In the Service of 'Ah Ha' Education

For over twenty years, each school year I accompanied my young middle school classes outside to the creek where they undertook a variety of environmental activities: collecting macro invertebrates for later exploration in the classroom; testing: water turbidity, pH, hardness, temperature, depth, stream flow; noting bank health and visible signs of human impact (green lawns, trash).  While I understood the validity of these methods of environmental education, I was also aware that the true benefit of the creek field work was far more to support and sustain interest in the outdoor world than to reinforce curricular content.

Our middle school spanned grades five to eight. I had elected to remain at the five-six level because I felt it was here I would have more curricular freedom to introduce science concepts in manner that captured the real excitment of exploring the world - and captured it without the burden of latter dragging students inside and 'testing them' on what they'd experienced.  Of course, I prepared them dutifully for the outdoor explorations. Indeed we often did formal group assessments of the creek health using well established protucols based on macro-invertebrate populations. And yes, they dutifully filled in a lab notebook noting the results. However, I was always acutely aware that most of this information/learning would fade quickly as they moved subject to subject each day being exposed to ever increasing banks of other information. Yet, I also knew that their surprised responses to first viewing the gills of a mayfly larva or the mating behavior of scuds would last far longer.  Here was a world they'd never known existed despite, for many, years spent playing in and about the creek.

It was in providing my middle schoolers with the tool of the dissecting scope that I believe I served them best as a teacher/mentor regarding creek life.  The names, dates, general data related to the experience, while justifiably important in a science class were secondary to the 'ah ha' moments generated by simply seeing the small world up-close. And these 'Ah Ha' moments often took place outside without my intervention. The large animal hole a group discovered in the lawn, the odd red roots of the trees along the bank, the ability of rising creek waters to move large rocks, the hidden worlds under the bridge that carried traffic over the creek, the difficulty of walking across a rocky streambed - all produced varying levels of wonder. In a world freed from formal assessment tied to specific curricular demands, it is obvious any motivated teacher can build an entire year's program around students' wonder especially given the accessiblity of outside experts and other resources via the Internet.

In this world, the workshop oft-quoted popular advice:  "Be Not a Sage on a Stage, but a Guide on the Side" takes on real meaning. In this world, other teachers suddenly are excited by the field trips to local natural habitats that result in students missing a day's lesson in the (math or English or French or Art) classroom because they understand such explorations can also generate a wonder that can be connected to their own disciplines.

New Roads - Old Roads

A few days before Spring break in April of 2013, I learned my contract-position at The Harley School had fallen beneath the budgetary ax and would expire in June. From the day I left the Classroom to become an Educator/Contract worker, I realized I had assumed a tenuous position. Thus, the news was not a total surprise and for the past ten months I have become the 'tree-stands-alone; hi ho the forest-o" as I attempt to discover new directions. I am currently involved in a number of activities all of which suggest future possibilities and draw upon different aspects of the skills and experiences that have shaped me as an educator:

• K-12 environmental teacher/mentor for 25+ years
• technology-early adapter-consistent user
•  educational 'yearner' in the tradition of Seymour Papert - forever looking for another way to define learning, to mentor and support learning for others, to continue learning myself
•  roots as a home schooling parent (largely ignorant of what I was attempting to do) taught me early that a good teacher must be as committed a learner as the best of his/her students
• acceptance that the world today belongs to those younger than me, but if one is respectful of new ways there is still two-way learning to be shared
• forty-five plus adult years grounded in meditation and self-reflective practices that have at long last helped to temper some of my impatience with people who seem willing to float with the times rather than dive beneath the surface for deeper understanding
• a lifetime curiosity about the natural world and  an appreciation that adults can have a key role in providing children with opportunities to explore it
• desire to work with others with whom I have some level of shared interests and goals

On my own
Current positions/activities that captured my time this past year include my fall work as a College Supervisor of Science Student Teachers for SUNY Geneseo as well as the continuing development of the program, Kids Afield, I initiated in September of 2013 with two Harley school teachers (and have written about extensively in this Blog). Our intent was to connect children to nature via digital photography. With the success of the first year's work, we presented the program at the New York State Science Teacher's Convention and the North American Association of Environmental Educators Conference in the Fall of 2013.  connectchildrentonature.wikispaces.com

A half-dozen years ago, I had teacher's mini-epiphany when the cover story of the Stanford Alumnae magazine featured Stanford's d.school. Reading about this program (that was beginning to include K-12 education) was enough for me to regret for the first time in my life that I'd left Stanford after only two year. Had the d.school (dschool.stanford.edu/blog/category/k12/) been around in the late 60's, possibly I would have not been so ready to jump elsewhere for my education. However, the d.school materials did enrich my last years in the classroom where I successfully employed design thinking practices in much of my grade six curricula. As a result, I feel competent to help other teachers bring the elements of design thinking into their programs. Just how to do this, aside from workshop presentations, is a puzzle I am still trying to put together.

