Last weekend was BIG for advancing my inquiry topic. On Friday in class we talked about different apps you can use to help students engage with nature. I’ve been so focused on discovering iNaturalist and its multiple capabilities that I totally overlooked different programs that can help students identify various elements of their surroundings. Not all students will be interested in plants – I know I never was until moving in with my current roommates. Our guest speaker helped me to realize that I cannot just be encouraging iNaturalist as a way to engage with nature – there are so many other ways to get children enthusiastic about the great outdoors, and I should be attentive to each of my students’ interests so that I can find different technologies that appeal to them. For instance, there are websites out there that can help students learn the constellations above them. Those more interested in geography or history can benefit from looking at Google Earth to learn more about different places around the world. I won’t go on too much about this as you can scroll down to see the list of nature-based apps I made for my reflection post. Technology and nature do not need to be in separate spheres – they are intertwined.
After Friday’s class I had fun using ChatterPix to make some of my wildlife pictures talk!
On Friday I took so many pictures during our class trip to the Finnerty Gardens. I was pretty hopeless at identifying plants so I took lots of photos to upload to iNaturalist. Then I continued to immerse myself in Victoria’s plant life by supporting my friend Christina, who was hosting a plant identification scavenger hunt at nearby Swan Lake. It has been a while since I have been forced to actively examine my surroundings to see if I can identify any of the plants or animals, and it was cool to use multiple different resources (yes, including technology and the Internet!) to try and figure out what was what.
Here is a picture of our scavenger hunt checklist!
My friends and I found almost all of them. See the worksheet I made depicting our findings below.
A highlight of my weekend was learning that the Swan Lake Nature Sanctuary exists. After talking to Christina and taking a look at their website, I discovered that they frequently host school groups of all ages for education sessions. Their website for school groups even links which science curricular competencies are targeted in each education session, making it easy for teachers to see which option is most relevant for them! I am still learning so much about wildlife myself, and if I end up teaching in SD61 I will be looking into bringing my students to Swan Lake for one of these sessions. Since I did not grow up in Victoria, hearing about various local options for class field trips is important!
Update on iNaturalist:
After uploading 23 photos of wildlife to the app last night, I went on today to find out that for the first time, many of my identifications were approved rather than corrected by other community members. I finally feel like I am actually learning and progressing. One person commented on one of my findings to give me tips for future uploads, which I appreciated.
Here is a screen recording of all my uploads from the weekend.