that you have to be imaginative. Anybody can throw a soda can in the recycling bin, but it takes creativity to rethink systems. We’ll need creativity to shape a future we want to live in. We’ll need to be inventive, wise and maybe even a little crazy.”

To introduce the Rethink Challenge, I held up some props: an empty chips bag, Styrofoam plate and granola bar wrapper. “Look at all my food packaging garbage.” I announced. “I can’t recycle these. I don’t really want to reuse them”—here I waggled the spaghetti-encrusted plate—“and this is just the smallest bit of what our school throws out on a daily basis. I guess I could have reduced my waste if I had bought more food with less packaging in the first place, but what about moving earlier back in the production process? What about rethinking food packaging?” I paused.

“For example, what if packaging just didn’t exist—if the norm were to bring reusable containers and buy snacks in bulk? Or what if all packaging were easily compostable, or even had little seeds embedded in it? Or were made out of a material you could easily rinse out and then fold into a crafts project? These are just some ways of rethinking food packag-ing. What else can you think of?” Students discussed in pairs

Sustainability with Post-it NotesA mosaic of rainbow paper squares in a middle school classroom displays ideas rethinking

what a sustainable future could look like

“

Green Teacher 103Page 16

and then a few shared with the class.Most of the group was familiar

with the concept of sustainability, but I still wanted to ensure common ground before beginning the challenge. As a warm-up, students individu-ally listed all words they associated with sustainability. Then, in small groups, they crafted a definition, and finally we developed them all into a class definition. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; “Sustainability creates and maintains the conditions under which humans and nature can exist in productive har-mony, that permit fulfilling the social, economic and other requirements of present and future generations.”1 Our definition captured this basic gist, but since the students wrote it themselves, they were already more invested.

How to do itIn the beginning, set a goal number for the number of Rethinks your school will produce; our middle school chose 500, which seemed sufficiently impressive, even though it was only around 10 ideas per person. Several days a week, begin class by providing designated time to rethink, around 5-10 minutes, replacing a usual opening activity. On these days, everyone is expected to generate a Post-it idea – the teacher, too.

Display Post-its in a special location with a clear title and description followed by a short project blurb. Ours was “The Rethink Challenge: ideas, visions and inventions for a sustainable future.” Hallways are great if you have them, but we simply used a corner of the classroom. Part of the chal-lenge revolves around this communal aspect. Students enjoy viewing others’ Rethinks and seeing their own ideas as part of a vast collection. Allow class time for browsing and com-mentary. For us, the exhibit prompted continual discussions and debates, from the logistics of harnessing hamster wheel power to what smart car technology already existed. Often, a snowball effect emerged, with ideas building upon and inspiring other ideas.

As a bonus, students can also choose to enlist in the One-A-Day Challenge, in which they commit to generating

at least one idea every day of school until a predetermined end point. Our challengees did 50 school days, but one school month is also a good, con-fined length. Ideas are expected even on days without designated class time. I found that the self-imposed nature of generating one idea per day gave the enlisters a special type of motivation; they would arrive at my room eager to scribble a Rethink dur-ing free moments.

Around once a week, provide students with a prompt focused on rethinking a specific aspect of the future, such as houses or transporta-tion (see sidebar). These can spring from a short TED talk or an image:

from living houses made of grafted trees to pedal-powered school buses. At these times, allow more time to think, draw, and share with small groups or the class before posting.

The Rethink Challenge connects well to other subjects or specific topics of study. For instance, each student could cre-ate posters for sustainable actions to be taken around school, design maps of what a sustainable city might look like, cal-culate energy savings related to sustainable practices, brain-storm top five sustainable lifestyle changes and then choose one to adopt for the rest of the year, and so on. Rethinks could serve as a topic for a longer persuasive essay, debate, or letter to the editor. This project could also integrate an ecological footprint exercise.2 You may decide to incorpo-rate a social action component – after all, the challenge is not just about designing futuristic contraptions, it is also about envisioning how community norms can shift, and how students can instigate this. A writing prompt like “How can our school become more sustainable?” can lead to reflection followed by actual change.

In all subjects, you can continue to teach the core cur-riculum, but with sustainability-themed extensions. Current events can prompt Rethink topics, or else students can bring in articles relating to actual Rethinks. For instance, my class read an article about test tube meat,3 and students wrote response papers relating to their views on the topic. Was lab-grown meat a great step forward for sustainability, was it furthering unhealthy relations with our environment, or was it promising but just too weird to fathom eating? This led to a class debate, and then a larger discussion on food-related sustainability issues.

The Rethink Challenge also provides opportunity for community engagement. Students can create a sustainabil-ity presentation for other grades and solicit Rethinks to add to the collection. They can interview family or community members about their visions for a sustainable future, or ask about how the world has changed over the last decades.

Keep generating Rethinks until you reach your goal number. You can track progress on an accompanying chart and report weekly updates in assemblies or newsletters. When you finally reach the target, hold a sustainability-themed celebration.

Ultimately, this is a hopeful exercise that can generate wild creativity. Most meaningful learning experiences focus

Ideas for Warm-upsStudents write or discuss how they interpret the follow-

ing quote: “We do not inherit this land from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.” —Traditional Haida proverb

Play an interactive sustainable resource use game. Our class did a simulation called Fishing for the Future, using M&M’s and Goldfish crackers to simulate overfishing and sustainable use of the world’s oceans.4

Students write about or discuss the following guided imagery. “Imagine that you use a time machine to travel 50 years into the future. What do you see? Is it a better place to live than today, or worse? Why?”

Green Teacher 103 Page 17

Plan to explore the outdoors with your class with new resources from WWF!

Nature is Our Home (K)Plants and Animals (Gr 1)Amazing Animals (Gr 2)

Rethinking Energy (Gr 5)

Visit schools.wwf.ca to download these resources and more! © 1986 Panda symbol WWF-World Wide Fund For Nature (also known as World Wildlife Fund). ® “WWF” is a WWF Registered Trademark.

on depth, but this one differs in its attention to quantity. The challenge is not just thinking of one amazing idea, but being able to consistently generate novel ideas. It shifts student mentality toward positive, outside-the-box thinking for the future. One key step toward sustainability is simply being able to envision a better world.

I found that this project changed the dynamic of our class: students were enthusiastic to come each day and Rethink, and they were excited about ideas—sharing theirs, reading others, collaborating and seeing the large-scale display. It was exciting and inspiring to watch our colorful Post-it mosaic grow each day. Youth will shape the future, and the Rethink Challenge is the kind of project that gets the necessary creative ideas flowing.

Elissa Brown launched the Rethink Challenge with her middle school science students at Two Rivers Community School, an expeditionary learning public charter school in Boone, North Carolina.

Endnotes1. “What is Sustainability?” United States Environmental Protection Agency, <www.epa.gov/sustainability/basicinfo.htm>, Accessed March 8, 2014.2. “Ecological Footprint Quiz,” Center for Sustainable Economy, < www.myfootprint.org>, Accessed March 13, 2014.3. Ornes, S. “Meat from Scratch,” Science News for Students. 12 April, 2012, <https://student.societyforscience.org/article/meat-scratch>, Accessed Febru-ary 18, 20144. “Fishing for the Future,” Ocean Portal, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, 2013, <http://ocean.si.edu/for-educators/lessons/fishing-future>, Accessed March 13, 2014.

Sample Rethink Topics: “What would ___________ look like in a sustainable future?”• Food (production, distribution, packaging, etc.)• Waste management• Energy• Water systems• Homes• Education• Transportation• Streets• Cities

Green Teacher 103Page 18

By Scott Lenhart

ANYONE WHO WORKS IN a school is aware of how much waste can be produced on a daily basis. With so many people in one location, it is inevitable that a

large amount of waste will pile up. A study from Minnesota on the amount of waste produced per capita determined that a total of 483,250 pounds of waste are produced daily by their K-12 public schools.1 The study classified the waste produced and found the two highest categories produced included food waste (23.9%) and recyclable paper (23.5%). However, many of the paper recycling programs in schools are not imple-mented with enough direction to ensure their success.

Four years ago, Glenwood Middle School, located in Youngstown, Ohio, started a paper recycling program. The program started with the delivery of a recycling dumpster in the parking lot and an announcement at a faculty meeting that we could begin recycling paper. There were no bins, signs, or methods for collection. There was nobody in charge of procedures and paper recycling was something that would be done as each individual saw fit. Without any kind of direction,

there was little support for the program in the beginning. Two years after our paper recycling program began, I decided to involve students in a mapping exercise that would analyze what was working and what wasn’t in order to make sure we were reducing waste as much waste as possible.

Mapping to AssessAfter the first few years of the program, reports from the Mahoning County Green Team showed that our school was on a “call basis.” This meant our paper dumpster was only emptied when needed, and someone from the school called the Green Team to empty it. Other schools were on a regular pickup basis in which the Green Team empties their dump-sters twice a month regardless of being called or not. This is due to high volumes of paper being recycled that fill their dumpsters regularly.

To get a better idea of the current state of our own paper recycling program, I set out with a fellow science teacher, Eric Diefenderfer, and took a walking tour of the school armed simply with a map of the school and a writing utensil. As we walked around we marked three things on the map: areas/rooms that had boxes and signs for recycling, areas/

Mapping for ChangeA simple mapping exercise helped this Ohio middle school increase the efficacy of their

paper recycling program by more than a ton

Green Teacher 103 Page 19

rooms that had boxes for recycling but no signs and areas/rooms that were missing both. This initial mapping and observation were created objectively to see where recycling was available but not taking place.

Mapping to ImproveResearch has shown that including students in mapping helps them to see the positives and negatives of a certain area and how they can develop their own ideas to create solutions.2,3 In addition, students who are involved in such experiences have been shown to become more involved in their own com-munities and develop experience at problem solving.4 Using the information from our walkthrough and observations, we created a new map indicating our where paper recycling was evident. This map was displayed for a small group of students chosen to take part in our mapping project. The students selected were given the task of identifying areas that could be improved. Students were shown the map on an overhead projector to observe and given a hard copy to make their own notations on. After they observed the map of the school, the students took their own walking tour of the school with the task of identifying areas to improve.

Although it seemed obvious to us as teachers which

areas needed improvements, the students offered a surpris-ingly different perspective. Teachers stay in one classroom for the majority of the school day, compared to the students continuously changing rooms and walking the hallways. Since the students move around so much, they are the ones who would be more familiar with the areas where bins and signs would be most beneficial. Students are the vast major-ity of the occupants in the building, so by default they will produce the most waste as well. Having them identify the places where they spend their time sheds a different light on the subject teachers are not always aware of.

My students returned with their maps and marked areas where recycling bins, proper informational signs, or both were needed. Each student then shared their maps with the group and we discussed the places that would be focused on for improvement. The original map was updated to pinpoint where improvements would be needed.

While my students were focused on using mapping to identify areas of improvement, Mr. Diefenderfer’s students were turning old copy paper boxes into recycling bins for teachers and creating updated paper recycling signs for everyone to ensure the proper materials were being recycled. When the mapping was completed and all the boxes and signs finished, the students distributed them throughout the school to all of the areas determined in need of improvement or implementation. Students identified and implemented 21 new locations that had never had boxes or signs for paper recycling. Teachers with the older, inaccurate signs and boxes received an upgrade as well, even if they already had a box for paper recycling and a sign.

Initial ResultsThis project began in the fall of the 2012-13 school year. We did not have an entire school year to use as a comparison, but paper recycling numbers are calculated per calendar year by the county. So to compare calendar year 2012 to 2013, we were able to increase the amount of paper recycled by 2,400 pounds. Considering we are not in session from June through August, it was very satisfying to know that for the rest of the 2012-13 school year and the beginning of the 2013-14 school year, we improved our efforts by over a ton. With just a sim-ple walk around the school with our most valuable resources, the students, we have taken the first steps in diverting one of the biggest waste products our school produces. In this case, a simple mapping project has made a literal ton of difference.

Scott Lenhart is an 8th grade science teacher at Board-man Glenwood Middle School in Boardman, Ohio. He is a current student of Project Dragonfly’s Global Field Program through Miami University of Ohio.

References1. Cioci, M. & Farnan, T. (2010). Digging deep through school trash: a waste composition analysis of trash, recycling and organic material discarded at pub-lic schools in Minnesota. Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. Retrieved from: www.pca.state.mn.us/index.php/view-document.html?gid=142352. Hart, R. (2007). “Mapping and modeling” From Children’s Participation: The Theory and Practice of Involving Young Citizens in Community Develop-ment and Environmental Care. Chpt. 12, pp. 165-171.3. Mears, J. (2012). The many benefits of community mapping. Connect, 25(4), 1-3.4. Rowe, J. (1990) To develop thinking citizens. Educational Leadership, 48(3), 43-44.

Tips for Mapping• Have students create an original map assessing the

current status of an area/facility, which increases their participation

• Create electronic versions of maps to allow for easier manipulation

• Use current online apps to allow collaboration of more participants

• Perform a walk-through to visually see areas that cannot be represented on maps

• Be sure to have access to maps (electronic or hard copies) to make notations during the walk-through

• Conduct group collaborations to discuss observations and ideas based on walkthroughs to determine actions to be taken

• Share new maps to increase awareness of changes• Continue periodic walkthroughs to ensure that imple-

mented changes are still in place

Green Teacher 103Page 20

Figure 2. Map of BGMS showing areas identified by students to focus on for new recycling efforts.

Figure 1. BGMS map illustrating areas with and without proper paper recycling boxes and/or signs.