Now
For years, a follower of edtech/innovation conferences and discussions via podcasts, I have finally decided to become an online presenter. I presented at 'real world' conferences almost since my first years as a classroom teacher, but never considered being an online presenter.  In part, I want to do this now because I can, that is, I have the time. But, additionally, I want to develop a closer connection to the larger community of innovative educators. Perhaps then for now, my over-riding goal is simply to continue to find new ways of working with others on behalf of others and the environment. And in this way, continue the sense of generativity that made my life as a classroom teacher so satisfying. 

Cultivating Young Naturalists

Grade 1 student pointing out the site where she'd hung a bird feeder for the non-migrating birds.

 I had just finished a migration activity with a group of twenty-two K-1 students who had been studying birds. Taking on the role of a particular Northeastern bird, they had simulated locating food in an upstate New York field/wooded area during the summer.  Whether Great Horned Owl, Hummingbird or Chickadee; all had located ample food. We shifted the simulated wood-field six months forward:  the flowers vanished, small animals (an important food sources for carnivorous birds) were hard to locate, seeds were under a foot of snow while worms and insects had relocated to warmer sites in some form of temporary stasis or life cycle change. Still, the Chickadees thrived at the many human provided feeders and the Owls hunted successfully while the odd Red-winged blackbird located just enough food to survive.

Afterwards, we discussed the activity and children quickly saw that the best strategy for ground feeding Robins and Hummingbirds was to find a warmer climate, that is to migrate. As teachers, we were pleased to see how readily the experience had produced a new understanding of migration in our young naturalists. While children prepared to leave for another school activity, one grade one student pulled me aside.

 "Do birds ever share the food they collect?",  he asked.

 "Great question", I responded (the old teacher stand-by when startled into new awareness of a learning situation).  Then with a moment's thought I explained that birds share food with their young, but generally not with other birds. However, I went on to explain that generally they only take what they need which leaves food for others. He seemed satisfied, but still debating the differences between people and birds.

Afterwards, I reflected on the depth of the boy's question. Certainly, as a young student he has been encouraged to share and care for others. In nursery and elementary classrooms everywhere, it has become such a standard practice for teachers  to encourage good community practices that it is not surprising that my young student was aware of the need to share resources. However, his application of this fundamental 'fairness' issue to the world beyond the human experience, I found profound. He was seeking a connection between his life and the life of another organism - one whose mechanisms for survival are far different than our own. This is the very seeking all environmental mentors/teachers hope to nurture in every student with whom they interact. For from the childhood desire to understand the needs of others arises the possibility that as adults they will remember this yearning as they debate the environmental needs of the future.

If opportunities for all students to make personal connections to the natural world were as much the focus of their learning as 'reading, writing and arithmetic', I have no doubt we would water the seeds of environmentalism in all students. With over thirty years in the field of environmental education, I do not see these opportunities jumping out of any of the ongoing current curriculum discussions that seem locked in assessing learning that can be measured numerically. I find my inspiration as a teacher in those young learners who are being given this chance with the hope that in time their voices may carry enough weight to shift the discussion for all learners everywhere.

For resources on connecting children to nature:
Natural Start a NAAEE Initiative

Mid-Year Reflection

I am now slightly past the mid-year point in my position as Citizen Science Resource Teacher . I started this blog in September to provide a record of the thinking, philosophy, experiences and questions that are the ongoing framework for my new role. Like any blog, however, it is also a place for personal reflection and self-evaluation which arguably is the intent of most blogs unless one has a professional need and/or interest in launching a public forum.


To date, I believe Mindtalker has succeeded in the following ways:

• it has explained the shift in focus I made from looking at supporting lower school students as Citizen Naturalist as opposed to Citizen Scientists - the number of posts related to this change reflect its importance in how I now view my position
• followed the areas I have experimented with that are outside of the original description of my job - and yet relevant to my role a participant in the development of the Harley Commons (e.g. "design thinking" post)
• offered insights into the PLN (personal learning network) that stimulates and challenges my thinking

The current limitations of this blog have been that it has highlighted such a small area of my work that it does not provide a good overview of what I am about day-to-day, week-to-week, month-to-month. In part this is the result of wanting to keep the posts short enough in length and few enough in number that they could realistically be used for outside evaluation. However at this point, I believe it is worth adding a number of annotated links to provide a more complete picture.


