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‘Eco-Discoverers’
Aid Research This summer, local elementary school students are mining for chocolate chips in cookies, making collages from recycled paper, and searching for possible wind-turbine locations using their own handmade wind-measurers. It's all part of "Eco-Discovery Camp," a research project of Albion College student Catherine Game, that enhances children's respect for and understanding of the environment in such projects. Game keeps herself busy during the school year with a double major in art and biology, an environmental biology minor and environmental studies concentration. Though art and biology are commonly viewed as unrelated fields, Game arrived at Albion College with a love of both and decided she “didn’t want to give either of them up.”
“Since I’ve been at Albion, I’ve come to discover that art and biology have a lot in common” said Game, explaining what led her to develop the Eco-Discovery camp, which she is running this summer at the College’s Whitehouse Nature Center. “Both are visually oriented, and I really think both provide useful opportunities to teach children science. I’m interested in ecological advocacy and I think I can teach that with art as well as just ‘science.’” The camp offers elementary school students fun and interactive environmental lessons through hands-on art and science projects. The two-week course focuses on recycling, energy issues, and renewable building materials. As part of the renewable building materials lesson, campers build models of their own houses using “cob,” a clay/sand/straw mixture that has been used in Europe for over 500 years. This artistic activity, not surprisingly, is a big hit with kids. “Playing with a clay-based substance is always fun” said Game, “but playing with cob was both fun and meaningful for the campers because they learned about its environmentally friendly nature before they built their model homes.”
The cob-house construction was the final part of a lesson that began with the children drawing pictures of their houses and talking about the materials they are made of – mostly wood. Game then took the campers outside to learn why wood is a problematic building material. Each camper got a handful of cloth ribbons and, within a small wooded area, was instructed to "claim" trees with their ribbon markers. The campers, who excitedly ran from tree to tree, quickly saw how difficult it became to find a tree without a ribbon already tied to it. “This helped the campers understand why wood is not an easily renewed building material,” said Game. After removing the ribbons from the trees, Game showed the campers pictures of buildings made with renewable substances, led a conversation about the beneficial nature of such substances, and then got the campers started on their cob model homes. While Game feels environmental education is important for its own sake, her research and instruction may have the added benefit of helping her campers to do better on upcoming MEAP (Michigan Educational Assessment Program) tests and in school. School performance on the MEAP is a main component of the No Child Left Behind mandate, and the Eco-Discovery curriculum directly addresses some of the material tested via the MEAP. In addition, the current Michigan Curriculum Framework contains an educational standard for human/environment interaction. According to Albion Public Schools assistant superintendent Patricia Murray, “students are expected to describe, compare, and explain the locations and characteristics of ecosystems, resources, human adaptation, environmental impact and the interrelationships among them,” lessons the Eco-Discovery campers are learning. The children who already attended Eco-Camp this summer arrived with very different levels of environmental knowledge, some already well-versed in environmental terminology and concepts, some without any knowledge of the field. Thanks to Game’s work, they all left camp with an understanding of ecology that should help them in school and on upcoming MEAP tests. “The children really liked being at the Nature Center and were really enthusiastic,” said Game. More importantly for Game, her campers now understand the value of a healthy environment and will hopefully work to preserve it throughout their lives. Catherine’s Eco-Discovery camp is a self-designed research project, in which Game is examining which method (scientific or artistic) is more effective in the retention of the environmental material for her campers, in the hopes that she can learn how to better instruct children to value and understand the environment. Catherine will present her findings with other FURSCA participants in April 2007, at the Elkin R. Isaac Student Research Symposium at Albion College. |
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