Green Teacher 103 Page 21

By Giuliano Reis

ALTHOUGH URINE makes up only 1% of the total volume of wastewater,1 it can pose serious risks to human (and non-human) health if left untreated. In

this context, separate collection and treatment of urine could make significant contributions to water pollution control and nutrient recycling worldwide for both urban water man-agement and sustainable agricultural purposes. However, this valuable and relatively new technology—which pre-sumes the human body to be a recycling machine—remains unknown to most people.

The primary purpose of this article is to introduce two interrelated practical classroom activities meant to enable high school science teachers and students to appreciate the importance of using alternative ways of collecting and

The Human Body as Recycling Machine

Introducing urine nutrient recovery to high school science students from a multidisciplinary perspective

recycling human urine for the production of natural fertil-izers. More so: through a series of calculation exercises, it demonstrates how environmental education is intrinsically connected with different areas of the school curricula—biol-ogy, mathematics, chemistry—and beyond, like global food production and distribution issues.

Why recycle urine?Most people would agree that technology is an intrinsic and fast-evolving part of our society.2 Many things that we barely even consider to be technology were developed to help us live longer and healthier lives: toilets, for example.3 Nowadays, the presence of toilets is considered a symbol of economic progress, high civility, and even social status.4 Not surprisingly, both public defecation and urination are con-sidered offenses in many countries. In terms of the two most ordinary excrements flushed down the toilet, I have opted

Green Teacher 103Page 22

here to address the usually neglected importance of urine. (Yuck! I know.)

Urine is more than waste that is washed away from your blood by our kidneys. Historically, it has been used in the Inuit culture for animal skin tanning5 and was once employed to wash clothes in ancient Rome.6 Additionally, unusual changes in the colour or odour of urine and urination frequency can suggest a number of diseases, like diabetes.

In freshly excreted urine, nitrogen is mostly in the form of organic nitrogen (urea) – or CO(NH2)2. Indeed, urine is responsible for over 80% of nitrogen and 50% of both potas-sium and phosphorus in conventional domestic wastewater.7 Hence, resource-intensive processes at wastewater treatment plants are used to clean the water off any unnecessary nutri-ents and residues of medicines before it can be released back into the environment.8

In the face of growing worldwide urbanization rates and the associated rise in wastewater production, the separate processing of urine could reduce the size of wastewater treatment plants and allow for the recovery of important nutrients – like nitrogen and potassium. These nutrients, in turn, are essential in the manufacture of fertilizers, consid-ered a crucial commodity in the current food distribution efforts aimed at reducing global hunger.9

Approximately 40 million tonnes of phosphorus are used for fertilizer production and human consumption every year and unless we find ways to recycle this non-renewable resource, the existing natural sources might be exhausted by 2090.10 Clearly, separate collection and treatment of urine could make significant contributions to water pollution con-trol and nutrient recycling for both urban water management and sustainable agricultural purposes.11

Human body as technologyIn the scenario described above, urine source separation (i.e. NoMix) emerges as a valuable and relatively new technology that remains unknown to people in general, who are used to the conventional “flush and forget”12 sanitation system. NoMix toilets are similar in appearance to regular toilets except that the toilet bowls have two sections. Urine is col-lected in the front section while feces are collected in the back (see Figure 1). This process requires very little flush water or no water at all and urine flows into a storage tank for further use while the feces are flushed with water to be treated. Nevertheless, the system requires dual plumbing, one for each type of excrement.13 More importantly: it relies on the human body as a recycling machine, a fragment of biotechnology – and evidence of our continual technophysi-ological evolution.14 For example, 98% of the phosphorus in urine can be recovered by precipitation with magnesium. The product — struvite — is an attractive fertilizer, free of phar-maceuticals and hormones. In Switzerland, nutrients from human urine could serve as substitutes for at least 37% of the nitrogen and 20% of the phosphorus demand that is currently met by imported artificial fertilizers.15 In Canada, the sepa-ration of urine in year 2065 is estimated to reach a value of $128,000 in terms of offsetting commercial fertilizer costs.16

Every time the toilet is flushed, the urine concentration in the sewage system decreases – and toilet makers specify the flush volume on their products. For example, 6 liters/1.6 gal-lons of water per flush. What most people don’t know is that

urine is diluted approximately 100 times with other wastewa-ter streams when it gets to wastewater treatment plants.17 Yet, the NoMix technology indicates that all this dilution is not necessary (see Activities 1 and 2). Besides, it reveals that our current flushing culture is likely another water-stravaganza promoted by society, just like carwashes and excessive lawn watering. Put differently, with the introduction of this new technology, there is no more reason for flush flow rates to be so lavish. Otherwise, the excess of water can make the extraction of nutrients from urine more laborious.

ConclusionThe combination of water scarcity with a growing global pop-ulation only increases the demand for more water and food in an ever-polluting vicious cycle. Unless we find alternative ways to reduce natural resource consumption and waste pro-duction, we will continue down on the path to destruction.18 So, it sounds very sensible that we take advantage of the fact that the human body technology, unlike that of other animals (e.g. birds), naturally offers feces and urine separately from one another.19 On top of saving water and money, the use of anthropogenic waste for the production of fertilizers can also create better conditions for more equitable food production and distribution practices,20 which in turn can bring about social justice through food security.

The activities described here (along with the readings suggested) offers numerous lenses through which students (and their teachers) can understand food production and con-sumption in relation to the roles of the digestive system.21 More than a mere series of calculation exercises to bring environmental concerns into the mathematics classroom, they represent an entry door to a broader understanding of the social and ecological impact of our species on the planet.

Figure 1 – NoMix toilet

Chr

istia

n Ru

este

r/Roe

dige

r at F

lickr

Green Teacher 103 Page 23

Specifically, they open up for opportunities to interpret the complexities of the world by discussing poverty, nature of science, physiology, history, and chemistry. Ultimately, in the search for student-driven classroom experiences where interest and science content intersect, the grossest topics can come in very handy.

Activity #1: Crushing numbersWe live in a culture that tends to overconsume (and there-fore waste) important natural resources, like water. In this context, it becomes necessary to realize new ways to live sustainably. To illustrate this point, let’s consider our cur-rent flushing habits and how they affect our consumption of water and the eventual practice of a urine nutrient recovery process. It involves a series of simple calculations to estimate how much the concentration of phosphorous and nitrogen in the NoMix technology differs from that in regular house toilets (the answers to proposed problems can be found in Appendix A). First, read the following information22:

Physiological measurements indicate that the amounts of plant nutrients excreted via urine per person a year (2.5-4.3 kg nitrogen, 0.7-1.0 kg phosphorus and 0.9-1.0 kg potassium) are larger than the amounts excreted via feces (0.5-0.7kg nitrogen, 0.3-0.5 kg phosphorus and 0.1-0.2 kg potassium). Thus, separation of urine means that 60-90% of the plant nutrients N, P and K ingested can be retrieved in solution. Feces containing both carbon compounds from food resi-dues, bacteria and nutrients are not suitable for direct field application due to disease-carrying properties. The current sewage treatment allows a potential recirculation of 16% N, 5% K and 90% P present in wastewater to agricultural fields via sewage sludge. The aim to increase the recirculation of N and K present in sewage water to agricultural land has led to

the construction of urine and feces-separating toilet models. These new types of toilets have two outflows using only 0.2-0.8 L of water flushing urine and 2 L of water flushing feces. Urine and feces are transported in different pipes and stored in separate tanks, thereby avoiding dilution and mixing with other household wastewater (bath, dishwasher, laundry, etc.). The vision is to treat fecal effluents anaerobically after collection for biogas production but apply collected human urine without further treatment on agricultural land.

Now, consider that the human body of a normal 60kg adult produces about 1.5 litres of urine per day. Determine how much urine this individual produces on average in one year (365 days). Next, calculate how much phosphorous (P) and nitrogen (N) is excreted daily on average by the same individual. Supposing that the human urinary bladder can normally hold approximately 300 cm3 of urine before the urge to pee becomes conscious, calculate the average amount of phosphorous and nitrogen that is excreted every time this adult has to empty her bladder. What is the average concentration (kg/L) of both phosphorous and nitrogen in the amount of urine she excretes? What is the average con-centration (kg/L) of phosphorous and nitrogen that goes into the storage tank of her NoMix technology toilet? Alterna-tively, if she had a standard home toilet that flushed one gal-lon of water per flush (or 3.8L/f), what would be the average concentration (kg/L) of phosphorous and nitrogen going into the sewer system after she visited the bathroom to empty her full bladder? Estimate how much higher the concentration of phosphorous and nitrogen in a NoMix technology toilet is when compared to a regular toilet. Next, calculate the aver-age amount of water (m3) per month that could be saved if this individual switched from her regular toilet to a NoMix technology every time she urinated. Finally, find out how

Commonly found household items can be used to collect and dilute urine for the production of fertilizer.

Giu

liano

Rei

s/Pe

rson

al A

rchi

ve

Green Teacher 103Page 24

much your local water supplier charges for each cubic meter of water used in your house to determine the economic value of her annual savings in this case.

Based on the calculations that you performed, you should now be able to more clearly visualize and articulate some of the negative impacts of human activities and technologies on waste production and conservation of natural resources, like water. Pop-up question: could you think of potential obsta-cles to recycling urine? What about one possible downside to the use of toilets? Do you feel up to the challenge? If you said “yes,” please check the references listed in the resource section for further information.

Activity #2: Kicking it up a notchIn order for environmental education to be successfully implemented in schools, it has to be perceived as means to bridge students’ prior experiences with new ones that are acquired in the classroom. One way to establish that connec-tion is to ask students to do the same calculations as before, but using their own information duly collected and recorded for five weekdays. For instance, they would need to know how many times a day they go to the bathroom to urinate (which depends on the amount and type of liquids ingested, level of body activity, weight, etc.), how much urine they excrete on average each time they use the bathroom, the indi-cated flush flow of their home toilet (it could vary according to the toilet maker or even within bathrooms in or outside the house, which would require the student to use the same toilet for the duration of the activity and come up with an efficient method to measure the urine volume). In addition, students could add one entire weekend (where one’s routine tends to change) to their database to see how those two extra days affect the numbers. Eventually, the results could be plotted on a graph for the whole class for analysis and discussion.

If you want to make it even more interesting to students, you can propose that they produce their own urine-based fertilizers. There are numerous recipes available online to facilitate the production of liquid fertilizers (see Appendix B). Likewise, ready-to-use kits are available on the market. Overall, the suggested urine-water dilution ratio varies from 1:4 to 1:10, 1:20 and 1:30, depending on the plant you want to grow. Therefore, some adjusting will be required as you watch the development of your plants. Also, do not forget to have a control plant. My choice for tomatoes is based on the fact that you can have students eat them at the end of the experiment. That way, they will know that food grown with urine tastes no different than food grown by other methods.23

Giuliano Reis is an Associate Professor of Science Educa-tion in the Faculty of Education, University of Ottawa. His research interests include science teacher education and environmental education.

ResourcesColes, A., Barwell, R., Cotton, T., Winter, J. & Brown, L. (2013). Teaching mathematics as if the planet matters. New York: RoutledgeDrangert, J. (1998). Fighting the urine blindness to provide more sanitation options. Water SA, 24(2), 157-164.Pahl-Wostl, C., Schönborn, A., Willi, N., Muncke, J., & Larsen, T. (2003). Investigating consumer attitudes towards the new technology of urine separa-tion. Water Science and Technology, 48(1), 57-65.

You can find more information on how to produce urine-based fertilizer on the following websites:Making Homemade Liquid Fertilizer: www.growveg.com/growblogpost.aspx?id=29410 Natural Fertilizers Recipes: www.homegrownfun.com/natural-fertilizers-around-house/Gee Whiz: Human Urine Is Shown to Be an Effective Agricultural Fertilizer: www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=human-urine-is-an-effective-fertilizer&page=2How to Use Pee in Your Garden: www.nwedible.com/2013/03/how-to-use-pee-in-your-garden.htmlUrine: the ultimate ‘organic’ fertilizer?: www.theecologist.org/green_green_living/gardening/605742/urine_the_ulti-mate_organic_fertiliser.htmlAlternatively, one can buy a kit at: www.submersibledesign.com/drinkpee/diy.html

