Training session

Discovering the natural world!

La découvert du monde naturel!

Envolvimento de la

escuela, familia y

comunidade

Raquel Gaspar, PhD, biologist

April 6, from 13:30 to 17:30 Avril 6, des 13:30 a 17:30

Workshop - offer Offre d’atelier


Objectives/

1. To understand the importance of inquiry based teaching and learning during infancy.

2. To promote activities based on observation, experimentation, analysis, evaluation and communication of the results using a multidisciplinary approach.

3. To understand basic biological concepts that rule the living world such as form vs function.

Aims/

1. To foster a positive attitude towards science teaching.

2. To improve teachers’ knowledge and practical classroom projects about life sciences.

4. To gain experience on activities that explore the living world that children are in contact with.

5. To promote the use of terrariums in the classroom as pedagogical supports for exploring life cycle and behaviour of familiar bugs.

6. To promote a naturalist attitude through the use of notebooks and collections.

.

Module I (45 minutes)

Why is inquiry based science teaching and learning important during infancy?

Content of session modules/ (4h)


Module III (30 minutes) First time naturalist - notebooks and collections

Module II (2,5h) and coffee break (15min) - Why are fish different?

Understanding biological concepts such as form vs function through a practical and multidisciplinary approach

- Familiar bugs (snails and woodlice) Classification, life cycle and behaviour Demonstration of classroom projects


Further reading Module I Why is inquiry based science teaching and learning important during infancy?

/To learn about IBSE (enquiry based science education) download the “Scientific background” key document from www.fibonacci-project.eu/; previous and this site www.pollen-europa.net are projects that disseminate EBSE in Europe.

Module II Why are fish different?

/”How to read a fish… and be a fish detective” a pdf guide with working sheets from the National Aquarium of Boston, www.nationalaquarium.org/edu-read_a_fish.pdf.

Module II Familiar bugs: terrestrial snails.

/For those who read Portuguese consult this booklet pdf available from http://viveraciencia.org/index/images/stories/loja/caracol_stamp1.pdf, which has a story and activities about snails. /Videos and facts cane be found in this BBC link http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life/Helix_aspersa / If you want to participate on a wide scale snail project this is it: “Evolution Megalab” is an European project that aims at studying the impact of climate change through time and space changes in snail shell pattern. The project is being built with the collaboration of schools and general public. Its web page http://www.evolutionmegalab.org/, also has information about snails.


Further reading

Module II Familiar bugs: woodlice

Module III First time naturalist. Notebook and collections.

/There are very few sources of info about naturalist notebooks. Young naturalist notebook from Reynolda Gardens can give you an inspiration: http://www.reynoldagardens.org/pdf/nats-0102.pdf. /Naturalist books have usually a page about the notebook and give instructions on how to do one. Here is the one I use more often: “The first-time naturalist” from Nick Baker. /Those who read Portuguese, will find a magazine article I wrote about being a naturalist and notebooks, at module III section; the booklet “Caracol, caracol, põe os pauzinhos ao sol” also has a section about this subject.

/There are a few sites with information about woodlice: http://porcellio.scaber.org/wlice.htm; http://www3.northern.edu/natsource/INVERT1/Pillbu1.htm; this next one can be downloaded as a pdf version: http://museumvictoria.com.au/discoverycentre/infosheets/-crustaceans-at-the-bottom-of-the-garden/ /An identification key can be found at this link from the Natural History Museum of London: http://www.nhm.ac.uk/nature-online/life/other-invertebrates/walking-with-woodlice/identification7.html


Module I Why is INQUIRY BASED SCIENCE teaching and learning important during INFANCY?

Science education during infancy /Infancy is the time when children learn how to learn. /Infancy is the time when teachers create opportunities that foster the pleasure of discovering and imagining. /Curiosity is the seed for a critical mind, the base of modern civilizations.

Inquiry Based Science Education (EBSE) /Promotes learning with understanding , different from remembering facts. /It’s the modern approach of science education that combines how students learn, the nature of the scientific method and hands-on activities. /Teachers lead students to develop the skills necessary for inquiry and the understanding of science concepts through their own activity and reasoning. « The best way to learn is to do - to ask, and to do. The best way to teach is to make students ask, and do. Don’t preach facts - stimulate acts » Paul HALMOS, Hungarian-born American mathematician.

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Module I

«

Inquiry based science education (EBSE): an iterative and expansive framework .

In: ”scientific background“ from www.fibonacci-project.eu


Module II Why are fish different? Understanding biological concepts such as form vs function through a practical and multidisciplinary approach.

Multidisciplinary approach /Not all children learn in the same way. With a multidisciplinary approach you guaranty that more children have learned the concepts of this project. /Form and function of fish body structures can be compared with children’s own body and objects used in daily life. /Planning and constructing a model of a fish from a choice of materials or creating a play about marine life are examples of how art can be used to apply students’ learned ideas. /This approach is also an opportunity for teacher evaluation of learned concepts.

The diversity of forms /Is a result of where species live and how they live, that is, how they feed, chase, protect and reproduce.

