Today was exciting!
We met up again for a bright and partially cloudy day, ready to learn and enjoy the outdoors. There was lots of construction going on behind the garden but regardless, the living organisms (including us!) enjoyed being there.
We spent the first part of the morning learning about weaving with Dandelions which we then went to pick the stems of to let them dry for the next day. I learned a lot about different invasive species and how the term "weed" is very subjective. Did you know, Dandelions were brought over from Europe as a food crop? They're high in nutrition (including Vitamin A,B,C,D and minerals such as K and Zinc) and can be used for teas or a coffee substitute!
I'm very excited to learn more about weaving with dandelions because my students during long practicum would always weave me flower crowns when we went outside.
We were then greeted by some lovely humming birds which I've never seen before! They were calling out to each other and doing dive bombs in front of us as if they were showing off their skills. One eventually landed on a tree nearby and watched over us.
We then spent the rest of the morning at our "sit spots" creating a visual that represents what we heard around us (A Soundscape).
The Soundscape activity was very memorable and it helped me build on my observation skills. As a student learning to become a science teacher, I can definitely use this with my own classroom in the future to help build students' observation skills which is to have not only for experiments but to continue to spark curiosity. I Being outdoors and listening to the sounds of nature and seeing what is around you is something kids don't often do nowadays. By teaching them something like this, I think they can come to appreciate more what is around them. I can also see myself using this activity to teach my students a lesson on soundwaves in the physics unit or with an Environmental Science class while doing a field study outdoors. There are also Apps such as "Merlin Bird ID" that can be used to identify bird calls which I think would be really fun to do with a class studying animal behaviour!
This is also a great activity to wind down and check in with yourself!
During lunch, we decided to go exploring around the Empress tree and found some pollinators doing doing their duties.
Eventually, we got to work and continued pulling out the weeds that were taking over the garden. Great job team!
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