A field guide of their own

The article presents information on the use of natural outdoor settings to develop and encourage children's appreciation and ownership of their natural environment. Whenever students were outdoors, they invariably asked to know the names of what they saw. Rather than simply recite plant and animal names., we pointed out identifiable features in a plant or animal and then taught students to use field guides to find out more. A project was planned for the students to teach the integration of arts and science into other disciplines and there connections to the world around them. Throughout the school year, activities in science focused on developing students' science-process skills, and this particular project focused on the skills of observing and comparing. One hundred twenty five second-and third-grade students participated in the month-long project. This age group was chosen for practical reasons: first, because their schedule went from art to science, or vice versa. This allowed for a block of an hour and a half for each student, rather than the usual 45-minute time period. Second, it was felt that this age group would be developmentally able to make generalizations about habitats and plant requirements while focusing on small differences between species.