If you live in the Triangle area and aren't familiar with one of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences premier educators, Bob Alderink, then you are really missing out. Bob Alderink is exactly the kind of person you want your child to be learning science from; he is passionate about his subject, knows all sorts of both deep and trivial knowledge on many different aspects of biology, and is an excellent presenter who couches his lessons with demonstrations, hands-on activities, age-appropriate pacing, and really great energy and humor.
For years, we have enjoyed Alderink's presentations at the NCMNS. My son has watched the same show over multiple times (an unusual behavior for him) because of Alderink's energy and funny comments. However, Alderink also offers a number of classes for homeschoolers outside of the Museum, and we were fortunate enough to attend a series of his wildlife classes this past year. Just walking through the woods with Alderink is a treasure, because he can explain so many interesting facets of just about every plant you pass.
So I was so glad to hear that the North Carolina Science, Math, and Technology Center recently awarded its first ever award for Outstanding Informal Educator to Bob Alderink. You can learn more about Alderink and his work in science education through this video on the SMT website.
Or, you can see some of Alderink's work here on a new project he is doing for the NCMNS: a series of short videos entitled A Moment of Science:
I was so pleased to hear about Alderink's award--I don't know anyone who deserves recognition more than he does for the wonderful job he does on turning kids onto science. If you don't know him, you should definitely go see one of his public educational presentations at the Museum. And if you are a homeschooler and have an opportunity to attend some of his classes, jump on it! You won't be disappointed.
Showing posts with label experiential education. Show all posts
Showing posts with label experiential education. Show all posts
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Sunday, March 20, 2011
World Religion: Experiencing Paganism
Our World Religions class has concluded our unit on Christianity, and has moved on to Earth-based Religions. So today we had a wonderful experience: we got to experience the celebration of Ostara with leaders of a modern-day Pagan group.
Our guest teachers today were Miss Carissa and Mister James. Both of them had been practicing Paganism over over 20 years, and both of them were very clear in explaining a spiritual tradition that was new to most of us, as well as wonderful about working with young people.
The class began with the building (and explaining) of a Pagan altar. In the particular Pagan tradition of these teachers (Reclaiming tradition), the alter begins with the North--the place of Winter and Earth. It then moves to the East (or Spring and Air), then South (Summer and Fire), and then West (Fall and Water). In the center is Spirit.
Miss Carissa and Mister James then went through the "Wheel of the Year," or the calendar of the major Pagan celebrations. They explained the significance of each one, and related them to other holidays celebrated around the same time by other religions. They presented a really interesting perspective that the different holidays were times for us to use for our own planning and manifestation purposes. Thus, for example, the Spring Equinox, or Ostara, is a time for setting intentions for the new year; Mabon, or the Fall Equinox, is a time of taking inventory and assessing what you have achieved; Imbolic, which takes place at the beginning of February, is a time of wonder and transformation, and for getting ready to set the intentions that will be given in a few weeks at Ostara once again. I love the idea of religious holidays that are not marking what has happened in the past with a significant figure, but for our personal use for driving our own lives.
The last section of the class was spent in experiencing an actual Ostara ritual. We began drawing our own intentions for the coming period on a piece of material that was to become our seed packet. For example, the first picture is the one my son drew; the second one is mine.
We wrapped dill seeds in our packages, and placed them on the altar.
Then we went through an Ostara ritual, which included cleansing, grounding, setting a sacred circle, honoring the directions, calling in the ancestors, calling in allies, a guided meditation to help us get clear on our intentions and our power...and then breaking everything down by going through the whole process in reverse.
And I may have messed up the process somewhat, because the entire experience was just so energizing that is is hard to remember and explain using our traditional brain. I think we all experienced a change in consciousness and a change in the energy as we experienced and participated in this ritual. But our guest teachers explained that what we had experienced was what Paganism was all about. Or, that is, they said that "magic" (I think many Pagans spell it as "magick," but they were speaking, not writing, so I don't know if that is how I should be writing it) is really just about a change in consciousness. That, I believe, is the goal of many, if not all, religions.