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A scientific and multidisciplinary approach

Module II

/Which species of fish do you know? What is a fish? /Ask 3 children to draw the shape of a fish on the board. Most children will draw a fusiform shape. /Promote a conflict between the shape children think a fish has, with the variety of shapes (they know) existing in the ocean. Are all fish in the ocean like these? /Why are fish different? Present this question as the challenge they will solve together. /Show examples of different fish shapes. Examples can be shown with images and videos. Give the opportunity for children to relate the shape with the habitat and way of living by asking them to formulate hypothesis.

/Give children the opportunity to observe 3 different types of fish (fusiform, no scales, flatted). Identify main external structures and relate them with their function. /Ask children to do an illustration of one of the fish specimens indicating the name and function of external structures

Why are fish different? Practical scientific project

Fish are: /aquatic animals /have an internal skeleton (vertebrates) /have gills to breath /body covered with scales and/or mucous /swim with fins /most are oviparous a few are ovoviparous or viviparous What if? /Challenge children’s ideas by asking them questions like “What if?” What would happen if a fish with scales lived in a hole on the rocks? How could we test it? Expand ideas /Expand the same problem to various situations, specially its relation with children’s body and daily life. What happens when you put your harm back and forward into a tight rocky hole? Have you ever had the slippery sensation by passing your fingers through a spill of kitchen oil on a table?




Identifying fish external structures

Picture from “vertebrate zoology, university of Florida”



The diversity of forms

Morey eel: /Lives in holes in rocks where it hides not to be seen in order to catch its prey by surprise Body adaptations: /body eel-like, flexible to fit into the tight and curved holes /mucous skin, no scales, body slides and skin is not injured /fins along dorsal and ventral sides to allow for swimming by ondulatory movements




Sole and other flat fish: /Live at the bottom, in the sea floor Body adaptations: /flat carpet-like body, to fit the floor /skin pattern camouflage: resembles that of the sear fool, for not to be seen /both eyes are at the top of the head to allow vision towards the top /dorsal and ventral fins are along body margin to allow for swimming by ondulatory movements and to be able to camouflage by covering the body with sand or stones




Seabream: /Lives in schools of fishes, in the water, near the shore Body adaptations: /body fusiform, to facilitate movement by swimming /dorsum darker, belly lighter, a coloration pattern existing among aquatic animals that serves to camouflage /scales protect skin covered with mucous to reduce resistance against movement /caudal fin is used for propulsion; dorsal fin assists in equilibrium and sudden stops; pectoral and ventral fins are used like a handlebar, for equilibrium/stabilization and sudden stops and anal fins are used for stabilization

Module II

/Challenge children to create a fish from a choice of materials. Propose them to do a plan for their construction. Focus on the reason why the characteristics of a given material are related with the form or function of the structures from the fish body. / Create a collective painting about the the marine life. Inspire your children by presenting to them books about marine life, showing videos or taking them to the aquarium. /Make an exhibition for other classes in the school about “why are fish different? You will need: - fish illustrations - fish constructions - house objects whose form or function are equivalent to fish structures

Why are fish different? Practical multidisciplinary project

Choice of materials: /Use the characteristics (texture, form, strength, colour,…) of a choice of materials either natural (wood, stones, sand, leafs) or recycling materials (paper, card board, plastic, metal, button shirts, pieces of fabric). Tools from daily life /For some children the tip of a pan resembles a flat fish by its shape; the form and elasticity of belt, a morey eel; the straw, the form of a pipefish or the form and function of the mouth of a sea horse; the kitchen oil, the mucous protection. Children’s stories about form vs function /Mr. Sea Horse, from Eric Carle /”Os amigos da menina do mar”, from Raquel Gaspar


Snails, woodlice and company… all like moist and dark environments. Why?


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Module II

Familiar bugs: terrestrial snails. Classification, life cycle and behaviour. Demonstration of classroom projects Classification. /invertebrate (no internal skeleton); it has a calcareous shell

/mollusc (soft-body; dorsal wall with a mantle that encloses the mantle cavity, is modified into lungs and secretes a shell which grows with the animal; ventral body wall specialized for a muscular foot that enables locomotion) /gasterop (the shell has a torsion from which results a concentration of the visceral mass on the dorsum, dorsoventrally elongated body, well developed head) /herbivorous but also omnivorous, feed with a rasping organ called radula

/hermaphrodites, sexual reproduction; internal fecundation, oviparous; direct development

eye

mouth

tactil tentacule

shell

genital pore

respiratory pore

foot

anus

head


Module II Familiar bugs: terrestrial snails.

Life cycle. /When climate is mild and humid two animals exchange male sexual cells that will fecundate their ovules. To do this, they connect their genital pore and stick to each other a “love dart” that will stimulate sperm exchange. About two weeks after (or more) each individual lays its eggs. With their neck, dig a 2cm hole on the ground. During 10h or more, eggs get out from the reproductive hole. When finish, they cover the hole with ground and leave, staying inactive for a while. /After two weeks the young snails hatch from the eggs with is their first meal. /Young from Helix aspersa*, one of the most common terrestrial snail species, reach adulthood after 8 months. This is visible in the aperture of the shell, when it has a rim towards the outside.

/In nature, a snail* can live 6 years.