The Harley Green Pages
I created The Harley Green Pages to showcase environmentally related science activities, programs, etc. at N-12

• it is added to weekly
• it is linked to the main Harley Web page
• it was in response to a NYSIS recommendation that Harley better highlight the work being done in the area of science N-12

PB Afield
This links to an ongoing record of the Primary B Project which was initiated in September 2012 by myself and the Primary B teachers, Marilyn Fenster and Gail Hanns. It includes:

• a sequential unfolding of project activities
• video and slide presentations
• it also links back to The Harley Green Pages

Nature Photo Club
Research I did as part of the Primary B project supported my intuitive belief that photography can be a powerful way to connect students to the natural environment. For this reason, I agreed to run a weekly Nature Photo Club as part of the Middle School Club Program. The link above is a slide presentation of examples of students' work and was created to provide a focus point for critical self-evaluation by students as well as for discussions/suggestions.

 Grade 6 Shade-Coffee CS Project
I created this site of resources for the grade six students who have elected to undertake a Citizen Science project to bring the issue of Shade vs Sun Coffee to our local retailers. This project is being undertaken during advisory periods when time allows. That the students have created three presentations, including a play for lower school, in the limited time available for this work is testimony to their enthusiasm and conviction. I have served as adult mentor for this project since its inception.

Water - Grade 10 General Science
I am working with Mary Anne Evans to create an environmental water study unit for her Grade 10 General Chemistry class. This link is a collection of resources, including 8 short video links, that are relevant to this project. Mining the Internet for teachers has emerged as one of the most important aspects of my position. To locate age-appropriate, stimulating, scientifically accurate and useful resources requires more time than any full-time teacher has.

There are a half dozen other areas in which I am providing feedback, resources and other support, but I feel this post represents a good sampling of my work through February.
 

Cameras, Kids & Hybrid Thinking

When I decided to experiment with connecting young students to nature via photography I was following a gut instinct that predicted combining their intrinsic interests in the outdoors and technology would result in sure-fire learning situation. While still early in the experiment, my initial hypothesis is looking good. Therefore, I was especially interested to read about the experiences of David FitsSimmons a freelance writer, nature photographer and a professor at Ashland University who helps children and young people learn about digital nature photography. A summary of his ideas follow and are based on a recent article about his work in the Children & Nature Network newsletter;  http://bit.ly/RSfGos

1)      Cameras Encourage Experiences in Nature

·        Children taking cameras into nature catalyzes visual creativity

·        As they find fascinating objects to photograph-they want to return to the site again and again

2)      Focus on Nature

·        View finder focuses attention on a small area allowing examination of details rarely observed when playing or walking in natural environments

·        Children physically move into small spaces to better frame their pictures seeing well known areas from a new viewpoint

3)      Hybrid Experiences

·        Children develop “hybrid thinking” ( Richard Louv) : technology & nature a fusion of two intelligences.

4)      Memorializing Moments

·        Photos are visual records of experiences in nature

·        Children can reflect upon their experiences from outdoors inside -and creatively use them as the starting point for writing, artwork, music, dramatics, science research

5)      Click-n-Share

·        Social sharing of photos with others via prints, email or other on-line tools spreads an enthusiasm for the natural world peer-to-peer

·        Sharing enthusiastically can lead to a conservationist mind-set

Most of FitzSimmons' points I had experienced myself when working with K-6 students. However, the concept of ‘hybrid thinking’ was new to me. Louv's use of the term is largely in reference to the act of combining children's love of technology and the outdoors as a way to heighten connection to the natural world. Interestingly, it is also a term that can be traced back to an IT research and develop company called Gartner, Inc. Founded in 1979, it is now a public company whose R&D work is widely used by government agencies, large corporations and  technology industries. (For more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner )

Hybrid thinking in the Gartner context is a refinement of design thinking that it involves an integration of three concepts for solving problems that are culturally entrenched, also referred to as 'wicked problems'. To quote from Gartner materials- these are problems that are “ambiguous, contradictory and incredibly complex”…They are not conventionally possible to solve because the “interests are so divers and divisive, interdependencies are so complex and so little understood, behaviors are so dynamic and unpredictable”

The Gartner model suggests that hybrid thinking is one way to approach ‘wicked problems’. In essence, this process three points of focus with the first one being key to the process.

·        Solutions must be culturally meaningful or they will not be sustained by users and to be culturally meaningful they must have a strong emotional appeal

·        Solutions must be technologically possible

·        Solutions must be economically sustainable

For more information on Hybrid Thinking: http://bit.ly/RiR1HZ

Richard Louv's point is that the use of photography by children to capture natural subjects encourages hybrid thinking of a different  sort - the ability to synthesize the technical and natural world on behalf of connectedness to nature. Initially, Louv's idea would seem to have little to do with Gartner's model and for my young students, this may well be the case. But if the ultimate result of the efforts we are making with our young nature photographers is to lay the foundation for a lifelong connection to the natural world, then as adults they may well find themselves seeking solutions to 'wicked' environmental problems via a design thinking process that is quite like the one Gartner proposes. In both instances, hybrid thinking could be envisioned as an important aid in solving some of the difficult environmental problems of today and the future.

