Preserving Natural Observations to Spark Writing Creativity
Help me give my students a technological tool to preserve observations while on place based and project based learning journeys in order to support students in future writing activities.
My students are special because their families have committed them to be the next generation of indigenous Hawaiian Language speakers. Our school has many students that come from low income households. Cost of living is high in our state and so public education is usually the route most families have to go. Our school is a school of choice so families choose to send their child to our school. Our school is also on a mission to raise the next generation of cultural practitioners that hold fast to values of conservation while still using innovation. Holding our value of cultural knowledge and protecting our resources is of high value while promoting advancement in economic growth.
One of the goals at our school is to have 80% of our students at grade level in English and in Hawaiian by the 8th grade.
The students I currently teach are 6th and 7th graders in a English Language Arts class. The classroom has books and other manipulatives, however we are in need of instruments to help make the class more engaging for our students. We believe strongly in caring for our environment at our school.
My Project
The waterproof photo cameras and memory cards we are requesting serve an important function in helping our students preserve their observations while conducting research in natural environments. During the course of the school year, our students conduct action research science inquiry projects in which they address a natural occurrence they see in nature. These projects are multi disciplinary therefore one of the requirements of this project is writing.
Imagination and creativity is the key to effective and well crafted writing.
Many times students struggle with choosing topics for writing literary stories or struggle with sequence for informative writing. With these cameras, students will preserve their observations at the shoreline or forest regions in order to report on the data they collected or take that data and turn into a literary story as our ancestors did to explain natural cycles in nature. It is imperative for students to have a reference point to spark memories of observations and experiences when they are in their school learning laboratory versus their natural outdoor laboratory.
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