Notes1. Schönning, C. (2001). Urine diversion: hygienic risks and microbial guide-lines for reuse. Retrieved from www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/waste-water/urineguidelines.pdf2. Dourish, P., & Bell, G. (2011). Divining a digital future: mess and mythol-ogy in ubiquitous computing. Boston, MA: MIT Press.; Kelly, K. (2010). What technology wants. New York, NY: Viking.; Turkle, S. (Ed.). (2008). The inner history of devices. Boston, MA: MIT press.; Turkle, S. (2011). Alone together: why we expect more from technology and less from each other. New York, NY: Basic Books.3. Bryson, B. (2010). At home: a short history of private life. Toronto, ON: Anchor.4. Stallybrass, P. & White, A. (2007). The city: the sewer, the gaze, and the contaminating touch. In M. Lock and J. Farquhar (Eds.), Beyond the body proper: readings the anthropology of material life (pp. 266-285). Durham, NC: Duke University Press.5. Birket-Smith, K. (1930). The question of the origin of Eskimo culture: a rejoinder. American Anthropologist, 32(4), 608-624.; Croft, A., & Roberts, B. (1940). Notes on the selection and care of polar footwear. Polar Record, 3(19), 235-267.6. Wijbenga, A., & Hutzinger, O. (1984). Chemicals, man and the environment: a historic perspective of pollution and related topics. Naturwissenschaften, 71(5), 239-246.7. Beler-Baykal, B., Aliar, A., & Bayram, S. (2011). Nitrogen recovery from source-separated human urine using clinoptilolite and preliminary results of its use as fertilizer. Water Science and Technology, 63(4), 811-817.8. Science Daily. (2008). Separating out urine makes for highly efficient waste water treatment. Retrieved from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/11/081127103214.htm.9. Elton, S. (2013). Consumed: food for a finite planet. Toronto, ON: HarperCol-lins.; Estabrook, B. (2011). Tomatoland: how modern industrial agriculture destroyed our most alluring fruit. London, UK: Andrews McMeel.; Gottlieb, R, & Joshi, A. (2010). Food justice. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.; Hallett, S., & Wright, J. (2011). Life without oil: why we must shift to a new energy future. Amherst, NY: Prometheus.; Johnson, L. (2010). City farmer: adventures in urban food growing. Toronto, ON: Greystone.10. Liu, Y., Kwang, J.-H., Kim, J.-H., & Ra, C. (2011). Recovery of nitrogen and phosphorus by struvite crystallization from swine wastewater. Desalination, 277, 364-369.11. Blaney, L., Cinar, S., & SenGupta, A. (2011). Hybrid anion exchanger for trace phosphate removal from water and wastewater. Water Research, 41, 1603-1613.; Etter, B., Tilley, E., Khadka, R., & Udert, K. (2011). Low-cost struvite productin using source-separated urine in Nepal. Water Research, 45, 852-862.; Mihelcic, J., Fry, L., & Shaw, R. (2011). Global potential of phosphorus recov-ery from human urine and feces. Chemosphere, 84(6), 832-839.; O’Neal, J., & Boyer, T. (2013). Phosphate recovery using hybrid anion exchange: applications to source-separated urine and combined wastewater streams. Water Research, 47, 5003-5017.12. Elton, S. (2013). Consumed: food for a finite planet. Toronto, ON: Harper-Collins.; Estabrook, B. (2011). Tomatoland: how modern industrial agriculture destroyed our most alluring fruit. London, UK: Andrews McMeel.; Gottlieb, R, & Joshi, A. (2010). Food justice. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.; Hallett, S., & Wright, J. (2011). Life without oil: why we must shift to a new energy future. Amherst, NY: Prometheus.; Johnson, L. (2010). City farmer: adventures in urban food growing. Toronto, ON: Greystone.

Green Teacher 103 Page 25

13. Sustainable Sanitation and Water Management System. (n/d). Urine diver-sion flush toilet. Retrieved from http://www.sswm.info/category/implementa-tion-tools/wastewater-treatment/hardware/user-interface/flush-toilet.14. Floud, R., Fogel, R., Harkis, B., & Hong, S. (2011). The changing body: health, nutrition, and human development in the Western world since 1700. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.15. Science Daily. (2007). Controlling water pollution by isolating urine. Retrieved from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/03/070308085444.htm.16. Shiskowski, D. (2008). Urine separation (discussion paper). Retrieved from https://www.crd.bc.ca/docs/default-source/seaterra-pdf/related-articles/urine-separation.pdf?sfvrsn=017. Sendrowski, A., & Boyer, T. (2013). Phosphate removal from urine using hybrid anion exchange resin. Desalination, 322, 104-112.18. Cribb, J. (2010). Eating oil. In: The coming famine: the global food crisis and what we can do to avoid it (pp.119-134). Berkeley, CA: University of Cali-fornia Press.19. Drangert J. (1997). The urine equation: reuse of nutrients in urban agri-culture. Proceedings of the Biennial Conference of the South African Water Institute (IWISA), 2B6. Retrieved at www.ewisa.co.za/literature/files/1998%20-%20101.pdf.

20. McDonald, B. (2010). Food security. Cambridge, UK: Polity21. Assaraf, O., Dodick, J. & Tripto, J. (2013). High school students’ under-standing of the human body system. Research in Science Education, 43(1), 33-56.; Branzei, S. (2002). Grossology. New York, NY: Price Stern Sloan.; Gar-cia- Barros, S., Martiinez-Losada, C. & Garrido, M. (2011). What do children aged four to seven know about the digestive system and the respiratory system of the human being and of other animals? International Journal of Science Education, 33, 2095–2122.; Ören, F. (2011). An analysis of pre-service teach-ers’ drawings about the digestive system in terms of their gender, grade levels, and opinions about method and subject. International Journal of Biology Edu-cation, 1(1). Retrieved from http://www.ijobed.com/1_1/vol1issue1art1.pdf.; Weinstein, M., & Broda, M. (2009). Resuscitating the critical in the biological grotesque: blood, guts, biomachismo in science/education and human guinea pig discourse. Cultural Studies of Science Education, 4(4), 761-780.22. Kirchmann, H. & Pettersson, S. (1995). Human urine: chemical composi-tion and fertilizer use efficiency. Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems, 40(2), 149-152.23. Mikkelsen, R. (2005). Tomato flavor and plant nutrition: A brief review. Better Crops, 89(2), 14-15.

APPENDIX ANow, consider that the human body of a normal 60kg adult produces about 1.5L of urine per day.

Determine how much urine this individual produces on average in one year (365 days). 547.5 L/year

Next, calculate how much phosphorous (P) and nitrogen (N) is excreted daily on average by the same individual.N: 9 g/dayP: 2 g/day

Supposing that the human urinary bladder can normally hold approximately 300 cc (cm3) of urine before the urge to void becomes conscious, calculate the average amount of phosphorous and nitrogen that is excreted every time that this adult has to empty her bladder.N: 1.8 g/per toilet visitP: 0.4 g/per toilet visit

What is the average concentration (kg/L) of both phosphorous and nitrogen in the amount of urine excreted by her?N: 6 g/LP: 1.3 g/L

What is the average concentration (kg/L) of phosphorous and nitrogen that goes into the storage tank of her NoMix technol-ogy toilet?N: 2.25 g/LP: 0.5 g/L

Alternatively, if she had a standard home toilet that flushed one gallon of water per flush (or 3.8L/f), what would be the aver-age concentration (kg/L) of phosphorous and nitrogen going into the sewer system after she visited the bathroom to empty her full bladder?N: 0.43 g/LP: 0.097 g/L

Finally, estimate how much higher the concentration of phosphorous and nitrogen in a NoMix technology toilet is when com-pared to a regular toilet.More than 5x for either N or P

Green Teacher 103Page 26

By Shannon Walz

OBSERVATION IS VITAL to forming an understand-ing and connection to the natural world around us. We make observations from the moment we are

born until we take our last breath. It takes time and practice for people to develop the skills necessary to make scientific observations, which is why it is important to start children observing at a young age and continually refine students’ skills throughout their science education experience. When teaching students to make scientific observations, it is impor-tant to know two things: our observations are a product of our personal experience/prior knowledge of the subject, and a poor understanding of science can directly influence our observation skills.

What is scientific observation?It is important to distinguish between everyday observation and scientific observation. Everyday observations are made from practical and intuitive experiences and are made without a strong conceptual framework or knowledge base in which to ground them. For example, a student may see a large log perched on a rock above the river and be able to describe what

the log looks like in the river—how high it is off the water, the color and shape of the log, etc.—but be unable to make observations about the clues as to how it got there. Everyday observations are typically brief, unfocused and lack a sys-tematic approach.

Scientific observation on the other hand, “includes notic-ing, theoretical expectations, observational records and productive dispositions.” Let’s return to the log in the river example. A scientific observation of the log would include measurements of the log and the distance the log is from the water’s surface; observations that help determine how long the log has been sitting on the rock; and even detailed obser-vations about the environment around the log, which would allow the students to construct meaning about why the log is perched on the rock.

Everyday observation is not less valuable than scientific observation; it is better to think of observations on the scale of a continuum. Everyday observations help students form basic frameworks that help them to start to see patterns in the world around them. Everyday observations can spark curiosity in students which motivates them to make scien-tific observations. As teachers, we help students become more aware of the types of observations that they are mak-ing to foster critical thinking about the information they are

The Art of ObservationLearning the methods of scientific observation can make science inquiry

more interesting and meaningful

Green Teacher 103 Page 27

gathering. As students develop scientific observation skills they have better tools to construct knowledge about the natural world.

Observation plays many roles for stu-dents, from constructing an understanding of the world, developing new knowledge, forming accurate explanations, to sup-porting critical thinking. The quality of the students’ observations in part deter-mines the value of an inquiry activity for learning. By assessing the quality of the observations students make, a teacher can tell if the students are grasping the con-cepts being explored, identify holes in the knowledge that the students have, and pos-sible misconceptions guiding the students’ learning.

Observation helps stimulate interest and questions, which can open the doors for teachers to provide student-guided science learning experiences. Students also develop scientific concepts based on observations. As they are better able to use the tools of observation, they are able to begin to see patterns, similarities, and differences, and place these things in context of their prior knowledge. Stu-dents who are capable of making detailed scientific observa-tions are more easily able to see past original expectations and draw accurate conclusions from observable evidence.

Facilitating good observersTeachers have many tools at hand to help guide their students toward making strong scientific observations. Here are a few key points in teaching students to observe scientifically:• Determine what concepts and information the stu-

dents need to have before they begin observing. As students learn background information and concepts about what they are observing, they are able to make more detailed and accurate observations. Background information helps students to make connections between knowledge and their observations for more meaningful conclusions.

• Model how science observations are done in real life. If students are asked to discuss their observations in an authentic way, they will be more likely to see their obser-vations as actual data.

• Guide with questions. Asking appropriate questions will help students focus their observations and synthe-size their learning. “What” questions allow students to focus their attention and filter complex environments. “How” and “Why” questions help students think of cau-sation and relationships.

• Teach students how to recognize similarities and differences and patterns. As students learn that sci-ence observations are not random, they will be able to find properties or conditions that help them establish an understanding of what is being observed. When students are able to identify patterns in their observations they can begin to develop ideas and make generalizations about what they are observing.

• Create observational records. In helping students to create records, researchers have found that it is more meaningful if students create their own system for recording observations, so they engage in problem solv-ing to organize their thoughts. Recording observations helps students avoid generating explanations before col-lecting all the evidence which can lead to inaccurate or incomplete conclusions.

• Make scientific observations personal and relevant. It is no surprise that people are more likely to make high quality scientific observations about things that they care about. Engaging the students in their passions and the process of learning will help them transfer the skills to other situations.

• Provide multiple opportunities. Each time they have the chance to use observational skills they can increase the level of detail in which they observe. When choosing what the students will observe, a teacher should be sure to provide as much material as possible so that the students can get a complete picture of what they are observing. For example, if students were studying dragonflies, they would learn a lot more if they could experience the whole lifecycle of a dragonfly rather than just at the adult stage.

• Provide adequate time. If students are not given enough time to observe in detail, they will not be able to adequately formulate ideas about the intended con-cepts. Younger elementary age students may need up to ten minutes or more to make quality scientific observa-tions; older students need even more time than that. This extended time period allows for students to get past ini-tial superficial observations and begin noticing the finer details. Students should be given time for free observa-tion, so they can engage personally with the subject. After this, teachers can provide more structured observa-tion time with questions and tasks to push the students to observe more thoroughly.

Green Teacher 103Page 28

• Facilitate discussions. Peer discussion encourages stu-dents to organize their thoughts and observations. As they share their observations, they are able to discover the inconsistencies and gain affirmations in their obser-vations and thoughts. Students can then go back and do more observations to answer new questions, and also col-laborate to find more logical answers. Also, by discuss-ing their observations, students participate in a process that is used to make advancements in human knowledge by learning communities worldwide. As a facilitator of the discussions, it is important to provide structure for students to help them focus and develop concepts.

Activities for teaching observation skills

Sit Spot (Adapted from Coyote’s Guide to Connecting with Nature)

Have the students choose a spot (preferably outside) that can become their special spot to sit still, be alone, and observe their surroundings. Have your students spend time in their spot as often as possible. Ask them to observe everything in their spot and everything they see happen in their spot. Vary the length of time they spend in their spots. Over time, be flexible with what they do in their spot; from giving them complete freedom to focus their own observations or asking them to record specific things in their sit spot. Journaling or drawing are great techniques for focusing students’ observa-tions and providing field guides or other resources can allow students to get greater depth of information on their own.

This activity is very powerful in developing observation skills because students spend an extended time becoming intimately familiar with a single spot. I have found that it fosters a productive disposition for the spot. You will find as the students spend more and more time in their spots they will be begging you for opportunities to spend time in their sit spot. Finally, you are able to introduce specific aspects of observation such as journaling or looking for patterns to create good scientific observation habits that are reinforced over time.

Un-nature Trail (Adapted from Sharing Nature with Children)

Place 16-24 synthetic objects along a short section of trail that you are familiar with. Depending on what aspects of observation you wish to emphasize you can create patterns for the students to observe. Have the students walk over the section of the trail and silently count how many objects they can find without touching or removing the objects from their place. When the students reach the end of the un-nature trail, find out how many objects each person saw, what things drew their attention, if they noticed any patterns. After dis-cussing, have the students share how they could improve their observational success as they walk the un-nature trail again. Tell the students how many different objects are on the trail and send them back down the trail, challenging them to find all of the objects. When they have finished, find out how the students adapted and were more successful at making observations the second time down the trail.

In my experience, the un-nature trail is a great way to introduce looking for patterns, allows multiple opportuni-ties for observation, and challenges students to broaden their field of observation. Discussing observational strategies and tools allows the students to refine their observational skills and learn from others. Finally the game-like aspect of the activity provides a positive reward for improving their observation skills.

