I taught wonderful wetlands last Friday, which was really fun. I did the dip netting with them to find the macros. It was really fun to be out there with a good group of students like we had and it was really nice to be out in the water. However, the one thing that really bothered me was the lack of teaching and more supervision of the students that I had to do. Yes they were a good group but it seemed like all every 2 seconds someone was yelling out for help, because they were stuck or they fell in. All in all I must of had about 12 students fall in and get completely soaked. Which was funny for the teachers and myself.
I really tired to teach the students about how to search for macroinvertebrates and how to properly identify some of the basic ones in the field. However, the for the most part they were more concerned with not falling in. Which a lot of them didn't do so well at.
Dispit the somewhat lack of teaching I did, it also seemed like the students weren't that interested in dipping at all. Which was a really downer for me considering I love sampling and collecting macros. May be it was just the group that we had and other groups will be more interested in sampling.
I also must comment on the schedule that we used that day and how effective it was. the movement of the groups was really fluid and the whole day ran nicely. So I would recommend using that schedule again with the larger groups.
One thing that was discussed was cutting down the power point and moving the macroinvertebrate slides to somethings where they learn about them at the sorting station or dipping station. That way it cuts back on the amount of time the students are sitting up in the loft and more time out sampling or learning.
Even if it doesn't seem like the most effective teaching, it does give them a great experience. They seemed to have lots of fun, and I would imagine that from the whole day they come away with something. It would be interesting to access a difference between classes that receive reinforcement from teachers prior or after a field trip, and the long term learning impact.
ReplyDeleteI agree that it was a good fluid schedule. I really liked not having to change groups until 30 minutes. And I'm guessing that their favorite part was being in the waders in the water.
ReplyDelete5th grade can be tough because they start to try to impress each other in silly ways, like falling in the water. The boy/girl thing starts to be important too at that age which can be a distraction. It is a good idea to warn them that they will get boots stuck and show them the proper way to move around - with little steps and making sure one foot is planted before you lift the other. I think you will have success with other groups. Most ages seem to love the dipping part.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of cutting down the ppt. Putting the slides elsewhere might be helpful.
ReplyDeleteI think they still had a good experience and learned something! Even if it seemed they just wanted to get wet.