Submitted by Wilma Jozwiak (not verified) on February 16, 2008 - 14:36.
My daughter is a 4th grade teacher in New York State, where the 4th grade curriculum includes introduction to the concept of biosphere. My daughter is a philosophical vegetarian who was distressed with the accepted strategy for teaching about the biosphere, which involved creating a terrarium/aquarium from soda bottles and including small fish. The fish came by mail, and rarely with all the poor fish still alive - at the end of the unit, teachers "disposed" of the remaining fish, if any had survived. My daughter already has a classroom tortoise (Rylant, after one class' favorite author), but realized more was necessary. She began a vermiculture project. The kids have really gotten into it, conducting any number of experiements with the amount of worm castings created. One budding scientist found what he took to be sprouted seeds (they probably were . . .) when they did their first harvest of castings, and has set up mini greenhouses for each seed with daily observations recorded scrupulously. The kids, along with my daughter and the school's librarian, have started a blog about their worms (http://imabookworm.edublogs.org/). This is a super classroom animal project that does not involve premature death of animals or release of non-native species, and teaches ecologically sound behaviors.
Living things in the classroom
Submitted by Wilma Jozwiak (not verified) on February 16, 2008 - 14:36.
My daughter is a 4th grade teacher in New York State, where the 4th grade curriculum includes introduction to the concept of biosphere. My daughter is a philosophical vegetarian who was distressed with the accepted strategy for teaching about the biosphere, which involved creating a terrarium/aquarium from soda bottles and including small fish. The fish came by mail, and rarely with all the poor fish still alive - at the end of the unit, teachers "disposed" of the remaining fish, if any had survived. My daughter already has a classroom tortoise (Rylant, after one class' favorite author), but realized more was necessary. She began a vermiculture project. The kids have really gotten into it, conducting any number of experiements with the amount of worm castings created. One budding scientist found what he took to be sprouted seeds (they probably were . . .) when they did their first harvest of castings, and has set up mini greenhouses for each seed with daily observations recorded scrupulously. The kids, along with my daughter and the school's librarian, have started a blog about their worms (http://imabookworm.edublogs.org/). This is a super classroom animal project that does not involve premature death of animals or release of non-native species, and teaches ecologically sound behaviors.