Strong scientific observation skills are the cornerstone for good inquiry. Observation encourages curiosity, helps students develop the skills to create explanations for the world around them, and increases understanding of science. By taking the time to teach strong scientific observation skills, teachers can help increase students’ understanding of scientific concepts and make science inquiry more interest-ing and meaningful.

Shannon Walz is the Education Director at the Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center in Finland, Minnesota.

ResourcesAmerican Association for the Advancement of Science. (2009). Benchmarks for Science Literacy. Oxford University Press. Anderson, K., Martin, D., Faszewski, E., (2006) “Unlocking the Power of Observation” NSTA WebNews Digest. Cornell, J. (1998). Sharing Nature With Children. Nevada City, CA: Dawn Pub-licationsEberbach, C., & Crowley, K., (2009). From Everyday to Scientific Observation: How Children Learn to Observe the Biologist’s World. Review of Educational Research. 79, No. 1. 39-68.Harlen, W. (2001). Primary Science: Taking the Plunge. Portsmouth, NH: HeinemannYoung, J., Haas, E., McGown, E. (2010). Coyote’s Guide to Connecting with Nature. Shelton, WA: Owlink Media Corporation.

 From Award-Winning Author & Educator

— Michael J. Caduto —

Stories of Wit, Wisdom & Wile  

In two premier storytelling CD’s, Michael Caduto—co-author of the best-selling Keepers of the Earth® series—performs captivating stories from around the world. Humorous, inspiring tales transport listeners to realms alive with animated voices, sound effects and musical atmospherics. Includes tales awarded the Aesop Prize, Storytelling World & Skipping Stones Honor awards.  

❁ The Rainbow Garden — Tales o f Wisdom (ages 5 to 10)  

❁ The Wisdom o f Nature & other Earth Tales (ages 11 to adult)

“Stor ies that t ranscend with ges tures , sounds and ambiance o f space .” — Teacher, Stratham, New Hampshire

“Michae l Caduto i s a rea l g i f t .” — Conference Participant, Leslie M. Frost Natural Resources Centre, Dorset, Ontario

 

Order CD’s: www.p-e-a-c-e.net Available as a digital download.  

Green Teacher 103 Page 29

By Edith Pucci Couchman

WOULD YOU LIKE A very dynamic, hands-on visual arts project ̶ one that you can use to com-plement a verbally-saturated lesson about inter-

connection and cooperation within ecosystems? Would you like to provide young people with an enjoyable activity that makes them more aware of the importance of the work of their focused minds and careful hands, as well as the beauty that can happen when people act in harmony with the prin-ciples of nature? If so, read on.

You’ll be showing your youngsters how to make a spiral-ing bracelet from strands of various coloured yarns ̶ a dou-ble reverse twist bracelet. Essentially, you’re teaching them the ancient art of rope making. The bracelets are beautiful, fun to make, and help reinforce the concept of coevolution: when two or more beings reciprocally affect one another’s evolution. This project can also be structured to suggest phenomena ranging from food chains to symbioses simply by changing the meanings attributed to the varied colors of yarn and/or the numbers of strands being employed.

Here is a scenario detailing how this activity can enhance a unit of study. Let’s imagine that your group is studying highbush blueberry plants and bumblebees. Under the best of

circumstances, the class might have just assembled in your school garden or hiked over to a beaver pond. The youngsters have been marveling at the sight and sound of the bees loop-ing about the blossoming shrubs. You’ve explained that much of what they’re observing is the result of the interactions of various elements and entities happening across vast arcs of time. The woody blueberry plant has evolved to depend upon the electromagnetic energy of the sun. The plant has developed general patterns of activity and dormancy that correspond to the annual ebb and flow of solar energy in your region. At this point, the plant has just unfolded its leaves (little solar panels) and is preparing to make tiny seeds (encased in tasty blueberries). The seeds will allow the blue-berry plant to send its genetic heritage, its DNA, out into new places and new times. The rather small, bell-shaped, greenish white flowers are the site of seed production, and are admirably suited to the needs, outer form, and percep-tive capacities of bumblebees. The bumblebees will see the flowers, smell the nectar, and literally shake the pollen from the blueberry flowers’ stamens in a process called buzz polli-nation, or ‘sonication.’ The blueberry plant provides the bees with high calorie food in the form of this pollen and nectar. In exchange, the bumblebees supply the plants with trans-portation services for some portion of the pollen that catches on their fuzzy torsos. The bumblebees not only ferry some

Art, Science, and Fun IntertwinedMaking colourful yarn bracelets can help illustrate important ecosystem concepts such as

coevolution, diversity, and energy transfer for all ages

Green Teacher 103Page 30

of the pollen from one blueberry plant to another but they carry more to their homes and families. In this way, they too improve their chances for genetic survival across time.

Given that this is the situation we’re seeing and under-standing, how could we dramatize this interweaving of lives and energy with a little yarn? Here’s one possible method. Explain to the students that they will be creating a brace-let to represent the beauty and harmony that results from coevolution ̶ a bracelet that celebrates the ancient partner-ship which has led to the accumulation of all these physical and behavioral adaptations among the bumblebees and blue-berries. They will need to select three strands ̶ one to repre-sent each of the three main actors in this saga.

Now present to your group a gorgeous array of precut yarn in various tones and tints. I would strongly recommend using nine colors or more so that there are genuine oppor-tunities for personal expression and choice. Explain that the red and orange hues represent the rising sun; the green, blue, and purple tones can symbolize the blueberry plants, and the yellow, gold or black shades will help recall the bumblebees. Each strand should be twenty-four to twenty-six inches long. I typically use Red Heart Super Saver acrylic worsted yarn, which is relatively inexpensive and readily available at arts and crafts stores. However, if your budget permits, natural fibers like wool would be excellent too.

Encourage the youngsters to take their time deciding which three hues to combine. They should have fun thinking about which ones they would like to see together. Which would go well with the colors of the clothes that they’re wearing today? Which would echo the colors of this particular season out-doors? I deliberately introduce my students to the term “aes-thetic judgment,” and acknowledge that this is an opportu-nity for them to develop and express their own unique sense of what is beautiful and their particular taste in color.

Once the strands have been selected, the youngsters find

a partner. Each child will be taking turns helping his or her teammate as they construct their bracelets one at a time. To teach this project, I have two volunteers actually demonstrate the entire process while I guide them through the steps, add-ing commentary and play-by-play descriptions as needed.

The ProcessThe work starts with the youngsters facing each other. Each child is holding the opposite ends of the three strands of yarn. The three strings, which are held next to each other, extend horizontally between the two partners. Next, they should both begin twisting the yarn, using the muscles in their fingertips, hands and arms. From the point of view of the two children facing each other, each child can say to him or herself, “I’m twisting this to the left.” In a few moments, the appearance of the three parallel strings begins to change as the fibers store up potential energy as a result of the students’ work – work being defined as the ability to move matter and create change in the world. The chemical energy that has been stored in the children’s muscles from the food that they’ve eaten is now being transformed into kinetic energy which is, at this point, being transferred and stored as potential energy in the spiral-ing, spring-like form of the twisting yarn. In some settings, I might ask the students about the source of the energy in their food and this, in turn, could lead to a conversation tracing the energy’s path back along the trophic chain to the plants in the field and from there to the sun.

The students soon see how their actions are creating a changing pattern in the three colorful strands. They see the color patterns transforming from gentle spirals (like those of a candy cane) into tighter and tighter coils until, eventu-ally, the original three lines of color look like tiny beads on a necklace or individual dots in a repeated, three part array. If the children step forward slightly or move their hands nearer to each other, they should see that the yarn can actu-

Green Teacher 103 Page 31

ally move on its own because they’ve transferred so much of their energy into its fibers. They can observe how the strands try to unwind and end up winding around each other to an even greater degree whenever the twisted strands are held with less tension; as can happen when the ends are brought into closer proximity. Once the tiny bead stage has been reached, students sometimes comment that it is harder for them to turn their strands. I compliment them for notic-ing such subtle differences because this sort of thoughtful attunement to the materials can lead to further theorizing and insights.

The tiny bead stage leads to the most dramatic phase of the bracelet project. One of the two students grasps the mid-point of the twisted strands while both partners bring their two yarn-holding hands together. Paying close attention, they transfer one set of yarn ends from one student’s hand to the other’s in such a way that all of the ends of the twisted yarn are held firmly in just one person’s grip. Meanwhile, the first student continues holding the former midpoint of the coiled strands – stretching this out neatly as far as pos-sible from the ends. This transfer process is rather tricky and students should not be too surprised or disappointed if the strands slip free and unravel wildly; a nice demonstration of entropy. If this happens, they just have to restart.

In any case, when one student holds all the ends tightly in one hand and the other student is still hanging on to the former midpoint (which has now become the end of a shorter, wider, six-strand length), it’s time for the amaz-ing part: self-assembly and emergence. Urge everyone to observe carefully. At a signal, with a bit of fanfare and an audible countdown, the child holding the midpoint releases it – thereby allowing the yarn to do its surprisingly swift dance. Potential energy is transformed into kinetic energy. Faster than we can see, the yarn spins around itself and sud-denly a beautiful, interlocking double helix is revealed, a lit-

tle like the precious DNA in eukary-otic cells. Meanwhile, the student holding the yarn ends smooths the entire structure by moving his or her free hand down towards the former midpoint of the strands.

It’s worthwhile now to give folks a chance to admire the spiraling, harmonious patterns of the result-ing small rope. It is a charming and versatile structure with new possi-bilities and properties. Significantly, it has suddenly emerged from what was previously a jumble of fibers. Thus, this little bracelet provides us with an introductory illustration of the important phenomenon of emergence, a key concept in phys-ics, astrophysics, chemistry, and biology. (Emergence has sometimes been defined as the appearance of complex new phenomena arising out of simpler components and interac-tions, as in the case of the formation of a star and planetary system from interstellar dust clouds.)

At this point, to further stabilize the bracelet, the student should take all six of the ends (treating them as if they were one), form a loop with them, push the ends on through, and then pull the ends gently – in other words, he or she should tie a loose, overhand knot. Ask the individual student who is wearing the bracelet to extend their wrist so that the place-ment of the knot can be adjusted. The distance from the end of the rope to the knot should be a little more than the circumference of the youngster’s wrist, so that the resultant bracelet fits comfortably. Once this is determined, the knot should be tightened accordingly. Trim the free ends beyond the knot to create an attractive fan of six even strands. Some children like a long, graceful set of ends; others pre-fer a shorter burst of colour. To begin wearing the bracelet, untwist the end of the rope (i.e. the former middle of the strands opposite the newly trimmed tied ends) and push the knot through this little loop. The bracelet will automatically rewind around the knot but it will still be quite simple for the child to remove their bracelet just by pushing the knot back out of the loop.

How will you know whether or not the project was suc-cessful? The youngsters’ delight in what they’ve created, their smiles and enthusiasm for their new skills and accom-plishments: these should be the signals. Be prepared for requests to make additional bracelets, to try the process with greater numbers of strands, to make longer ropes or belts using different materials. I sometimes mention that a knowl-edge of rope-making is a traditional survival skill and is an example of very adaptive, culturally-transmitted behavioral set. This can also be a good time to point out that ancestors could create cordage from a variety of plants such as bass-wood, white elm or dogbane hemp in our region. I ask the students whether they’d like to learn to recognize some of these plants and offer to include this kind of information in a subsequent field trip.

Green Teacher 103Page 32

Besides illustrating pollination or energy concepts, this project can serve as a tactile, visually-rewarding project to bolster student understanding of other topics that are equally foundational for ecoliteracy. With some thought to symbol-ism, you can use bracelet-making as a culminating activity to emphasize all sorts of mutualistic associations, such as those between certain forest trees and mycorrhizal fungi, or fish and particular corals and algae, or bacteria, ruminants and humans, or plants and animal seed dispersers, etc. This project can also be used as a lens for focusing children’s attention on their future (or perhaps even present) roles as artists, teammates, and community members—active par-ticipants in creation, crafting by their actions, inactions and choices, the reality in which they live.

On a more practical note, once the bracelets are finished, I have the children lift up their work so that everyone can see, enjoy and value the very real diversity of their produc-tions. Diversity is a vital characteristic of resilient ecosys-tems as described by authorities ranging from Fritjof Capra to E. O. Wilson. I purposely praise the youngsters’ accom-plishments, citing their persistence, concentration, dexterity, and teamwork (evidence of both executive skills, physical coordination, and growing emotional intelligence). I mention that because of their imagination, hard work, patience, and cooperation, they now have something to show and share for the time that they’ve spent. Hopefully, through this process of cooperative bracelet making, the youngsters have learned a few things about the way the world works, and they’ve brought something unique, worthwhile, and rather beautiful

into the world as well. And when all is said and done, isn’t this the result that we all hope to achieve in any good lesson, or for that matter, in any good life?

Edith Pucci Couchman is an art and environmental science teacher in southern New Hampshire. She is currently the art teacher for Nashua, NH’s two catholic elementary schools, Infant Jesus School and St. Christopher School, and a sum-mer teacher for Beaver Brook Association in Hollis, NH. This activity was adapted from Ann Sayre Wiseman’s wonderful classic, Making Things: The Handbook of Cre-ative Discovery, a book that has been inspiring art teachers for over four decades.

