COMPLETING THE PROJECT

     The focus of this project has been Nature Journaling and how it can best be used as a technique/tool for helping students learn about nature.  The model for this approach has been the use of questioning, observing (through text, drawing, and images), and then attempting to answer some of those initial questions using what’s been learned by observing.

     For the final component of this project we would like to ask you to tell us what you’ve learned about journaling over the course of this project.  An exploratory approach would be to address the following questions regarding your use of journals with your students/children:

• What did we do and why?

• How did it work, or not?

• How could it be made better and/or more meaningful in terms of techniques, skills, materials and resources?  Some examples might be: “I would definitely spend classroom time on basic drawing skills before going outside – and here’s how I would do that….”, or “I found that having students ask questions after observing worked a lot better because ….”, or, “my students found that using graph paper for the notebooks was too distracting – they did much better with blank sheets.  I think this is because ….”  And please comment on any of the technology (stereo microscope, doc cam, digital microscope) as well.

     We are also interested in how the student field kits have worked.  We are distributing these at the summer workshop sessions so that folks have a chance to practice using them, with classroom sets of the kits provided for those who might see them as helpful resources.  The kits are described here:  https://cnrcnaturejournaling.blogspot.com/p/summer-workshop-session-1.html 

     Your observations, comments, suggestions, and ideas are extremely important – that’s the reason for the grant.  We really want to know what worked, what didn’t work, why, and how it can be made better.  Please include as many examples (both text and images) as possible, we already have a lot of your examples of student work on the website and they may give you some ideas as to new/different approaches to nature journaling.

Format

     We would like you to submit your responses to the questions listed above as a PDF file by Aug. 29.  You can work individually or as a team, perhaps collaborating with other grade level teachers in your school.  Please be as detailed/specific as possible, including lots of examples (images and texts) as well as any resources (websites, books) that you found helpful.

     I will post all of the final reports on the website.  At that time, please read through these responses and make note of any comments, thoughts, and/or suggestions you might have.  During the final meeting on Sept. 11 we will ask you to provide a brief summary of your report, and provide time for any comments or suggestions.  At the end of the meeting the stipends will be distributed.