Author:
Skylar Primm
Subject:
Environmental Literacy and Sustainability, Mathematics
Material Type:
Activity/Lab, Learning Task
Level:
Middle School, High School
Tags:
  • #connectexploreengage
  • Environment
  • Nature Journal
  • Nature Journaling
  • Phenology
  • Place-based learning
  • connectexploreengage
  • place-based-learning
  • License:
    Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial
    Language:
    English
    Media Formats:
    Downloadable docs, Text/HTML

    Education Standards

    A Grab Bag of Nature Journaling at High Marq

    A Grab Bag of Nature Journaling at High Marq

    Overview

    This unit includes five nature journaling experiences implemented at High Marq Environmental Charter School during the 2021-22 school year. They are a bit of a grab bag in terms of subject and skills focus, but all included practices from How to Teach Nature Journaling by Emilie Lygren and John Muir Laws. Please Remix this template for your purposes.

    Summary & Context

    Grade Level: 6-12

    Content Area(s): Environmental Science, Mathematics

    Environmental Literacy Standards Addressed:

    • C1.B: Sense of Place
    • C1.C: Curiosity and Wonder
    • EX4.A: Natural Systems Emphasis
    • EN7.A: Inquiry and Investigation

    Content Standards Addressed:

    • Common Core Math
      • CCSS.MATH.PRACTICE.MP5 Use appropriate tools strategically
      • CCSS.MATH.PRACTICE.MP6 Attend to precision
      • CCSS.MATH.PRACTICE.MP7 Look for and make use of structure
    • Next Generation Science Standards
      • MS/HS-LS2 Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics
      • MS/HS-ESS2: Earth’s Systems

    Nature Journaling: Quantitative Phenology

    For this experience, students learned how to use the Nature's Notebook platform to track phenological changes at our school site from a quantitative perspective. Traditionally, our students collect qualitative phenological observations each month in their field journals. With Nature's Notebook, students can track data on plant phenophases systematically (Yes/No/Maybe) on a more frequent basis. At our school site, students monitor four individual trees (Norway maple, red oak, pin oak, red pine) throughout the year using paper data sheets (linked below), and the teacher enters the data online periodically.

    This quantitative approach to phenology has given students who previously struggled with descriptive writing a way to engage in the learning that would not be available otherwise. They have become responsible for deeper, more frequent observations of specific trees on campus, and are contributing to a valuable community science project, as well.

    Students are also able to generate data visualizations using the USA National Phenology Network's powerful Visualization Tool, which provides access to the full Nature's Notebook database in addition to their own site. Nature's Notebook offers a variety of resources for implementing a phenological observation program at school on their Education Program page.

    For further ideas about adding numerical observations to field journals, see How to Teach Nature Journaling, "Numbers and Quantification" (pp. 198-201).

    Nature Journaling: Energy Transfer in Ecosystems

    For this experience, students worked in field teams to explore the Driving Question: How does where organisms get their energy tell the story of an ecosystem? Following a mini-lesson on Food Webs, Ecosystems, and the Ecological Pyramid, students spent 90-120 minutes exploring a natural area managed by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. While on-site, students noted any evidence of plant or animal activity and thought about what sorts of stories the evidence might be telling them. (This was in mid-January, so it was more challenging than one might expect.) 

    After returning to the classroom, each team was tasked with creating an "Event Comic" (see How to Teach Nature Journaling, pp. 143-50) explaining a story of energy transfer within the ecosystem, using evidence from their outdoor explorations. Among the observations incorporated by students were animal footprints, bird calls, flowing water, sunshine, and plants under the snow. These event comics were shared out to the full class, with helpful, specific, and kind feedback offered by peers.

    Nature Journaling: Rainforests

    For this experience, students were given the opportunity to explore the Bolz Conservatory at Olbrich Gardens, where they could "[e]njoy a tropical paradise year-round in Olbrich's Bolz Conservatory, a glass pyramid filled with exotic plants, bright flowers, a rushing waterfall, fragrant orchids and free-flying birds" (olbrich.org). While exploring the space, students were required to collect in their journals responses to the prompts "I Notice, I Wonder, It Reminds Me Of" (How to Teach Nature Journaling pp. 36-8), with a specific focus on addressing the Driving Question: Why are tropical rainforests more diverse than other ecosystems?