ResourcesCenter for Ecoliteracy. (2014). Ecological Principles. Retrieved May 1, 2014, from www.ecoliteracy.org/essays/ecologicalprinciplesRussell, Howard S. (1980) Indian New England Before the Mayflower. Hanover, NH and London: University Press of New England. ISBN-10: 0874512557, SBN-13: 978-0874512557Sidman, Joyce. (2011) Swirl by Swirl, Spirals in Nature. Boston, New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN-13: 978-0547315836Wilson, E. O. (1998) Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge. New York: Knopf. ISBN 0-679-45077-7Wilson, E. O. (2006) The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. ISBN- 978-0-393-06217-5Wiseman, Ann Sayre. (2005) The Best of Making Things, The Handbook of Creative Discovery. Oregon: Handprint Press. ISBN-10: 0967984610, ISBN-13:978-0967984612Wiseman, Ann Sayre. (1973) Making Things, The Handbook of Creative Dis-covery. Boston, Toronto: Little Brown and Co. ISBN-10:0316948470, ISBN-13 0316948470

Green Teacher 103 Page 33

By Cindi Smith-Walters and Christa Campbell

FOUR YEARS AGO, we took a group of students out-side the classroom and presented them with a project: to study a single square foot of garden space. What

can one small outdoor space teach a group of elementary students? Through exploring and journaling about their space, our students became fascinated with their local envi-ronment. They learned that plants and animals are in con-stant interaction with each other, cooperating and competing to survive. They came to the realization that a very intricate balance exists between living and non-living organisms. Our students began to think of themselves as scientists, and as teachers we realized teaching outside a traditional classroom can have enormous benefits for elementary students.

What began our own investigation into outdoor education

was a formerly unused space between two wings of a fairly old school building. The space met educational objec-tives and allowed us to reinforce curriculum standards for reading, language arts, mathematics, and science, while simultaneously, teaching life skills such as data collection, cooperative group work, and collaboration. We have also tackled science topics like ecosystems, species interactions, energy, and dynamics. It is truly amazing what you can learn in your own backyard. Below, we will discuss ideas and improvements we have applied to our own outdoor space, explanations of how particular features compliment and extend the curriculum, simple suggestions for managing learning in a novel environment as well as suggested student assessment strategies. We hope that by sharing our experi-ences of our initial foray into using the schoolyard to teach, we will inspire you to embrace the outdoor classroom with your own students.

Outside the Classroom, Adventure Awaits

How the study of trees, life cycles, and relationships within ecosystems can encourage environmental awareness and action

Green Teacher 103Page 34

Outdoor space opportunitiesOutdoor classroom experiences promote deep student learn-ing, which translates into greater learner interest, under-standing, and involvement. This may explain why the use of the schoolyard as an expanded classroom is becoming more and more common in formal education. Even if your school does not have an established garden, almost any outdoor area — from flowerbeds or trees to a small patch of grass — contains a wealth of living things that interact with one another for sustainability and success.

What are the benefits of trees to outdoor habitats? As a result of student interest and motivation, we began by study-ing the trees in our schoolyard. An Eastern Dogwood bloom-ing in early Spring, donated by the school in memory of a parent, provided an excellent visual for teaching students about growth and change. In a very real way, our children became aware of growth, response, and reproduction. We continued to observe this organism throughout the school year. Planting trees with students would also be an effective way to teach them about life and growth, while greening your schoolyard.

Installing bluebird nest boxes is another great learning

opportunity. Eastern bluebirds have a docile demeanor, which makes them an excellent species to monitor in the spring. If the weather is mild, they will often raise more than one brood. We encouraged students to monitor, collect data, and journal about the bluebirds they observed. Through discussion it was decided that we would track appearance of male and female birds as well as associated activities. These included nest building, egg laying, and monitoring of hatchlings as they grew and eventually left the nest. It was a marvelous real world example of animal adaptations and envi-ronmental niches. Since beginning this project, many students have chosen to install boxes of their own at home, thus mov-ing from awareness, to knowledge, to personal action. This kind of response is our ultimate goal as educators.

Outdoor classroom managementWhether inside or outside, all educators should be willing to ask questions and learn with their students. Familiarity with the outdoors comes from being immersed in it! Traditional teacher preparation covers classroom management and ‘indoor’ lessons but few teachers have received training on how to use the outdoors for teaching. Taking students into the schoolyard requires many of the same rules and interac-tions, however some modification is essential. Children must understand the ground rules of outdoor space learning, and teachers must be sure to implement them to ensure a safe and productive learning environment. Figure 2 lists our top 6 tips for schoolyard excursions.

Modeling and maintaining clear expectations is key. Train students to walk calmly, observe and journal respect-fully, and share with other members of their learning group using a soft voice. A resource on this topic that should be on every teacher’s bookshelf is Herb Broda’s Schoolyard-Enhanced Learning: Using the Outdoors as an Instructional Tool, K-8. In this text, Broda suggests outdoor learning should begin with short schoolyard tasks, possessing specific goals. As students learn to employ proper investigative behaviors, sessions can be expanded and extended. One implementation example is scheduling an “Outdoor Friday” every week, granting classes demonstrating proper behaviour during the week the oppor-tunity to learn outside. This two-fold approach encourages the behaviour you expect from your students, while outdoor excursions reinforce learning concepts.

Figure 1: Outdoor Classroom Features

Compost Area Indigenous space ‘Cedar Glade Ecosystem’

Frog pond with aquatic plants Raised beds (herbs and vegetables)

Chicken pen with coop, chickens, and chicks Art area with sunflowers

Butterfly garden Bluebird houses, one equipped with a camera

Blueberry bushes Strawberry patch

Evergreen and deciduous tree species Small greenhouse

Rain barrels Watershed and stormwater runoff area for erosion studies

Tips to Manage Outdoor Behavior

Get rid of “recess” mentality; (we learn outdoors as well as indoors)

Combat ‘nature blindness’ (encouraging observation, inference, and questioning )

Model journaling expectations & accurate record keeping (journals are not necessarily neat, but they are accurate!)

Require teamwork; pairs, trios, quads (an outdoor study buddy is a must)

Give each child a specific job; carrying tools, keeping records, etc. (busy hands help keep students on task)

(you bring something out, you also bring it back in)

Have a unique pre-arranged signal for getting attention (we use a duck call!)

Figure 2: Tips to Manage Outdoor Behaviour

Green Teacher 103 Page 35

Life cyclesCycles occur all the time in both nature and in life. A focus on cycles, including ecosystem interactions and the move-ment of energy within these ecosystems, is an important part of learning about our world. There is no better way for students to understand these concepts than to go outside and immerse themselves in nature. Classes will discover organ-isms and observe changes that occur as living things transi-tion through their lives, witnessing birth, death, and repro-duction firsthand. Our students observed the chickens in the outdoor classroom over the course of the school year. The growth and development from egg to adult was recorded in journals, on video, and in pictures. Changes and behavior of the parent chickens and their offspring was noted and students made comparisons in size, coloration, body propor-tion, and feeding behavior. This activity naturally led to dis-cussions regarding inheritance and genetics, as well as birth and aging. Additionally, eggs that didn’t hatch in the allotted time were used. Through careful dissection students were able to see the developmental stages of chicks inside the eggshell, and we hypothesized possible reasons for the eggs not to mature and lead to the hatching of a live chick. Text-books describe these changes but active investigation and learning led to even greater engagement and retention.

Most countries have curriculum standards that direct education. Teachers implement these standards through their teaching, but the questions and concerns children have also guide and personalize the learning that occurs. Les-sons on cycles in nature, as well as the interactions, energy, and dynamics within ecosystems can easily be reinforced in outdoor classroom settings. Students can implement sci-ence and engineering practices when they develop and employ models, as well as plan and carry out investigations. This also allows students to take ownership of their learn-ing. Our classes have identified and solved problems in the

Figure 3: Examples of Cycles for Study

Types of Cycles Description Examples from the outdoor site

Life Cycles Flowering and fruiting; animals having and raising young;

First daffodil; emergence of seedlings from planted seeds; development of fruits on garden plants or trees; bluebirds nesting; spawning fish in the pond; chickens and heredity

Seasonal Cycles Leaf drop in fall; bud burst in spring; denning and emergence of hibernating animals

Toads hibernating; squirrels building leaf nests in tree forks; harvest moon appearance; moon phases; sundial studies;

Migration Cycles Migration of birds and some mammals

First robin; first frogs calling; geese flying north or south (depending upon season)

Cyclic Organism Activity

Appearance or disappearance of organisms; bees in the hive

Fireflies, mosquitoes; butterflies, and other insects; level of bee activity in observation classroom hive

Cycles of Decay & Decomposition

Changes in compost piles and environment

Shelf fungus growing on wood; rotting log or timber; sticks crumbling, leaf matter decomposing; weathering

Reoccurring Phenological Events/Cycles

Track nature happenings Establishing a ‘nature calendar’ for the site; recording events throughout the year; making comparisons and analyzing trends; study of schoolyard data from year to year; notation of seasonal comparisons; documentation of varying temperature, moisture, sunlight; abiotic affects on living things

Green Teacher 103Page 36

Figure 4: Skills and Sample Activities in the Outdoor Classroom

garden as they arose during the year. Because our chickens were free range during the school day we quickly found that they would eat the berries and tomatoes growing in the gar-den. The problem was solved when the children explored different designs to protect the fruits without endanger-ing the chickens. The students developed a blueprint for a PVC frame with plastic netting to cover the strawberries, and researched materials, costs, and building models. As a result a prototype cover for our strawberries was developed. The children built the frame themselves to protect the straw-berries and decided wrap the tomatoes in a wire cage for their protection. These steps model real world entrepreneur-ship, where success of a chosen solution is monitored and modifications are made if necessary.

Ecosystem relationshipsInterdependent relationships in ecosystems are a part of the real world in an outdoor classroom. Relationships between plants, animals, and other living things are observed even in a small space outside a school. By taking an on-site field trip a minimum of three times a year, students will see changes and assess differences for the living things they observe. Having the class research and list possible solutions for negative observations is one simple way to make learning personal and relevant, while simultaneously empowering students.

Cause and effect as well as structure and function are easily covered by curriculum and activities that take place in or are reinforced by the outdoors. Every living species gives you and your students a plethora of opportunities to examine and explore interactions and changes in an environment. A favourite activity that has grown from our use of the out-door space is students’ adoption of a chosen organism from the site. Each child selects an organism, researches it, and

Science & Engineering Practices

Planning & Carrying Out Investigations

Problem: strawberry and tomato plants are getting eaten by our chickens Students met in groups, brainstormed, researched and developed a plan to solve the problem

Developing & Using Models Solution: Students created a variety of coverings for each plant / bed to keep chickens away then documented results.

Identifying Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems

Classroom and Outdoor work: Bees from the classroom hive pollinate flowers then provide honey for the hive with excess for people. Interdependent Relationships: Bees, Flowers, People

Developing Possible Solutions

Outdoor Classroom work: Students monitored, journaled, and researched plants bees prefer. They then planted many types of clover and other flowering plants to encourage continued bee activity and to make plants more productive (more blooms & fruits, etc.)

Recognizing Cause & Effect Problem: Garden plants (pumpkin etc.) were dying off in our garden. Research: Student research revealed a plant parasite (squash bugs) were feeding on the plants, thus weakening and eventually killing them.

Structure & Function The class researched, viewed, studied bees and hive behavior to distinguish specific jobs and how bee bodies are adapted to fulfill their role in the hive. Example: the queen is larger and her role is to simply continue the colony by laying eggs. Other bees attend to the eggs and growing larvae. Still others gather nectar and pollen, making honey for the hive.

shares their information with their classmates. This includes a picture or sketch, a description, their habitat needs, their home range and more. This activity gives students a real, tangible connection to another living thing, simultaneously empowering them as they become experts. Additionally, it provides students with a meaningful connection as we iden-tify selected vocabulary. Throughout this process, guided questions are asked by teachers and learning is documented. By the end of the study we have both evidence of learning and a schoolyard field guide.

Activities in Figure 4 are examples that connect the out-door learning space with teaching and learning goals. To implement these activities, students used skills such as jour-naling, writing, record-keeping, observing and displaying data, sketching, communicating, group work, the ability to reason abstractly and quantitatively, and measuring to cre-ate a guidebook with specific information. Additional skills such as researching, generating hypotheses and develop-ing models were advanced and refined, as students became experts.

Formal and informal assessmentAs students learn and explore content, good educators use many types of assessment to gain a cohesive picture of indi-vidual student progress. We suggest using informal assess-ment techniques such as pair-and-share, teacher observation and/or checklists, and “two things you learned, one question you have.” Growing content awareness by students calls for more appropriate formal assessments, which may include formal tests, long-term projects, and any type of cumulative assignment that has depth of content and demonstrates stu-dent growth and retention. Most approaches to assessment within the classroom can also be applied and modified to work in an outdoor environment.

Green Teacher 103 Page 37

Science Notebook Rubric for Reflections and Summaries Name: Period Date:

3/+ Totally Awesome! • The writing goes beyond what you were asked to do and shows what you learned in detail. • You copied the focus question & your writing shows that you really thought about the focus question. • The page has a title, number, date, and is recorded in the Table of Contents. • There are drawings and labels that enhance your writing. • Your work is so neat it is totally AWESOME

2/ Pretty Good • The writing shows that you have a basic understanding of the learning. • You copied the focus question & gave an answer but did not give enough detail to show your learning. • Something is missing - title, page number, date, not recorded in Table of Contents. • There is a drawing but it is not clear and may not be completely labeled.

