Handbook:Example 14 Primary School: Plants surrounding the school

From KeyToNature

Learning to observe and observing creatures we normally don't notice
Gaining experience and a responsible attitude towards the environment
Discovering and experiencing nature in a well-known environment (e.g. the schoolyard)
Arouse interest in nature, biodiversity and biology by means of use-oriented and hands-on learning

Introduction
Theoretical introduction to biodiversity, optionally introduction of plants that occur in the surrounding of the school
Observation I
The pupils are divided into small groups (4-5 participants).
Their first non-specific task is to observe plants in the surrounding of the school (e.g. plants on a staircase, on the pavement, on a green area or below a hedge).
For each detected species should be made a little drawing and noted how numerous the plant occurs in the observed area. The groups could additionally draw a map of the observed area and mark the places where they found the species.
If there is enough time, the pupils could observe in different parts of the schoolyard (e.g. paved road, grass area, besides a small lake).
Discussion/Categorization
Each group presents the class their map and the discovered species.
The class collects and discusses features that characterise the specific species and that could help to distinguish between the species. With guidance from the teacher the pupils should identify meaningful characteristics of the plants (e.g. dimension, color, shape and border of leaves, venation and quantity of leaves, shape or color of flowers).
These characteristics are collected on a spreadsheet, which is used for the second observation.

Observation II
With the newly developed categorization system the small groups observe once more the surrounding of the school.
The plants of observation I are inspected once more and in greater detail.
The characteristics of the species are listed in more detail, the plants could be fotographed or samples of the plants could be collected for the following classification task.
Classification
The fotographs or samples of the observed species are classified with the aid of specific identification keys.
The pupils could search for additional information to the identified plants (in books, via the internet) and design a poster describing the identified plants.
Each small group presents the species they identified to the class.

The pupils could get more focused tasks for the first observation (e.g. observe only lichens or only hedges).
The task could include not only plants but also bugs.
The observation could be executed in a forest or a meadow.

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