Excellence in 

   Environmental Education —

   Guidelines for Learning (K-12)
Arts 34
English Language Arts 35-36
Geography 47, 107-111
Mathematics 90, 108, 132, 136, 158, 176, 200, 206		 E) Organizing information--Learners are able to describe data and organize information to search for relationships and patterns concerning the environment and environmental topics.
  • Summarize observations and describe data.
  • Construct, read, and interpret maps, graphs, tables, diagrams, and other displays of data.
  • Identify regularities in events, designs, organisms, and sets of numbers.
  • Describe mathematical relationships and use those relationships as a way of organizing data. For example, chart the relationship between plant growth and different amounts of water or sunlight.

 

Finding Urban Nature
From: Changing What We Do, North American
Association for Environmental Education, Rock Spring, Georgia
Grade Level:  3rd		 Correlating Guidelines:
Strand 1 A, B, C, F, G
Strand 2.2 A, C
What's better than having fun volunteers leading outdoor activities with your students? Having FUN volunteers!
Finding Urban Nature (FUN) is an initiative of the VINE (Volunteer-Led Investigations in Neighborhood Ecology) program, a national program available in many urban areas. Specially trained parent volunteers work with schools to develop pre and post classroom studies to enhance a FUN visit to the school site.

One Seattle teacher tied his planned FUN visit to a year-long unit on habitats. The unit began when the teacher placed a cracked aquarium in front of his third grade students and asked what they wanted to do with it. Before long, the aquarium became a four-star worm hotel!

The teacher asked what the worms would need to live in their habitat. The discussion triggered as many questions as answers: What do worms eat? Why do they come out when it rains? Are they really more active at night? The questions were recorded in a concept map that laid the foundation for many future investigations.

Prepared by schoolyard observations and research, the students built their worm hotel. Anxiously, they designed experiments to find answers to all their questions. Carefully, they poured water into one corner to study how worms react to rain. The students blocked light from one side of the aquarium to see if they could learn why worms come out at night. Hand lenses, microscopes and soil guides became routine tools as the third graders enthusiastically explored every change.

Volunteer seedlings sprouted, launching more investigations on plants and roots. Students discovered that worms and plants were interconnected, an essential part of understanding habitats.

When the FUN volunteers arrived, the students were proud of what they knew. Even better, they were excited to learn more, readily grasping new ideas about the effects of temperature, wind, and light.

 

Geography 47-48, 106-107
Mathematics 90, 96, 158, 164
Science Benchmarks 267-268		 F) Working with models and simulations--Learners understand that relationships, patterns, and processes can be represented by models.
  • Interpret information and situations by noting associations and similarities, and recognizing patterns, trends, relationships, and sequences.
  • Give examples of models or simulations and how they can be used to learn about what they represent. Identify ways in which a model differs from what it represents.
  • Use a number of types of models such as geometric figures, graphs, and maps to summarize observations of the environment.
English Language Arts 38-39
Geography 48-49
History 22
Mathematics 108, 132, 136, 158, 176, 200, 206
 G) Developing explanations--Learners can develop simple explanations that address their questions about the environment.
  • Summarize information, compare findings, and use basic mathematics to analyze data.
  • Identify information that is not relevant to a proposed explanation and explain their reasoning.
  • Use models and examples to explain their thinking.
  • List strengths and weaknesses of the explanations they propose.

 

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