1/- Kick It Up a Notch! • Your writing shows that you have some confusion or misunderstanding of the learning. • There is no focus question or your answer does not address the focus question. • The page is unfinished. The title, page number, date, are missing and not recorded in Table of Contents. • You did not draw or diagram or label to show what you observed or learned.

Figure 5: Journal Rubric

Scientists use journals to record data, write conclusions, discuss scientific findings, and more. This is one method discussed earlier in the article that we use heavily with our students. As students come to understand the purpose of scientific journals, we develop success criteria as a class for what encompasses a strong journal entry, based on a stan-dard journal rubric (Figure 5). Clear, well-defined expecta-tions for journal recordings should be laid out, discussed and modeled. With hands-on practice and self-imposed cri-teria, students will improve their writing skills significantly. Informal entry-sharing also allows them to learn from one another and reinforce concepts.

Education in the outdoor classroom actively engages children in real-life learn-ing while empowering them and allowing them to take ownership of their learning. Through the use of an outdoor classroom, your students will be able to regularly observe changes in nature: growth, death and the interactions between organisms. Children love to care for life. You will be surprised by how much they enjoy weeding the garden, and turning the compost. By engaging with the outdoors, they will develop a deeper appreciation for the remarkable world we all belong to.

Cindi Smith-Walters is a professor of biology at Middle Tennessee State University and co-directs the MTSU Cen-ter for Environmental Studies.

Christa Campbell is a 4th/5th Math and Science Labora-tory Instructor at the McFadden School of Excellence in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

ResourcesBroda, Herbert W., 2007. Schoolyard-Enhanced Learning: Using the Outdoors as an Instructional Tool, k-8. Steinhouse PublishersLouv, Richard, 2008. Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder. Algonquin Books.OBIS, Outdoor Biology Instructional Strategies: www.outdoorbiology.comProject Learning Tree: www.plt.orgProject WILD: www.projectwild.org

Green Teacher 103Page 38

By Enid Elliot

THE NATURE KINDERGARTEN BEGAN as a dream of two educators. A local school principal was inspired by her son’s experience in a Waldkindergar-

ten in Germany, and became interested in creating a similar experience for young children in the Sooke School District on Vancouver Island in British Columbia. Northern European countries have been offering outdoor early childhood pro-grams for over thirty years based on the belief that children benefit from being outside in whatever the weather in the nat-ural world around them. As a researcher in the field of early childhood education, I was similarly interested in developing a program where children could learn and grow outdoors.

With a shared vision, we met and began to plan this nature kindergarten. As this was a new idea to British Columbia schools, we first invited others who could enrich our vision and asked if they would serve on an advisory

committee. First, we gained the support of the superinten-dent and school trustees. Then we asked representatives of local universities and a community college to join the com-mittee. Eventually, local parks and recreation planners, nat-uralists, a wilderness first aid instructor and museum staff became involved. As members of the advisory committee shared their perspectives and expertise, our vision became more firmly local.

After much planning, the school district committed to developing a nature kindergarten as a pilot program. The goal was to explore the possibilities of children spending every morning outside in a natural setting, and coming back to school for the afternoon for play-based learning indoors. The pilot would meet the needs of the prescribed learning outcomes for British Columbia. Sangster Elementary School was chosen as the location because of its easy access to old-growth forests, as well as the Esquimalt Lagoon – home to herons, swans and ducks, and a beach across the street, fac-ing the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

Envisioning a Nature KindergartenThe story of the first nature kindergarten in a public school in British Columbia

Green Teacher 103 Page 39

We hoped that as the children explored their local, natu-ral environment, they would develop confidence about being outside, and come to know their home in a rich and satisfying way. By learning together, we believed that they would develop into a community with strong investigation and collaboration skills. In the outdoors, large and noisy movements are accepted. As Early Childhood Education professor Mary Rivkin says, “not only is there typically more space out-of-doors, there is less in that space to bump into, break, or lose parts of. One’s body is no longer under need of tight control – its capabilities to shout, sing, leap, roll, stretch and fling are unleashed.” The focus on physi-cal activity all morning would facilitate children’s balance, stamina and strength. Children would grow confidence in their abilities to name plants, climb trees, or walk the last part of the trail in wet boots, and be able to bring this confi-dence into other areas of their life.

To successfully take 22 children into the forest, we needed both a teacher and an early childhood educator to work closely together to ensure everyone’s safety, as well as their learning. Bringing an early childhood perspec-tive together with a teacher’s perspective would provide an interesting intersection of ideas and understandings. Early childhood education has traditionally promoted a play-based, emergent design to programming for young children, whereas teachers have responsibility for learning outcomes and readying learners for the next grade. In turn, an inquiry-based approach focusing on children’s curiosity and inter-ests may be unfamiliar to classroom teachers.

Our plan for the nature kindergarten was to focus on children’s interests, questions and theories in order to cre-ate a community that learns and wonders together. The adults would observe the children’s explorations, listen to their concerns, and build on their interests. Using observa-tions and noting children’s questions and ideas the educa-tors would reflect on the children’s many points of interest. By joining the children in their quests and investigations, adults can enrich and support the children’s theorizing and bring new questions to their attention. As they join the chil-dren they can share skills that might deepen or broaden their learning. Counting the trees in a clearing, looking up the names of birds in a guide, leaving a message scratched in

the dirt are all meaningful ways that numeracy and literacy can fit into the day. The children gain many thinking/learn-ing skills as they problem solve how to pass each other on a log, learn to observe the baby woodpeckers being fed by their mother, and discuss the ethics of wading in a stream that is home to shrimp, fish and other small animals.

Famed scientist and environmentalist Rachel Carson once said; “A child’s world is fresh and new and beautiful, full of wonder and excitement.” She goes on, “if a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder without any such gift from the fairies, [she or he] needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement and mystery of the world we live in.” Carson carefully chooses the word companionship, because it is not the teaching that an adult does but the companionship of an adult that is of true importance.

The First YearThe Sooke District nature kindergarten started in September 2013 with a teacher, an early childhood educator and a full kindergarten class of 22. Neither the teacher nor the educator had taught a full year of kindergarten before. Nor had they been outside with a class every morning in all weather condi-tions. The learning curve for everyone was equally steep.

Together the educators and children practiced measures to establish a community of safety. Caring for self and oth-ers would help create safety for everyone. Children learned signals for gathering, signals for danger and practiced simple first aid. In this, the children learned both to care for one another and that their safety depended on others. Away from the classroom, they were aware that there were pos-sible dangers. Encouraging a spirit of collaboration and a sense of responsibility for the group made their time in the forest safer. It also encouraged a community of learners who would share ideas, thoughts and skills. Focusing at the outset on the safety of the group helped begin the process of creat-ing a community that would grow stronger over the year.

Once the children understood the basic guidelines for coming together and staying together, the educators could focus on furthering the children’s collaborative thinking and learning. In a forest setting, children’s outdoor learning and experiences were broad and rich. They were also experienc-

Green Teacher 103Page 40

An Interview with a Tree By Erin Van Stone

Equipped with a clipboard, pencil, and some brainstormed questions, children were given the challenge to interview a tree.Some questions they asked were: • How old are you?• How tall are you?• What type of tree are you?• What types of animals live in you?• What kinds of bugs like you?

Zoey immediately went to the cedar tree beside our circle. She asked the tree a question and waited for an answer. Zoey: How are you tree? Tree? Hello? Ms. Van Stone… My tree is sleeping; it isn’t talking back to me. Ms. Van Stone: Maybe you need to listen in a different way. Zoey: Oh, he said he was good. Tree, is there any animals that visit you? He said a woodpecker!Tegan: Tree, how old are you? Presley: Is there any other bugs in you? My tree is named Chloe.Jackson: This tree is smooth and bumpy. It is very tall. Elliott: It told me it is 100 years old!

The children all write their interview answers down on the paper. They then draw a picture of their tree. After everyone is finished the children meet in the middle of the site and make a circle. Ms. Lockerbie asks the children to share their interview with their friend beside them.

Presley: My tree didn’t want to talk a lot, but its name was Chloe.

Green Teacher 103 Page 41

Green Teacher Seeks Regional EditorsWhen Green Teacher magazine began publishing in

Canada in 1991, we took steps to ensure participation from environmental and global educators across the

continent. We established a group of volunteer regional editors who help to promote the magazine and keep us

informed of interesting happenings in their area.

Regional editors are lively, passionate individuals whose responsibilities include 1) spreading the word about Green Teacher; 2) encouraging educators who are

doing exciting work in environmental education to write for the magazine; and 3) writing the occasional article.

We are looking for Regional Editors in the following locations:

United States: AL, AK, AR, ID, LA, MD, ME, MI, MN, NE NH, NJ, NM, NY, OH, OR, SD, TN, TX, WA, WI

Canada: PQ, NU, PEI Australia: each of the 8 states

New Zealand: South Island, North Island

If you are interested and have the time to undertake this volunteer position, please let us know by e-mailing

info@greenteacher.com.

Thank You! Our Supporters and Friends provide us with extra funds to help sustain GreenTeacher.

Join the list and find out more at www.greenteacher.com

To our Friends

Leigh Bird Amanda Chesser Sarah Conley Carol Fern Culhane Amy Demarest Debbie Dodson Sarah Doxon Laura Etringer Meredith Garner

Amie Gaudet Lauren Johnson Lisa Kishkan Laura Leet Leon Levine Helga Malinsky Jenny McGregor Pam Meier

Lori Milligan Lois Nixon Kristina Schmidt Chad Scholten Malcolm Siegel Kirsten Springer Astrid Steele Kathleen Tanner

To our Supporters Debra Bridgman Ann Dreolini Garry Enns

Sheila Jones Stan Kozak Dr.Rosalyn McKeown

Ruth Roperti Linda Ryan Patrick Stewart

ing the privilege of learning over time in the same context. They watched the forest transform through the seasons, the emergence of slugs in the spring, mushrooms in fall, and the new bright green of the trees and bushes in spring.

Impact on TeachersThe teachers were also learning how to share information with the children. Listening to the children’s comments, asking questions and wondering aloud with children led to teaching that happened in spurts. It also led to learning that wandered from the social interactions of magic ponies to encounters with worms. As part of a learning community, teachers shared with students and children shared with each other. Teachers began to ask their own questions about what they were seeing and to learn alongside the children. By documenting the children’s learning and experiences, they were able to gain another perspective, reflect on their teach-ing and think about future possibilities for learning.

While in the forest, the children discovered their own ideas and strengths and developed confidence. Their rela-tionship with the forest grew and children learned through their bodies about place. Children knew the smells of the rain, the sun, the wind, and knew how the earth felt and sounded in the wet winter and dried-out fall. They had felt the soft green of the fir trees and Oregon grape in the spring. They had picked up worms and theorized about their life and who they were. They looked up birds in their guide-books and listened to woodpeckers finding insects in holes.

Overall, the first year was a success. Children did not

want the year to be over, parents said the year had “exceeded their expectations” and both of the educators acknowledged it was a wonderful way to teach. Other school districts have heard of our project and have begun looking into developing programs that fit their setting and community. Teachers and schools are looking beyond their classroom walls to connect to the larger community beyond humans.

Enid Elliot is an early childhood educator and member of the faculty at Camosun College, in Victoria, British Columbia and an adjunct professor at University of Victoria.

ResourcesBC Ministry of Education. (2009). Understanding the British Columbia Early Learning Framework: From theory to practice. Victoria, BC: Ministry of Edu-cation.Carson, R. (1965). The Sense of Wonder. New York: Harper & Row.Cobb, E. (1977). The ecology of imagination in childhood. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.Knight, S. (2009). Forest Schools and outdoor learning in the early years. London: Sage.Knight, S. (2011). Risk and adventure in early years outdoor play: Learning from forest schools. London: Sage.Krusekopf, F. (2013). Nature Kindergarten: Year one. School District 62: School District 62.Rivkin, M. S. (1995). The great outdoors: Restoring children’s right to play outside. Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young People.Robertson, J. (2008). I ur och skur: “Rain or Shine” Swedish forest schools: Creative Star Learning Company.Warden, C. (2010). Nature kindergartens. Perthshire, Scotland: Mindstretchers, Inc.

Green Teacher 103Page 42

By Linda Lewin

MOST KIDS LOVE going to computer class. Having fun while learning has long been a key motivator for elementary school children. At Grattan Elementary

School in San Francisco, computer teacher Philip Marcoccio has created a computer lab that recreates the natural environ-ment indoors – a super fun experience. Philip weaves in appre-ciation of nature while teaching kids necessary computer skills such as word processing, internet research, graphic arts, and digital photography, and has named the lab Habitat H.O.P.E. (Helping Our Planet Earth). As a result, Grattan is considered one of the greenest schools in its district.

Marcoccio has taught at Grattan for fifteen years (and his wife for seventeen years – in 1996 they were married in the school cafeteria) and has been developing Habitat H.O.P.E. over a period of more than a dozen years. Each year he either builds upon the existing lab design or creates a completely new lab. When I first saw it around five years ago, the lab featured dinosaurs and information about prehistoric eras. Now, the lab

has expanded wildly to include wonders such as a real pond, a bug kitchen, and a bird observatory. Most of the materials Marcoccio uses to create his naturalistic tableaus are recycled, as well as objects found through scavenging, created through woodworking or simple art processes like papier-mâché.

