Objectives
The organizing theme of this course is an "Adopt-a-Forest" program for classrooms and schools. As with the "Adopt-a-Stream" program, adoption of a forest can provide a valuable field laboratory for learning stewardship ethics and responsibilities, scientific concepts, and practical field skills.
The State Superintendent of Schools Office reports that students score higher on standardized tests when their learning experiences are situated case studies and other concrete opportunities for applying and integrating concepts. Moreover, a forest can provide opportunities for interdisciplinary learning, involving physical, biological, and social sciences, as well as ethics, art, and history. By monitoring changes in a forest and comparing these changes from year to year, students can enhance these learning opportunities. Sharing of such forest assessments among schools via the internet will further enhance learning by introducing the students to comparative analysis of local ecosystems.
This course will focus on scientific concepts and field skills needed for middle and high school students to learn about forests, while also providing opportunities for enhancing learning by students in elementary school. Although available teaching resources and curriculum material will be provided, only secondary attention will be given to pedagogical issues. The instructors assume that participants have already or will learn how to teach science to a range of grade levels. The instructors also assume that participants are familiar with the State's Essential Academic Learning Requirements (EALRs) and can assess how well forest-related concepts and skills could contribute to meeting EALRs.
Participants will learn:
How to adopt a school forest for educational purposes,
How to describe, map, inventory, and assess the forest, including the following skills
- classifying
- counting
- measuring
- mapping
- orienting with a compass
- calculating (areas, volumes, flows, rates)
Appropriate sequencing of skill development,
How to link concepts and skills to EALRs,
Basic structural elements of a forest ecosystem, including
- plants
- animals
- soils
- water
- air
- people
Basic processes by which forests change, including
- life cycles of plants and animals
- plant succession
- disturbances (fire, insects and disease, wind, volcanoes)
- carbon cycling