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Subject: gardenwriters-on-gardening
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- From: Nan Sterman <Talkingpoints@PlantSoup.Com>
- To: gardenwriters-on-gardening <gwl-g@lists.ibiblio.org>
- Subject: RE: [gwl-g] Children lectures
- Date: Sat, 15 May 2004 11:10:52 -0700
Title: RE: [gwl-g] Children lectures
I had a lecture on herbs that I gave to 3rd graders years ago. They were a wonderful audience. My hook was to talk about herbs in terms of what dishes their grand parents, aunts and uncles used herbs, or other ways they used herbs. About six kids jumped on that line immediately and we went for a really fun 40 minutes. I angled in with how herbs grow and what we do to care for them and stuff like that. It was a real enjoyable time.
Southern Jeff
Reminds me of when I was an undergrad at Duke
Marine Lab in NC. We had to do an independent study project and
while most of the students spent their time at the lab bench or out in
dinghies collecting sea critters, my friends and I went out into the
local elementary school (read: extremely poor with little resources
and children with limited exposure) and taught fourth graders (or
maybe they were fifth graders) about the sea life living along the
shores. Though they lived right along the coast, many of these
children had NEVER been to the waters' edge.
We got the children out of their chairs onto
a rug we spread on the floor. We lead them in singing
songs about sea critters. We brought in all kinds of
stuff for them to look at and touch (very important for reaching
children).
And then we made seaweed soup and taught them
about Algin and showed them all the products they knew that had
carageenan and alginate in them - toothpaste, cottage cheese,
ice cream. Of course we started off by asking "have you
ever eaten seaweed?" which garnered a classroom wide groan
"no way!" "Yes you have!" we said, and
showed them all those products.
We did sea-related art projects with the kids and lots of other
fun things. The teacher was delighted (who herself was
doing amazing things with tremendously limited resources) and
made a comment that still sticks in my mind, more than 20 years
later. She pointed out a child who was one of the more active
participants in what we were doing. He had taken over the guitar
we brought and was singing and laughing and talking....the teacher
told us that she had never heard the child's voice before.!
Thanks for bringing back this memory.
The take home messages from that expeirence have been key to
teaching both kids and adults in the 20 years since that time:
- be prepared even if you want the experience to be unstructureed.
- but make the environment warm and informal
- relate it to their personal experiences
- provide opportunities to touch and explore whatever it is you want them to learn about
- address all styles of learning by incorporating art, music, printed words, etc.
- encourage everyone to participate and be creative
- If you can, include something that the learners can take home with them
g'luck!
Nan
--
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Nan
Sterman
Plant Soup (TM)
PO Box 231034
Encinitas, CA
92023
760.634.2902 (voice)
Talkingpoints@PlantSoup.Com
760.634.2957 (fax)
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-
Re: [gwl-g] Organic at what cost?
, (continued)
- Re: [gwl-g] Organic at what cost?, Doug Green, 05/14/2004
-
Re: [gwl-g] Organic at what cost?,
Carolyn Ulrich, 05/14/2004
-
Re: [gwl-g] Organic at what cost?,
Stephen Lamphear, 05/14/2004
- Re: [gwl-g] Organic at what cost?, Jeff Lowenfels, 05/14/2004
-
Re: [gwl-g] Organic at what cost?,
Stephen Lamphear, 05/14/2004
- Re: [gwl-g] Organic at what cost?, nancy szerlag, 05/14/2004
-
Re: [gwl-g] Organic at what cost?,
Hamptongar, 05/14/2004
-
Re: [gwl-g] Organic at what cost?,
Melanie, 05/14/2004
-
[gwl-g] Children lectures,
Sheri Ann Richerson, 05/14/2004
- Re: [gwl-g] Children lectures, Jo Ellen Meyers Sharp, 05/14/2004
-
RE: [gwl-g] Children lectures,
Jeff Ball, 05/15/2004
- RE: [gwl-g] Children lectures, Nan Sterman, 05/15/2004
-
[gwl-g] Children lectures,
Sheri Ann Richerson, 05/14/2004
-
Re: [gwl-g] Organic at what cost?,
Melanie, 05/14/2004
- Re: [gwl-g] Organic at what cost?, Marge Talt, 05/14/2004
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