Our district is focusing on using our outdoor areas more than usual as we increase student motivation, independence, inquiry and health.
Our students are active, engaged and curious about the natural world.
Our suburban district has 2 official Wisconsin School Forest areas close to 3 of our 5 schools. While some of our students have experience and comfort in the great outdoors, many want to learn much more. Forest lessons and clubs are a great way to make this type of learning and outdoor experiences accessible to all our students.
My Project
These elementary student-friendly magnifying boxes will be shared among all classes in our district's 3 elementary schools as part of our School Forest Educational Kits. They may also be used during any lessons or activities using the outdoor learning areas at our schools, such as our school gardens. As our district's School Forest Coordinator, I want to make sure all our schools have access to tools for exploring nature, like these magnifying boxes. Students can place either living insects or non-living things, like soil or rocks, in these boxes for temporary observations. It's easier to draw a pillbug if it's not running away!
Elementary students PreK-5 will use these boxes primarily for our district's School Forest lessons as they explore concepts such as trees as habitats, decomposition, biotic vs abiotic parts of the forest, energy and matter cycles in nature, how Wisconsin's seasons affect living things and interdependency and diversity in our Wisconsin forest habitats.
Magnifying boxes allow students to see our woods differently as they use appropriate scientific tools which can led to higher quality observations. Sometimes students need to be encouraged to slow down while doing scientific work. Magnifying boxes like this can do that as students are engaged in observing an ant's antennae or the difference between clay and silt grains . Making better quality observations can lead to more questions which can keep the scientific inquiry cycle going on and on!
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