    "I Notice, I Wonder, It Reminds Me Of" is an extremely versatile framework, and students are familiar with it from other contexts, including past field experiences, phenological observations, peer feedback, and math lessons. The prompts help students focus their observations, which is especially useful in an overstimulating environment like a simulated tropical rainforest.

    Nature Journaling: Soil Science

    For this experience, our students learned about the characteristics of soil and how scientists classify it as part of the lead-up to data collection for the Wisconsin Schoolyard Microbiome Project, a project out of UW–Madison that seeks to collect data about the diversity of microbial life in soils from around the state through partnerships with schools.

    Student teams were taught how to use various tools (soil probe, pH meter, soil color chart, etc.) and issued data sheets (linked below) with space to record basic soil characteristics (grain size, texture, color, etc.). At the school forest and multiple sites on campus (including the school garden), teams were given time to investigate and collect this data on their own. Each group shared their data verbally, with a specific focus on notable differences between sites and their hypotheses for the causes.

    By the end of the explorations, through a combination of qualitative and quantitative data collection, students had developed an understanding of the differences between soil and dirt, and why only certain plants are suitable for the sandy soil in Marquette County.

    For extensions on the journaling parts of this lesson, see How to Teach Nature Journaling, "I Notice, I Wonder, It Reminds Me Of" (pp. 36-8), and "Numbers and Quantification" (pp. 198-201).

    Nature Journaling: Outdoor Math Lesson

    For this final experience, our math instruction was taken outside for students to explore examples of math in nature. Before heading outside, students were offered three ideas for how to explore math in nature, inspired by How to Teach Nature Journaling, "Hidden Figures" (pp. 206-11) and Kathy Balman's lesson on "Seeing Math in Nature" (linked below):

    1. Counting (How many leaves? How many lobes on the leaf? How many points on each lobe?)
    2. Shapes (How can this complex natural object be broken down into simple shapes for easier sketching?)
    3. Measuring (What angle? How long? How tall? How far apart?)

    We also discussed why these different ways of looking at nature through a mathematical lens might be helpful in other contexts, such as nature journaling or scientific data collection. Students were then set loose for 20-30 minutes in and around the school garden to explore together and collect notes in their journals.

    During this experience, students found interesting ways to collect quantitative data about things in nature, like counting the number of petals on a flower or estimating the length of a tree branch. These are skills that are important for species identification using dichotomous keys and field guides, but we don't often spend time on the basics. The skills practiced here also proved helpful for that week's field experience, which involved close observations of and data collection about frogs.

    Conclusion

    As an educator, participating in the WISELearn project "Using BEETLES Design Principles and Nature Journaling for High Quality Science Instruction" gave me a much-needed opportunity to refocus on the purposes and practices of nature journaling for our students. It also finally got me to use How to Teach Nature Journaling by Emilie Lygren and John Muir Laws, a book that I have been wanting to implement with students for few years now. I feel much more aware of the great ideas contained in the book, and how best to adapt them to our particular context, as a result of this project, and I expect to continue mining it for ideas for quite some time.

    Anecdotally, at the end of this school year I heard more positive feedback from students about nature journaling and phenology than I ever have before. I also saw significant growth in the journaling skills of some of my students, especially those who had struggled with our usual "direction, not directions" philosophy for writing assignments when it was applied to journaling. I am already considering ways that we can bring this work into the next school year, so that growth will continue. One specific idea is to be more intentional and clear about the purpose of any given journaling assignment, which will make it easier for students to know where to focus their efforts, and for me to know where to focus my feedback. I would also like for us to make more use of sentence starters and templates for journaling, because when we used those this year, students seemed to be able to complete their journals more quickly and thoroughly than in the past.

    Most of all, I'm leaving this project feeling proud of the work we've done this school year and excited to explore the (many) other sections of How to Teach Nature Journaling in the future.