Design for Change

Design Thinking peppers the blogs and educational journals these days as more and more people become aware of the programs flowing from University Schools of Design into the broader educational arena. Standford, notably, has been generous in providing "how to help" for teachers interesting in the process, but unable to attend their Palo Alto based workshops. http://dschool.stanford.edu/dgift/

For the most part, teachers have intended to interpret the process as a means to creating a product that generally has a technology problem as the base: develop an inexpensive way to measure air quality; build a solar robot to carry X pounds of materials, Y distance; create an animated book on a self-elected topic; design a museum display to explain hominid evolution, etc. The possibilities are only limited by the imagination.

However, it is possible to consider Design Thinking in a larger context where it can be defined as the thinking that can make 'things'(life) better.  When one goes down this avenue than the 'products' open to include issues of social, ethical and esthetic consideration as well. From my first encounters with the Design Thinking, it has been the deeper changes it can impart to conventional learning as much as the excitement of the Maker World that has captured my attention. Therefore, I was delighted to recently hear a discussion of this very topic on a recent podcast that featured Kiran Bir Sethi  http://audio.edtechlive.com/foe/kiranbirsethi.mp3

Kiran, started her professional career as a Designer in a traditional sense having graduated from one of the leading Design Schools in India. Influenced from a young age by the work of Gandhi, she became an educational advocate and ultimate director/founder of The Riverside School in Ahmadabad, India. A decade old, Riverside is an N-12 school which focuses on using design thinking on behalf of civic engagement via student agency.  Her ideas were recently shared on a TED presentation entitled: Teaching Kids to Take Charge http://blog.ted.com/2010/01/12/teachiing_kids/. A summary of her definition of the process of Design Think as presented on-line is below.  The information in (  ) are my additions and drawn from a more conventional rendering of the process of Design Thinking.





FEEL THE CHANGE (Empathy)
What would you most like to create or change in your community?
An idea that could touch or affect the lives of many
An idea that YOU can make happen 
IMAGINE THE CHANGE (Define & Ideate)
Talk together about how you can create this change
Get others in your community involved
Plan how and when you will make this Act of Change happen 
DO THE CHANGE (Prototype & Test)
Gather the resources that you will need
Go out and make it happen
Record what you do, the impact you have and how it makes you feel 
These last two stages, I believe, are important additions.
SHARE THE CHANGE
Celebrate your Act of Change with your community
Document YOUR STORY and how you have shared it
Upload your project and documentation to us at Design for Change 
SUSTAIN THE CHANGE –
Reflect back on your Act of Change and what worked well
Do you feel the story has only just begun?
NOW what are you going to do next?!


 
Kiran also offers specific suggestions for those mentoring the design process with their students:

▪                ASK - DON'T TELL! 

▪                Create an environment where children can 'create' playfully and chaotically

▪                Some people need to sit quietly to use their imaginations, some need to be physical, noisy, energetic   and just a little bit crazy! How can everyone get what they need?

▪                Listen silently and deeply.

▪                Enthuse about ALL ideas however ambitious or whacky! 

▪                All ideas are good because they are part of the creative process.

▪                Unworkable ideas will evaporate of their own accord.

▪                Imagination is quickly silenced if people are worried about getting things "right".    

The Riverside school students have approached a wide range of Civic projects working from within a design thinking format. Most notably, their advocacy was responsible for their city agreeing to close a main street one Sunday a month in order to provide play-time and space for children many of whom never have play opportunities. In her model, one can see the roots of student projects that originate from students' sense of empowerment related to improving the world.

Nominations for Edublog Awards

Edublog Nominations

What is the Edublog awards:  "The 'Edublog awards' is a community-based initiative started in 2004 in response to community concerns relating to how schools, districts and educational institutions were blocking access of learner and teacher blog sites for educational purposes.  The purpose of the Edublog awards is to promote and demonstrate the educational values of these social media."-Steve Hargadon


For the most influential Teacher Blog, I wish to nominate The Future of Education discussion series.

• A long time follower of Steve Hargadon's work, especially his interviews via podcast, I have found him to be an ethical, intelligent, knowledgeable contributor to the ongoing dialogues around educational issues at all levels. His desire to move past surface discussions and challenge himself as well as his listeners is admirable. Moreover, he frequently succeeds in bringing issues to a higher level through his tenacious drive to uncover the deeper stories and/or possibilities.

For the best Ed Tech Blog, I wish to nominate Hack Education podcast.

• Audrey Watters' ability to follow the educational narrative week-to-week and report on areas she believes to be of unusual interest to educators at all levels succeeds in keeping me at least on the bank of the tech/ed current flow.
• Audrey Watters and Steve Hargadon combine differing, but equally insightful, views of the issues on both the front-and-back burners of educational debates. Both are equally committed to open source movements and offer an ongoing counter-balance to the increasing influence of business on curricular design and innovation.