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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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