So we experienced a great energy in Paganism, while discovering another universal thread that ties almost all spiritual practices together.
I had read quite a bit about modern Paganism (also called Neo-Paganism, or sometime Wicca or Witchcraft), but it became a lot clearer hearing about it from actual Pagan teachers. Plus, I think we all had a fabulous experience in the ritual. So if you are studying World Religions, I really recommend finding a local Pagan group and seeing if you, too, can experience some Pagan practices.
Our guest teachers today were Miss Carissa and Mister James. Both of them had been practicing Paganism over over 20 years, and both of them were very clear in explaining a spiritual tradition that was new to most of us, as well as wonderful about working with young people.
The class began with the building (and explaining) of a Pagan altar. In the particular Pagan tradition of these teachers (Reclaiming tradition), the alter begins with the North--the place of Winter and Earth. It then moves to the East (or Spring and Air), then South (Summer and Fire), and then West (Fall and Water). In the center is Spirit.
Miss Carissa and Mister James then went through the "Wheel of the Year," or the calendar of the major Pagan celebrations. They explained the significance of each one, and related them to other holidays celebrated around the same time by other religions. They presented a really interesting perspective that the different holidays were times for us to use for our own planning and manifestation purposes. Thus, for example, the Spring Equinox, or Ostara, is a time for setting intentions for the new year; Mabon, or the Fall Equinox, is a time of taking inventory and assessing what you have achieved; Imbolic, which takes place at the beginning of February, is a time of wonder and transformation, and for getting ready to set the intentions that will be given in a few weeks at Ostara once again. I love the idea of religious holidays that are not marking what has happened in the past with a significant figure, but for our personal use for driving our own lives.
The last section of the class was spent in experiencing an actual Ostara ritual. We began drawing our own intentions for the coming period on a piece of material that was to become our seed packet. For example, the first picture is the one my son drew; the second one is mine.
We wrapped dill seeds in our packages, and placed them on the altar.
Then we went through an Ostara ritual, which included cleansing, grounding, setting a sacred circle, honoring the directions, calling in the ancestors, calling in allies, a guided meditation to help us get clear on our intentions and our power...and then breaking everything down by going through the whole process in reverse.
And I may have messed up the process somewhat, because the entire experience was just so energizing that is is hard to remember and explain using our traditional brain. I think we all experienced a change in consciousness and a change in the energy as we experienced and participated in this ritual. But our guest teachers explained that what we had experienced was what Paganism was all about. Or, that is, they said that "magic" (I think many Pagans spell it as "magick," but they were speaking, not writing, so I don't know if that is how I should be writing it) is really just about a change in consciousness. That, I believe, is the goal of many, if not all, religions.
So we experienced a great energy in Paganism, while discovering another universal thread that ties almost all spiritual practices together.
I had read quite a bit about modern Paganism (also called Neo-Paganism, or sometime Wicca or Witchcraft), but it became a lot clearer hearing about it from actual Pagan teachers. Plus, I think we all had a fabulous experience in the ritual. So if you are studying World Religions, I really recommend finding a local Pagan group and seeing if you, too, can experience some Pagan practices.
Monday, March 7, 2011
Lesson Plan: Biodiversity Food Chain Game
If you've been reading my blog for the past couple of weeks, you may have the impression that all we do in our homeschool is to cook and to read picture books! But that's completely untrue. Sometimes we play with animals...
In this case, it's a ball python, also known as a royal python for its beautiful colors and patterns. Actually, this snake, named "Tommy," is one of the Animal Ambassadors from the North Carolina Zoo. The Animal Ambassadors are rehabilitated animals that can't be put into the wildlife setting of the Zoo, but instead are used for their educational programs.
Here in North Carolina, the state zoo offers a wonderful program for homeschoolers known as the Zoo Club. For an extremely reasonable fee, they come to our community (all across the state) and do two educational programs, and we travel to the zoo for two others. The educators there are excellent, and the zoo park itself is large and beautiful.
