Science Ready: Program Development

How can we transform our teaching/learning communities into natural systems? Why would this be beneficial to students and the planet? Resource for image above.

One professional focus I have this summer is to elevate the science teaching/learning program at fifth grade. I'm working with colleagues at school and at Massachusetts' Audubon Drumlin Farm in this regard. I'm also participating in a course sponsored by the Wade Institute. Today I'm focused on the preparatory readings for the Wade Institute Course. I'm wondering what questions and information will come from these readings to enrich our science teaching/learning program.

Know the place you are studying
In part, articles discussed the places in nature we will be studying. In one case, the history of the place was revealed beginning with an agricultural site in the 19th century, then white pine, the effects of a hurricane, northern red oak. Overall this place experiences slow tree growth due to a number of factors. It was pointed out that forest management can manipulate long term rates of sequestration with attention to factors such as interannual changes, age structure, species composition and health of forest ecosystems.  As I think of these factors and young fifth grade naturalists and environmental study, I am thinking that it's important to help them create a lens with which to look at the environment using scientific categories, measures, and possible ways to positively impact the health of those areas.

Deep understanding of place and space can help us to protect and promote planet Earth
What we learn about Earth's places and space helps us to maximize safety and good development of the planet. We need to support and learn from this deep study to help deal with climate change and other factors that affect the land we live in and the space around us. During the course, I look forward to learning about this information from the scientists and other experts that focus on this study regularly.

Biomimicry

Resource

How can we use biomimicry to create products, processes, and policies that are well adapted to life on earth using the seven generation rule? Nature has already solved many ideas we are grappling with, so how can we look around to find the solutions to our problems and new, better ways of living? We could start backwards with this with students, by asking what products do we use regularly that mimic nature? A good example is the way velcro mimics burrs.

Sharing what we know - chemicals in the environment: Intellectual Ecology, Green Chemistry by John Warner

Warner asks this question: "We need to understand. . .why do we have materials and why do we invent things that hurt the environment?" Warner connects art and music analysis and our emotional response with the need for us to see the aesthetic in science, and to use a more holistic, human lens. Does removing bias in science create a construct to deny the bias that is there? Two types of knowledge - makers of knowledge and makers of things. Warner discusses the responsibility of "makers" and the fact that most makers don't understand toxicology and environmental mechanisms and this is why we end up with inventions of molecules that hurt us. What should we be working on--working on the designers, makers in order to better what is created. Warner discusses the flawed concept of survival of the fittest--it is truly the survival of the compatible, and then likens that to chemistry with a focus on creating compatible products. He suggests using the lens of biomimicry in making so that our making, creating is compatible, letting nature teach us how to make, create, solve problems. Nature works with randomness--what implications dos that have for our work in schools, our work in science, our work to protect the planet.

Reference

Ethics
Students from the earliest ages can learn what it means to be ethical. It begins with defining ethics: Rules about what is right and wrong to guide the way we act and work together. It also starts with providing a rationale for why ethics are important: a basic need of humanity is that we are treated with fairness and honesty, and ethics are the rules for behavior that promote trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring, and citizenship. We can talk about what it means to be ethical as a student and a teacher, and then when we approach specific disciplines and unit study, we can discuss what ethics are important to understand related to that study.

United Nations Reference

When studying science, and chemistry in particular, we have to relay to students the ethics of sustainability which include the following:

• zero tolerance for ecotoxicity and toxicity
• seeking green solutions, using green chemistry
• work to prevent unsafe laboratory/chemistry efforts, forward safe study behaviors: wearing protective lenses, wearing science coats if needed. . .  .
• Use Earth-friendly safe products and materials as much as possible

Students need to discuss ethics and ethical behavior. They need to list the actions they believe will create a sustainable environment at school, at home, and in the community. By nature, young students work to create compatible environments, and with a heightened focus, this will be even stronger and better. 

Our Common Journey

The National Research Organization's article about our common journey clearly gives us a roadmap to a more sustainable future. I want to return to this article soon and create a short list to share with colleagues and students to guide our environmental study next year. 

Clearly preparing for a week in the field with all this reading and research, has alerted me once again to the depth of expertise, knowledge, promise, and potential that exists. As educators we have to make time to deeply study, collaborate, and work with and for students to elevate their understanding, learning environments, and the materials they use in order to give them the tools for the best possible lives today and their efforts to prepare communities for the lives of tomorrow too.