Conclusions and Implications
In today’s world, many children grow up disconnected from their natural environment for a variety of reasons. In this action research project, my twenty, third grade students were allowed to connect with nature in a school setting during school year 2009-2010. Their area for exploration included the inside of our classroom, as well as outdoors on the school grounds. My goal was to provide my students with ‘unstructured time’ with nature, that is, free from pre-planned lessons and instruction, to gain an understanding of what happens when they interact with nature given this opportunity.
Interestingly, through the use of multiple qualitative methods including: participant observation and dialogue, interviewing, student and teacher journaling, photos, video, and student work, I gained an understanding of the positive impact that free exploration of nature in a school setting had on my students. I found that all twenty students exhibited a connection with the natural world, and empathy for the many organisms inhabiting Earth. While a nature connection and empathy were two central themes that became apparent among students, two other major themes were also revealed: taking charge of their own learning and forming social skills.
Themes
I will discuss four central themes that emerged as students were given the opportunity to explore nature in a school setting. These themes were realized after collecting and evaluating ten months of data. It is worth mentioning that, early in my research, I abandoned my original experimental design and methods of data collection. Initially, I planned to document trends using a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods of evaluation such as extracting trends from surveys, interviews, and journal entries. I soon realized that to answer the question of this action research project, of what happens when children experience nature in the school setting, a participatory-observer approach using qualitative methods of data collection would be necessary. This approach enabled me to witness and document, first-hand, what the children actually did while experiencing nature. I did not have to rely on what they remembered about a particular event, or how they described what they did on a specific occasion.
Connect with Nature
Laurie Thorp, in her Voices From the Garden: A performance Ethnography, stated, “Children intuitively connect to the earth if given the opportunity. In fact, I couldn’t keep them away; they were drawn to the soil like a magnet.”(2003) The results of my action research project support Thorp’s quotation. From the first time my students were introduced to the garden area, even though it was in shambles, they could not be easily pulled away. What started out as a garden “clean-up” day quickly turned into a successful nature experience. Their first encounter with exploring nature in the school setting, revealed a snake, scorpion, mouse nest with mice, centipedes, spiders, insects of all kinds, and various collectables such as rocks and leaves. This all happened in a sixty minute span. The children were busy turning over stacks of bricks, bags of soil, and lumber looking for the next treasure. My students were mesmerized by nature’s offerings, and when it was time, no one, not one of my twenty students wanted to leave the garden and return to the classroom.
Throughout the next ten months, these kids remained captivated by nature’s wonders, thus forming that special connection with nature. This introduction to the natural world through the school setting was the first experience for most of my students. Few had ever seen a live snake or scorpion, purposefully searched for critters, made nature collections or even been interested in the natural environment before. During a recent class discussion, my students came to a unanimous conclusion; “This year was the first year that they ‘loved’ nature and science.” The following quote, written by Luther Burbank in 1929, captures the essence of my research.
Every child should have mud pies, grasshoppers, water bugs, tadpoles, frogs, mud turtles, elderberries, wild strawberries, acorns, chestnuts, trees to climb, brooks to wade, water lilies, woodchucks, bats, bees, butterflies, various animals to pet, hayfields, pine-cones, rocks to roll, sand, snakes, huckleberries and hornets; and any child who has been deprived of these has been deprived of the best part of his education. (Heffernan 2004)
It is alarming that today’s children lack meaningful, direct, and long-term experience with nature. (Heffernan 2003) Children’s information about and experience with nature comes primarily second-hand through television, movies, and the computer. I understand the need for children to be adept at technology, but we cannot allow them to become alienated from nature. Janet Privnik (1994), in her article Grounds and Gardens: Reaping and Environmental Ethic, discusses the important topic of human alienation from nature and its effect on children. She believes that school gardening is a way to connect students with the natural world that is lost when growing up in the city. It is up to us, as educators, to bridge the gap between nature and our students by providing school settings conducive to nature exploration. For school year 2010-2011, I will continue sharing my passion for nature with students. Also, I will continue working at improving the large garden in order to enhance natural world experiences for all students and teachers at Finney Elementary.