This year we've been doing a series of classes on the topic of Biodiversity. One thing that the teacher did in the class today was the Biodiversity Food Chain Game. To play this game, you need a mixture of photographs of edible plants, herbivores, and carnivores (one for each student) as well as a ball of string. The teacher hands out the photos, then picks up the ball of string and announces she is the sun. Who has a photo of something that makes its food from the sun? The students with pictures of a flower or tree or plan hold up their photos, and the teacher tosses one the ball of string, but still holds on to the end of the string. The first student then tosses it to another student with a plant picture, holding onto a piece of the string as well. This goes on until all the plant students are holding a piece of the string. Then the teacher asks for students who have photos of animals that might eat those plants to hold up their photos. Students with deer or rabbits or mice hold up their pictures, and the ball gets tossed to all of them. Finally, the students are asked who might eat those creatures, and the same procedure is followed for all the students with carnivores, until all the students are holding a piece of the same string in a web-like formation.
Then the teacher asks what happens if all of one type of life--all daisies, maybe, or all frogs--disappear. The student with that photo is then asked to let go of the string. The web becomes limp, and the students have to pull harder to keep a taut web. Then another species of life is eliminated, and then another. Each time it becomes harder to fix the web, and the students naturally start moving further apart. This goes on and on until you get something like this:
With this class, at least, the students were also pulling so hard on the string that it snapped, and the web fell apart completely.
Anyway, she did this with three different ages of children, pre-K up to middle school, and it worked really well with all the age groups. It was a great way to demonstrate to students how the loss of even a single species creates problems for the entire food chain. Kudos to the NC Zoo educators for coming up with a way to teach this important lesson to students in a way that they won't forget!
In this case, it's a ball python, also known as a royal python for its beautiful colors and patterns. Actually, this snake, named "Tommy," is one of the Animal Ambassadors from the North Carolina Zoo. The Animal Ambassadors are rehabilitated animals that can't be put into the wildlife setting of the Zoo, but instead are used for their educational programs.
Here in North Carolina, the state zoo offers a wonderful program for homeschoolers known as the Zoo Club. For an extremely reasonable fee, they come to our community (all across the state) and do two educational programs, and we travel to the zoo for two others. The educators there are excellent, and the zoo park itself is large and beautiful.
This year we've been doing a series of classes on the topic of Biodiversity. One thing that the teacher did in the class today was the Biodiversity Food Chain Game. To play this game, you need a mixture of photographs of edible plants, herbivores, and carnivores (one for each student) as well as a ball of string. The teacher hands out the photos, then picks up the ball of string and announces she is the sun. Who has a photo of something that makes its food from the sun? The students with pictures of a flower or tree or plan hold up their photos, and the teacher tosses one the ball of string, but still holds on to the end of the string. The first student then tosses it to another student with a plant picture, holding onto a piece of the string as well. This goes on until all the plant students are holding a piece of the string. Then the teacher asks for students who have photos of animals that might eat those plants to hold up their photos. Students with deer or rabbits or mice hold up their pictures, and the ball gets tossed to all of them. Finally, the students are asked who might eat those creatures, and the same procedure is followed for all the students with carnivores, until all the students are holding a piece of the same string in a web-like formation.
Then the teacher asks what happens if all of one type of life--all daisies, maybe, or all frogs--disappear. The student with that photo is then asked to let go of the string. The web becomes limp, and the students have to pull harder to keep a taut web. Then another species of life is eliminated, and then another. Each time it becomes harder to fix the web, and the students naturally start moving further apart. This goes on and on until you get something like this:
With this class, at least, the students were also pulling so hard on the string that it snapped, and the web fell apart completely.
Anyway, she did this with three different ages of children, pre-K up to middle school, and it worked really well with all the age groups. It was a great way to demonstrate to students how the loss of even a single species creates problems for the entire food chain. Kudos to the NC Zoo educators for coming up with a way to teach this important lesson to students in a way that they won't forget!
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