In the center of the room is a large touch screen which brings to life photos of different creatures for young chil-dren. Next to the entrance there is a big tent labelled “Que-equog Oceanic Society,” with computer stations on both sides. Inside the tent is an Oceans-Rivers-Lakes area, com-plete with a real pond with miniature waterfalls and foun-tains, an artificial blue heron, imitation frogs, dragonflies, and ducks, and real ladybugs crawling around. On the back wall is a photo mural of a waterfall. Hanging from the ceil-ing are stuffed and hand-crafted animal creatures includ-ing birds, butterflies, and grasshoppers. Inside the large, three-sided tent, children have small-group instruction by the computer teacher or classroom teacher, with the help of large-screen displays of selected photos projected from an iPad. Next to this area there is a canoe and a dock with four work stations, followed by a space with a half-picnic table

A Computer Lab Grows in San Francisco

A creative computer lab encourages environmental stewardship while teaching technology skills

Green Teacher 103 Page 43

cut lengthwise with three more work stations.Perhaps the most exciting innovation in this year’s lab is

entomophagy, the consumption of insects as food. Students learn about eating bugs as a way to expand the food sup-ply for starving populations and to save resources used to produce other types of food, and actually get to experience it firsthand. In his bug kitchen, Marcoccio dons a chef’s hat and whips up delicacies from The Eat a Bug Cookbook, using frozen edible bugs he ordered off the Internet. On the menu are dried and hard carobs (also known as St. John’s Bread because, according to tradition of some Christians, St. John the Baptist subsisted on them in the wilderness) with roasted crickets, meal worms with barbecue sauce, sowbugs and rolly pollies with tomatoes and teriyaki sauce. Kids find it challenging and fun to taste these exotic foods.

Across from the Oceanic Society tent is the wetlands area and the bat area. The bat area is called the “The World of Flittermice” – an old name for bats. Beside it is a camping tent with four computers. Next to it is an electric campfire, and also a small hand-cranked washing machine for washing rags instead of using paper towels.

The next center is the Seed Station, where some seeds are used to feed birds outside, and some are planted in plas-tic containers. From there, the sprouts are transferred to the courtyard gardens outside in the playground, where veg-etables and fruits are grown, constituting the Food Oasis. Another center, or area of focus in the lab is the bird observa-tory. For that Marcoccio set up a bird house in the schoolyard gardens with a tiny camera inside it, bringing photos to an indoor computer screen for bird study.

As if this is not enough, there are two more extensions of the lab on the school roof – the weather station and the bee-hives. A homemade anemometer made of a revolving fan-like device with small paper cups is installed on the roof to measure wind velocity, while a barometer and thermometer record the humidity and temperature. All this data is viewed on a remote solar-powered station just outside the classroom.

The beehives on the roof belong to the Student Beekeeper Program, where students can help save bees, whose popula-tion has recently become threatened due to colony collapse. White beekeeper outfits with hoods with mesh screens in front of the face keep the kids safe from stings while they learn about the life cycle of bees and collect their honey.

When Marcoccio began building his lab, he received a few small local grants. Now he receives only occasional funding from Grattan’s Parent-Teacher Association. How-ever, he was able to secure a San Francisco Community Challenge Grant for the Grattan Watershed Modeling Proj-ect, “From Mountains to Ocean,” the building of a model of the Hetch Hetchy water system in California. This teaches children where their water comes from, how it is used, and where it ends up. In this after school project, 20 kids are making a large model from styrofoam that will later be cov-ered with cement, of the Hetch Hetchy water system, which brings water to California farms and cities. Hoses and a pump transport water down a small waterfall into a reservoir and then to the gardens the children have planted around the school. When the model is finished it will be as long as one side of the school building. The San Francisco Public Utili-ties Commission has taken an interest in this project and is considering making a larger one for public viewing.

For teachers wishing to replicate some of what Marcoccio has accomplished, he advises, always think about the needs of your students first, then start with something you feel pas-sionate about. Do lots of research, network, closely examine your surroundings/environment to see what is within reach, and be open to ideas that may at first seem way out of the box. Be adaptable, open to change, and don’t be afraid to take chances. And above all else, always have fun.

Linda Lewin is substitute teacher in San Francisco Unified School District and a children’s book author. Her latest book is The Spiders’ Journey: A Modern-Day Myth, a tale of how spiders created the world wide web.

Green Teacher 103Page 44

Authors in this issue: Alan Crook, Annie Levine, Grant Linney, Phyllis McKenzie, Barbara McMillan, Stacey Widenhofer, Zackery Zdinak

The Lion Who Stole My ArmIt is easy to talk about the importance of biodiversity, ecosystem balance and the value of keystone predators from

the comfort of your armchair. It is a bit different when that predator has chewed your arm off. This happens to Pedru, a young boy living in rural Mo-zambique, and the hero of this novella by Nicola Davies. Pedru’s journey actually starts with the loss of his arm and a vow of retribution; it concludes with Pedru facing the lion again, spear in hand. But Pedru is a different boy, having learned much about lions. Will his newfound knowledge affect his vow? The book pulls no punches — lives both human and lion are lost as well as the arm — yet there is sym-pathy here for the plight of both lions and villagers. You are left feeling that the two can live in some degree of harmony, as the lion changes Pedru’s life in positive ways that no one could have predicted. This is an excellent treatment of a difficult problem found around the globe, and a good way to launch discussions about large preda-tors and their roles with students in grades four to six. –(AC)Candlewick Press, 2013, ISBN: 978-0-7636-6620-0 (hb), 89 pp., US $14.99 from (800) 733-3000, <www.candlewick.com>

Nature SparksIf you are wondering how to interest preschool and kindergarten children in the natural world, Nature Sparks by Aerial Cross is an excellent place to begin. Cross clearly articulates why it is important to incorporate nature-based experiences in young children’s education: outdoor play has a positive

Resources

correlation to physical, emotional and psychological health. In the book’s four chapters, as well as the appendices of resources as-sociated with each chapter,

there are more ideas for subject-spe-cific activities and integrated cur-ricula than are often found in teacher resources of a similar length. These range from a variety of outdoor play spaces, obstacle courses, nature hikes, and prop boxes to sensory-integrated nature activities that include bug hunts and building scarecrows for the school’s garden. Cross also includes suggestions for children’s literature, chants, riddles, rhymes, tongue twisters, and songs. As a result of the numerous ideas offered, readers will have more difficulty deciding what to implement than what to do in the natural world with the children in their care. –(BM)Redleaf Press, 2012, ISBN 978-1-60554-041-2 (pb), 134 pp, US$29.95 from (800) 423-8309, <www.redleafpress.org>

Basic Wind Experiment KitIf renewable en-ergy, electricity, alternative tech-nology, phys-ics, or inquiry learning is part of your curricu-lum, the Basic

Wind Experiment Kit should have a place on your lab table. From open-ended experimenting to more specific challenges, this science kit will engage your students in understanding energy from many angles. The kit allows budding engineers to experiment with designing blades, generating electric-ity and lifting materials. An electri-cal nacelle and a weightlifter nacelle allow students to compare various blade designs and configurations, test-ing their understanding of how wind

energy is harnessed and converted to use. Included are basic instructions and experiments for students and a primer on wind energy and electricity for teachers. This kit is great for stu-dents in grade four and up. In addition, the KidWind website (http://learn.kidwind.org) has free, downloadable lesson plans for grades six-12. –(PM)Vernier Software and Technology, 2013, US $97 from (800) 837-6437, www.vernier.com

MicrocosmosAt first glance, Brandon Broll’s Micro-cosmos is a coffee table book; open it and lush photographs spring out at you. Many of those images will seem alien but these highly magnified pic-

tures depict some pretty prosaic stuff. Chocolate ice cream. Eyelash hairs (complete with eyelash mites). Pol-len. But-terfly scales.

Microchips. The microbial world comes alive with macrophages (white blood cells) engulfing E. coli bacte-ria, or corona viruses attacking host cells. Enhancing each photo is a short informative paragraph packed with biological terms. You could almost put together a Coles Notes version of a Bio 101 course from the collected content. As much art as science, most photos were taken with a scanning electron microscope, which provides previously unheard of depth-of-field photography. The resulting black-and-white images are then enhanced, sharpened and co-lourized, with added tone and shadow. The results, as they say, pop. Cells, chromosomes, molecules and even atoms, previously seen only as illustra-tions, are now visible. Use this book to draw heretofore resistant high school or university students into microsci-ence, or gift it to that hard-to-buy-for scientist next Christmas. –(AC)Firefly Books Ltd., 2010, ISBN 1-55407-714-1 (pb), 224 pp., CDN/US $19.95 from (800) 387-5085, <www.fireflybooks.com>

Green Teacher 103 Page 45

Counting on Fall; Sizing Up Winter; Sorting through SpringBeautifully illustrated with Ashley Barron’s cut-paper collages, this won-derful series of books by Lizann Flatt teaches math skills to early learners through seasonal natural events. Each facing page shows a seasonal tableau and follows with a math-oriented question. For example, one illustra-tion in Counting on Fall shows bears munching on berries and ponders, “If the bears were aware, would they

think that it’s fair, if one were to gobble more than his or her share?” Another asks,

“Which bear has 2 berries more than 5? Which bear has 2 berries less than 10?” The topics in Sizing up Winter include days of the week, sequencing events, and how many days make a month. “So how long is winter, and how do you know?” Sorting through Spring includes more advanced concepts like ratios and patterns. Also provided are extensions for using the books in classroom, and background information on each of the seasonals. This terrific series provides cross-curricular activities for K-2 classrooms and non-formal learning environ-ments. –(PM) Owlkids Books, 2013, ISBN 978-1-926973-36-4 (hb; Counting on Fall), ISBN 978-1-926973-82-1 (hb; Sizing Up Winter), ISBN 978-1-926973-59-3 (hb; Sorting through Spring), 32 pp., CDN $14.95 from (416) 340-2700 x 227, www.owlkids.com

Last Call DVDI remember thinking as Earth Day gained traction in the early 70s, “We’ve made it! Now people are finally go-ing to take the environment

seriously.” It’s obvious from Last Call, a retrospective on the famous 1972 publication The Limits to Growth that its young authors felt much the same way. Boy, were we wrong. This DVD is narrated by some of the surviving writers of the seminal publication, and tracks the actions and thinking of those people in the years since. While its scenarios have been confirmed—you can’t continue to grow exponen-tially in a finite system—almost com-plete inaction relative to the problem over the past forty years has led to new situations, e.g. near-rampant global warming. The authors probe why this has taken place, and what might be done about it (think adaptation, not mitigation). While the documentary is vaguely positive at the end, I was left with the feeling that we missed the boat all those many years ago. Interesting graphics include a chill-ing time-lapse of global temperature changes over time, but many are of poor quality. Do look into this film for a primer on the history and challenges of the environmental movement, but it may not energize you for the battles ahead. –(AC)Video Project, 2012, Item#: LAC-1029, 90 min., US $295 (colleges/universities) or $89 (K-12) from (800) 475-2638, <www.videoproject.com>

Eco Action Trumps GameIntroducing simple steps to engage others in living more sustainably is easy when playing this entertaining card game. Each card describes an environmentally-friendly action like carpooling, riding a bike, hanging clothes on the line to dry, or wrap-ping up your hot water heater to save energy. Each action is rated for its CO2 savings, out-of-pocket cost, savings,

payback, and resource savings. Each action also has a total ‘eco-point’ rating. Two to six players try to out-do each other in terms of finding the action with the best environ-mental impact

in any of the five categories, whether saving CO2, paying little to enact regulations, or having a high eco-point rating. While the cards include costs in British pounds, they can be spe-cially customized for your needs as an educational or training tool. Designed for ages “7 to 107,” the cards can be used as an introduction to lessons in sustainability, energy, natural resourc-es, or consumer science. –(PM)Paula Owen Consulting, 2011, GBP £4.95 (approx. USD $8.21) from +011 7920 090931, www.ecoactiontrumps.co.uk

Nature’s AmbassadorTeachers who have introduced chil-dren to Thornton Burgess’ stories about Old Mother West Wind and the animal inhabitants of the Green Meadows, the Old Briar-Patch and the

Green Teacher 103Page 46

Smiling Pool will want to read Christie Lowrance’s biography Nature’s Ambassador. Burgess is por-trayed not only as a beloved sto-ryteller, but as a keen observer

of the social and natural worlds, a struggling newspaper reporter, pho-tographer, conservationist, and vocal advocate for animal rights. Lowrance maintains that Burgess’ legacy needs to be reassessed; too few people recognize that Burgess spent his life helping children ages 6-12 to see the need for protecting wildlife and the environment in so many ways they could understand and act upon. –(BM)Schiffer Publishing Limited, 2013, ISBN 978-0-7643-4445-9 (hb), 304 pp., US$24.99 from (610) 593-1777, <www.schifferbooks.com>

Arise DVDLooking for a new way to offer inspira-tion to young women? Arise, directed by Lori Joyce and narrated by Daryl Hannah, offers a view of

communities facing environmental is-sues from the USA to Africa to India. Each community faces its own unique cultural challenge, but all of the strong women whose stories are featured are able to overcome significant commu-nity problems. The challenges range from energy use to food production to endocrine disorders. The film high-lighted villages and towns all over the world; focusing on the locality of each problem helps engender a sense of global awareness. This film could be used for teaching about culture, problem solving, and is a good fit for all older students about how small suc-cesses add up to large results. Arise is made by women about the subject of women, but it has lessons for everyone regardless of gender, culture or loca-tion. –(SW)The Video Project, 2013, Item#: ARI-1022, 80 mins, US $295 (colleges/universities) or $89 (K-12), from (800)-475-2638, <www.videoproject.com>