Exhibit Empathy for Living Organisms
Empathy is the ability to understand the world from another person’s point of view and the motivation to treat that person with kindness based on that understanding. A surprising theme that appeared time after time during this research was that students exhibited empathy for all living things. I say surprising because the empathy displayed by the students not only occurred often but across many different situations. Examples include: mourning the death of Kicky the turtle and holding a memorial; wanting to bury Dunkers the hissing cockroach next to Kicky “so they won’t be lonely”; a student bringing in her dead goldfish from home to be buried in our pet cemetery; naming and talking with the night crawlers, and various insects they collected; making elaborate habitats for their critters, making sure they had the proper food, water and shelter; a student bringing a “friend” for Goldie the goldfish; catching wild critters outdoors and then releasing them back into their native habitat “because that is where they are the happiest”; and bringing boxes of raisins for Cupcake “because she loves them.“ The list is endless.
Students also demonstrated empathy toward their classmates. Research shows that children are naturally predisposed to empathy, but that empathy requires key environmental exposures to develop; nurturing is the most important. (Decety 2008) While parents provide nurturing at home for their children, it’s up to teachers to ensure that students continue to be nurtured at school. Perhaps the best way to make empathetic kids is to simply be an empathetic parent or teacher. Show kids why being nice matters and that it feels good. One way to model this behavior is showing empathy with nature’s critters and classroom animals. This method was used in this research project and resulted in documented instances where students expressed empathy for their classmates. Frequently, I observed situations where a plant or animal was involved in the situation. For example, during the burial ceremony for Kicky the turtle, the mood was somber and a few students were in tears. Even though not all the students were affected by Kicky’s death, no one joked, laughed or teased -- even as Max sang his rendition of the Star Spangled Banner for the occasion. Another instance is the time when Karina presented Eric with a new Venus Fly Trap plant after his had died.
Why were these twenty students able to act on their feelings of empathy so freely and openly? One reason may be that they felt safe and uninhibited in a nurturing and non-threatening environment. Each year, my main goal is to provide a classroom setting where students feel welcomed and safe. Often times, kids come to school with the a myriad of problems such as an alcoholic or drug addicted parent, abuse, sibling violence, hunger, neglect, or maybe it’s some minor misunderstanding that occurred that morning. Whatever it may be, I strive to provide a secure classroom environment in which they can learn and feel valued.
A second reason this group of students may feel free to display empathy is they are among peers with whom they have developed close bonds. In my seven years of teaching, I have never had a class of students that were as closely tied as my students this year. This makes sense when you factor in the fact that these kids shared the same experiences, many new ones throughout the school year, mostly while exploring nature together. They treated one another as if they were brothers and sisters. It was the little things that made a huge impact like Karina bringing Eric a new Venus Fly Trap plant after his died, consoling each other when a classroom pet died, sharing their insects with classmates who came up empty while on nature explorations, or discovering that hard to find library book for a classmate for his nature project.
Showing empathy for all living organisms was a significant conclusion resulting from my action research project. Empathy is one of the greatest gifts we can give our children because it helps them see the good in everything around them. It is during the elementary school years that empathy either takes root and becomes a way of life or emotional callousness sets in. (Meyers 2002) My research indicates that a useful way of fostering empathy in students is through the use of classroom animals and nature exploration with their peers. When students learn to be empathetic at an early age it will help them develop a sense of inner strength so they will rely on their own inner voices instead of outside influences. This will be especially important during junior and senior high school years when peer pressure is greatest. They will have the fortitude to make good choices and not make choices tainted by their need for approval and acceptance.
Take Charge of Own Learning
A well-known educational pioneer, John Dewey, believed that learning should be experiential and students should create their own knowledge (Bundschau-Mooney 2005). One of the most gratifying themes resulting from my data was that students constructed their own learning. As students began exploring nature, they immediately became curious and inquisitive about the organisms they found. Their enthusiasm for nature took the form of going to the school library and selecting non-fiction books on the subject. For example, every Tuesday is library day. In the past, my third graders were mainly interested in fiction books. On this particular Tuesday, though, I counted fifteen students huddled together in the non-fiction section. One student whispered, “Lilly, here’s one on beetles for you.” Soon, all of them were completely immersed in their books. They sat at the library tables with their books laid out in front of them. It became evident to me that when students are introduced to books with topics they are interested in and find fascinating, they will be motivated to read about them and hold meaningful discussions. Facts were being thrown at me from all directions. Students were chiming in, adding new facts to the conversation. Kids’ learning from other kids is powerful. Learning for them has taken on a whole new meaning.
During the last week of school, my third graders will host a public exhibition showcasing their nature projects. They will be the ‘expert’ on their topic and be prepared to inform their audience on the subject and answer questions. In previous years, students were given a list of five animals and asked to choose one for their animal research report. However, this year in our class, we decided to do something different. Because my kids have been freely exploring nature all year, they were given the opportunity to choose anything in nature they wanted to study. As it turned out, when students were in control of their own learning, something interesting occurred. Of the eighteen students, fourteen chose different subjects to study. This was interesting because the students were not concerned with what their classmates were doing; but instead, they were motivated to find their own area of interest.
I found that when students were interested in a topic of their choosing, such as nature, they were motivated to read and learn about it on their own. This has significant implications because as students concentrated on subjects that they find fascinating and interesting to them, “they will become more capable and confident readers, writers, and speakers.” (Lieberman & Hoody 1998).
Develop Social Skills
Children spend an average of forty hours a week in school and school activities; that is over forty percent of their week if you consider their waking day is fourteen hours. (Robinson 2005) Therefore, it stands to reason that school and after school activities play a critical role in shaping the life skills of our students. When third to fifth grade students who participated in a one-year gardening program filled out a survey of life skills, they showed a significant increase in self-understanding and the ability to work in groups compared to nonparticipating students. (Robinson 2005) The remaining life skills Robinson assessed were teamwork, leadership, decision making skills, communication skills, and volunteerism.
My research also showed that children developed life skills, particularly social skills. However, this research did not quantitatively assess life skills like Robinsons’; instead, it was based on participant observations of students while they freely explored nature with classmates at school. I was interested in knowing what these students’ actual experiences would be and documenting events and moments as journal entries, photos, video, student work, and conversations and not making quantitative measurements.
So, when I asked the question, what happens when children experience nature in the school setting, an interesting theme emerged from the data. It provided a glimpse of how children can develop important social skills from being able to experience nature, inside and outside the classroom, for ten months with their classmates. Some of main skills included teamwork, communication, relationships, and sense of belonging.
Teamwork is not a skill often experienced during elementary school years unless students participate in an organized sport such as softball, soccer, or swimming. Those who do not play sports are often left to the throes of television and video games and are deprived of healthy social interaction. The students in this study were all able to experience what it was like to be part of a team. By the middle of the study, united by nature, each one of my students belonged to “team 402”, that is, Mrs. Alli’s third-grade team. The students developed the skill of teamwork over the course of the ten months. In the beginning, as to be expected, small cliques of boys and the same for girls, of two to three students, were observed exploring in the large and small garden. In the classroom, it was the same two or three student clicks that interacted. However, as we began spending more and more class time outdoors the trend started to shift. I began to observe the students interacting with other students they had previously ignored. For example, one quiet, shy little boy and the most out-going “class character” were interacting as though they were best friends. They were actually a team. They were turning over bricks together, marveling at the numbers of “rollie pollies” they were finding. Also, I began to see larger groups forming to perform tasks. Teams of both boys and girls moved bags of soil and compost from one area to another. There was no gender bias, girls and boys alike were performing the same jobs. The best part was they were visibly having fun. It was impressive to watch them working cooperatively to get the job done.
Being able to effectively communicate, form relationships with peers and having that sense of belonging to a group were all important areas the students in this study were able to develop. The foundation of their successes was nature. Having shared common experiences this year allowed these students to form close bonds, consequently allowing them to trust, respect and care for one another. Every day, I observed students having meaningful conversations about their “critters of interest.” They communicated in scientific terms such as carbon dioxide, photosynthesis, thorax, abdomen, antennae, venomous, poisonous, pupa, metamorphic, sedimentary, igneous, castings, among others. The students listened intently and were genuinely interested in what their classmates had to say. I got the impression that no one wanted to miss a thing. The knowledge they were sharing was generated on their own. As previously mentioned, they were in charge of their own learning. Again, these conversations were mainly nature-based whether it was something they read, saw, heard or found. Over the course of the year, I observed new relationships being made between boys and girls, boys and boys, and girls and girls. The students made no gender distinction when it came to making friends. Some students, for the first time, had a sense of belonging to a group. A mother of one student commented on how being in my classroom this year changed her daughter’s disposition from being one of sad and withdrawn to happy and outgoing. The girl loves going to the gardens with the whole class and finding new critters. Some students from other classes have joined “team 402” and are regular participants on our nature explorations.
The students in this research connected with nature; demonstrated empathy for living organisms, including their classmates; took charge of their own learning; and developed important social skills. The lessons these twenty students learned while exploring the natural environment can last a lifetime. Nature provided them with meaningful and tangible experiences as well as memories they can carry with them into adulthood.
As I watch the videos of my students interact with nature this past year, I know I have not done this thesis justice. How can I ever capture the essence of this action research project on paper? Never In my seven years of teaching have I ever seen a group of students so actively engaged, completely immersed, and lost in their own world.