How Advertising WorksMade You Look: How Advertising Works and Why you Should Know by Shari Graydon first came out to much critical acclaim in 2003. Now it has been revised to reflect a fast-changing ad landscape with its cookies, social

media, text messaging and use of reality TV. Written in a slightly cheeky way that will appeal to its young audi-ence (grades five to eight), this publica-

tion will significantly expand its read-ers’ awareness of just how pervasive advertising is and the many different techniques of “the sell.” An informa-tive, entertaining and empowering read with colourful and appealing graphics. –(GL)Annick Press, 2013, ISBN 978-1-55451-561-5 (pb), 155 pp., CDN $16.95 from (800) 387-6192, <www.annickpress.com>

The Youth Guide to BiodiversityDeveloped by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), this guide is an educational resource for schools, as well as anyone curious about biodiversity. Biodiver-sity is explained in terms of genes, species and ecosystems. It is also explored in the water, in the air and on the ground. The first half of the guide

conveys the impor-tance of supporting biodiversity, while the second half looks at how we as humans are

impacting it. Real-world accounts of conservation and sustainability efforts should provide students with a greater understanding of their ability to contribute. The design of the guide is busy, colourful and attractive, yet the simple layout allows a reader to navi-gate the chapters with ease. It would be most suitable for students fourteen to nineteen years of age. –(ZZ)Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2013, Available for free download from < www.fao.org/docrep/017/i3157e/i3157e00.htm>

Dolphins of Shark BayDo you want to observe bottlenose dolphins in the wild? If so, The Dolphins of Shark Bay is the book for you. The breezy, informal tone and conversational style of author Pamela Turner perfectly matches the approach of Dr. Janet Mann and her team who study the behavior of dolphins in the rich, relatively pristine waters of Shark Bay, Australia. Numerous colour pho-tographs put you both on and in the water. From the deck of the Pomboo, you will meet Puck, Nicky, Piccolo, Dodger and Barney, as well as their arch rivals, the Red Cliff Rascals. Per-sonification? Perhaps, but this research

spanning 25 years has identified social groups and behav-iours, and discovered

the first ever use of tools by dolphins anywhere. By examining “why are dolphins so smart?” you will learn basic dolphin biology, a bit of bay ecology, and the remarkably differ-ent personalities of the animals under study. As Turner states, “Dolphins aren’t noble elves in wetsuits.” The question of captivity is touched on, but left for the reader to answer. Written like a good kid’s movie, the book will hold the attention of adults as well as its key audience of young readers aged 10 to 14. –(AC)Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, ISBN 978-0-547-71638-1 (hb), 80 pp., US$18.99 from (617) 351-5111, <www.hmhco.com>

GarbageIn the introduction to Garbage, author Donna Latham asks her 9 to 12 year old readers to re-think their consumer

choices and habits, keep-ing in mind that someday we may “run out of out and away” places to put trash. In the subse-quent chap-ters, Latham acquaints

readers with ancient garbage dumps known as middens, dealing with the disposal of hazardous and electronic wastes, pre-cycling, recycling, and

Green Teacher 103 Page 47

upcycling to name just a few. She includes interesting trash facts, defini-tions of relevant terms, riddles and knock-knock jokes, plus 25 activity ideas. The activities range from trash audits and cleaning up an oil spill to vermicomposting and evaluating homemade vs. commercial cleaners. The end goal is to become a “rubbish warrior” and to keep as much trash out of landfills as possible. –(BM)Nomad Press, 2011, ISBN 978-1-936313-46-4 (pb), 118 pp., US$15.95 from (802) 649-1995, <www.nomadpress.net>

The Suzuki Diaries DVDIn 2008, David Suzuki and his youngest daughter took a three-week road trip to explore promising Euro-pean models of a

sustainable future. In Germany, they learned how the third largest industri-alized nation in the world aims for a future where all its electricity comes from renewables. Denmark used to be a country that got 98% of its energy from abroad; no more from a nation that now exports its leading edge wind power all over the world. Copenhagen also boasts 400 km of bike trails with close to 40% of its commuters biking to work. A visit to France exposed the Suzukis to the principles of biodynam-ics in agriculture where all phases of a farm operation fully complement each other. Finally in Spain, the country is well on its way to its goal of having easy access of high-speed trains for 90% of the population by 2020. This is a hopeful documentary, full of con-crete, positive and much-needed steps towards a sustainable future. Ideal for high school audiences. –(GL)Bullfrog Films, 2013, ISBN 1-93777-278-0, 45 mins, US $250 from (800) 543-3764, <www.bullfrogfilms.com>

Teaching Controversial IssuesRichard Woolley’s Teaching Con-troversial Issues in Primary School: Facing Life’s Challenges with Your Learners is an inspiring and instruc-tive book for teachers of children be-tween the ages of 5 and 11. The book is grounded in research on the experi-ences of student teachers and young children with controversial issues. He begins by identifying and defining

controversial issues—racism, gender identity, death—explaining why they need to be addressed, and outlining whole school, school-community, and experiential learning approaches by which they can be tackled. Using case studies and thoughtful discussion, Woolley assists teachers in knowing when and how to prepare and support children who are facing or will face these challenges in life. –(BM)Routledge, 2010, ISBN 978-0-415-55018-5 (pb), 162 pp, US $39.95 from (800) 634-7064, <www.routledge.com/education>

E-waste CurriculumKindergarteners through fifth graders will benefit from this collection of les-son plans that focus on self-reflection and technological awareness. Its format capitalizes on the ability of young children to identify electronic devices in order to begin solving the global e-waste epidemic by identifying it. The plan asks students to recognize cellphones, portable music listening devices, tablets, et cetera, and includes vocabulary words such as landfill,

waste, plastic and electronic. Next, it asks the students to express how they feel about the pollution and e-waste problem. This lesson plan is influential,

maybe even downright inspirational and truly relays the message that e-waste is a global issue that can have serious effects on our health and that of our planet. At its heart, it is an in-depth study of a controversial global issue. –(AL)Funding Factory, 2013, (online), 64 pp, free from The Curriculum Solutions Center, 1-888-883-8237, <http://www.fundingfac-tory.com/EcoBuddies>.

Cultivating Outdoor ClassroomsThis is a comprehensive, attractive and well-organized book for Early Childhood Educators who wish to create a viable and engaging outdoor classroom. It provides a compelling rationale for outdoor settings that are child-centered and that spark all aspects of their development. Author Eric M. Nelson details highly practi-cal suggestions for teaching outdoors as well as designing both the program

and the site. It also includes tips on getting buy-in from key stakeholders such as other teachers, administrators, parents, and the community as a whole. Six ap-

pendices provide additional tools, sug-gestions and resources. The publication also includes a wide variety of detailed and inspiring photographs. –(GL)Redleaf Press, 2012, ISBN 978-1-60554-025-2 (pb), 203 pp., US $49.95 from (800) 423-8309, <www.redleafpress.org>

There Once Was an Island DVD I still tend to think about global warming as something that’s going to happen in the future, but for some Pacific islanders, the future is now. Briar March, the director of There Once Was an Island brings the point home very personally in her multi-award winning feature documentary. The island in question is part of a tiny Papua New Guinea atoll, where the Takū people have made their home for over 1000 years. The community of 400 subsists in what most of us would consider paradise, but are beset with the issues of reconciling their tradi-tional culture with the Western world, and the creeping, long-term effects of

rising sea level. The govern-ment is offering settlement on a “nearby” island almost 250 km away, but as a visiting scientist says; “This is their world” and many do not

want to leave. When an extreme high tide floods the village, it is heart-rending. The Takū are real people, and not simply statistics. The sense of loss is palpable. There is no conclusion yet for the Takū – they remain on their atoll, the government offer mired in red tape, no decisions made. But there is one conclusion. The people, through no fault of their own, are on the front lines of a battle that we are doing a very poor job of fighting. Essential viewing for everyone. –(AC)On the Level Productions, 2010, 80 mins, CDN $225 (colleges/universities) or $100 (K-12) from <www.thereoncewasanisland.com>

Green Teacher 103Page 48

Green Your School: Save Energy, Save Money

� Energy & Society Activity Guide� Energy & Me Music CD� Energy & Me Music and Dance DVD

� 8 “What powers the move?” posters

� 8 “Where is the energy?” posters

Parents’ Choice, 2002

Winner – Children’s Music Web Award, 2002

Parents’ Choice

Recommended by

Children’s Music Web A

war

d

EN

ER

GY & ME CD

EN

ER

GY & ME CD

Engage Students in Real World STEM Learning Project Learning Tree provides:

• Teacher professional development

• Curriculum kits aligned with education standards

• GreenSchools! investigations

• Grants for student-led action projects

www.plt.org/energyresources

Plastic, Ahoy!Plastic, Ahoy! by Patricia Newman tells the story of three gradu-

ate students who participated in a scientific marine expedition to study the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Aboard the New Horizon—a research ship the length of four school buses—the students studied the impacts of the plastic garbage on microscopic and macroscopic species. Geared towards middle school students, the book highlights the deeper impacts of trash on the natural biospheres, specifically on the North Pacific Gyre, a massive calm area of the sea where trash swirls with the currents. An important part of the research was looking at how the chemicals emanating from the ocean trash affected phytoplankton and zoo-plankton, the catalysts of the natural reactions that create oxygen. Plastic was found in 130 of 132 net tow sam-plings over a stretch of 1,700 miles. One of the students, Chelsea, con-cluded that “to see plastic debris in the

middle of this large stretch of ocean, far from land, offers a wake-up call for the way we leave our footprint even on remote places of the Earth.” –(AL)Millbrook Press, 2014, ISBN-978-1-14677-1283-5 (hb), 48 pp., US $36.60 from (800) 328-4929 <www.lernerbooks.com>

Ultimate BugopediaFrom the Praying Mantis loom-ing out of the frontispiece, National Geographic Kids uses visuals (over 400 colour photos, maps and graphs)

to draw in the young insectophile-to-be. A short intro-ductory sec-tion presents the basics of bugs; we learn where insects fit within the

biodiversity and evolutionary history of the planet, basic life cycles, key adaptations and behaviours, habitats and functions within ecosystems, and migratory patterns. This firm base

allows 80% of the book to focus on the major insect orders and species within them, and the key elements that make those species or orders unique or particularly interesting. The insects covered in-depth range from the com-mon or iconic to the unique and truly bizarre. Who wouldn’t want to learn about blood-sucking moths, beetle larvae heavy as a cellphone, or ants that use their larvae as a glue stick? Each order/family/species gets a basic two-page spread. Identification is done more or less by eye, using the basic features of each order or family. Spe-cific identification requires additional resources, some of which are provided. Scientific terms are used, explained and backed up by a good glossary. This is an excellent basic resource for students in grades five to eight, and should sit on outdoor centre shelves as well. –(AC)National Geographic, 2013, ISBN: 798-1-4263-1376-9 (hb), 272 pp., US $24.95 from (800) 647-5463, <www.nationalgeographic.com/books>

Why Do We Fight? Conflicts arise in daily life from everyday choices we make, based on the way in which we interact

within our community. Conflicts over resources seem to be the root cause of many modern day political issues. Why Do We Fight? Conflict, War and Peace by Niki Walker discusses how forming groups is part of our hu-man nature and conflicts arise when two parties want different things. Walker uses powerful quotations from relevant and groundbreaking scholars like Mahatma Gandhi regarding the topics of peace and war. The book is geared towards high school students and provokes thought surrounding the intricacies of our social construct. Walker is a talented writer who offers great wisdom in a compact edition. –(AL)Owlkids Books, 2013, ISBN 978-1-92697386-9 (hb), 80 pp., CDN $16.95 from (416) 340-2700, <www.owlkidsbooks.com>

Yes, start my subscription to Green Teacher!Name: __________________________________________Address: _______________________________________________________________________________________Email: __________________________________________Credit Card: ______________________________________

Fifty pages of ideas and activities, four times a year!• Unique perspectives on rethinking education in light of environmental and

other global problems.• Practical articles describing what successful outdoor educators, teachers and

schools are doing.• Cross-curricular, ready-to-use activities for youth of all ages.• Reviews of dozens of new books, kits, games and other teaching resources.

95 Robert StreetToronto, ON M5S 2K5

PO Box 452Niagara Falls, NY 14304

Subscribe to GREEN TEACHER

www.greenteacher.com Phone: 1-888-804-1486Fax: 416-925-3474

1-year print $34 2-year print $58 1-year digital $27.50 2-year digital $47 1-year dual (print & digital) $39 2-year dual (print & digital) $68

Prices applicable in Canada & the USA. Add $8 per year for International print & dual subscriptions.

Send me a sample copy $8 If paying by credit card in US funds, the amount charged to your credit card may vary slightly, depending on your bankʼs exchange rate. Canadian orders include all applicable taxes in your province or territory. Cheques payable to “Green Teacher.”

New Resources for the Trail and ClassroomAcorn Naturalists’ catalog features hundreds of new tools for educators, naturalists, and interpreters. Call for a free copy of our latest catalog or visit our website.

155 El Camino RealTustin, CA 92780(800) 422-8886 (800) 452-2802 FAX acornnaturalists.com

Hang

Green Teacheron your walls !

greenteacher.com/cover-art-for-sale

$175 per PAINTING

FOR MOST OF OUR HISTORY, the colourful, whimsical art of artist Jim Paterson adorned the covers of Green Teacher. Now is your chance to own a little piece of that history. These one-of-a-kind watercolour paintings will enliven any classroom, living room, or office. The paintings shown here are but 4 of the 16 currently for sale on our website.