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Two snails reproducing

love dart

rim of the shell pointing towards the top

both genital pores are connected

A “whiteberry” of snail eggs


Module II Familiar bugs: terrestrial snails. Classification, life cycle and behaviour. Demonstration of classroom projects. Lifestyle. /Snails like humidity because they have to maintain their mucous protection. And they like mild temperatures. When its too hot or too cold, they eastivate or hibernate inside the shell, sealing it with leafs or a thick mucous that can also be attached against the surface of a tree trunk. In order to not desiccate, snails avoid direct sunlight being active during the twilight and night. /The shell is their main protection against predators (birds, lizards, small rodents and the larvae of glow-worms). When broken, if partially it can be recovered with mucous. /Snails live in the fields, gardens, vegetable gardens. Snails eat what is available specially vegetables. /When disturbed produces bubbles to deter the enemy. /Snails smell their mucous track to recognize its way back home. Snails have a home which is a place where they stay when are not active.

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This shell was broken and is being mended with mucous from its underneath

Bubbles to deter the enemy or threat

The shell of this snail was painted in order to identify it


Module II Familiar bugs: terrestrial snails. Classroom projects. Following the track and identifying snails /Children can recognize individual snails by painting a spot with different nail varnish colors in the shell. Identifying external morphology /Give one snail to a group of children. Place the snail on a plate with a leaf of lettuce. If the snail is hidden inside its shell, sprinkle it with water to stimulate its activity. Use diagrams to help identifying external structures. Relate the function of these structures with members of children’s body and/or objects of daily life. . Constructing a terrarium /Use a transparent container like an aquarium. Place a layer of soil of minimum two fingers height. Rumple a piece of kitchen roll paper and humidify it. Place it at one corner of the terrarium, easy to access, in order to verify its level of humidity. Alongside, place the food (lettuce, thin slices of carrot, cabbage, strawberries, tomato). On the other side, build a refuge with old leafs, stones, trunks. Humidify the terrarium making sure the soil and the ambient is humid. Avoid direct sun light. Clean feces and check food availability and humidity every two-three days. A terrarium with 40cm long and 20cm wide has space for 4 snails.


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Module II Familiar bugs: woodlice. Classification, life cycle and behaviour. Demonstration of classroom projects Classification. /invertebrate (no internal skeleton) /arthropod (its body is contained inside an hard external skeleton made of quitin and calcareous salts with articulated appendices; this exoskeleton is inextensible, it doesn't grow as the animal body so woodlice have to moult their armor for each growth period.

/their close relatives are marine crustaceans (has two pairs of antennas, more than 3 pairs of legs) like crabs and lobsters; they have a pair of uropods at the tip of the abdomen, which are sensory organs that also absorb water. /isopods (its 7 pairs of walking legs are identical in size; body dorsoventrally flattened) are the only crustaceans that have successfully conquered terrestrial world /scavenger

/dioecious, sexual reproduction; internal fecundation oviparous; direct development

Diversity of species. /not all woodlice roll into a ball. Most of them don’t. Examples are Porcellio and Porcellionides sp. Some species of Armadillidum do roll, closing the body in a ball, other species of this genus are quite close at doing that. Those who roll are called spillbugs.

antenna

eye

torax

abdomen

uropds

head

legs

Image from Susana Loureiro

Armadillidium vulgare

Porcellio dillatatus

new carapace

Porcellio scaber

Porcellionides sexfasciatus


Module II Familiar bugs: terrestrial snails. Classification, life cycle and behaviour. Demonstration of classroom projects. Lifestyle. /Woodlice (and snails) like humidity. Woodlice have to avoid loosing water. Because they derived from marine crustaceans, they inherited characteristics that confine their existence to humid environments: a permeable armature, dorsalventraly flattened shape that facilitates water lost by evaporation and their respiratory system (pseudolungs) only works if there is humidity in the air. Species that have the availability to roll are more resistant to desiccation. They are active during the night. /Thus woodlice live in humid and dark places in the soil, under trunks, stones, plastics, leaf debris, compost. They hibernate and aestivate. /Woodlice are important detritivorous animals that recycle nutrients back into the soil. Their main food are vegetable material in decomposition. /Because they are arthropods, they have to change they carapace (or armor) to grow. Woodlice first change the anterior half of the armor, then the back part.

old carapace

new and bigger carapace


Module II Familiar bugs: terrestrial snails. Classification, life cycle and behaviour. Demonstration of classroom projects. Life Cycle /An adult male recognises a receptive female by smelling the air around her with its antennas. If so, then he climbs to her dorsum, drums with his legs on her head’s armor and poses himself on a diagonal position in order to reach each of her oviducts, one in the right, the other on the left side, to fecundate her ovules. /Females prepare their gestation by going through a pre-nuptial moult in which a marsupium (a ventral pouch), is formed. Eggs migrate into the marsupium, once hatched, young woodlice feed on the marsupial liquid. Gestation period is about 20-30 days in the most common species of woodlice. A female has 20 to 30 per posture. After gestation, females make a post-nuptial moult to recover its original form. Woodlice species can reproduce twice or once a year (iteroparous) or once in their life (semelparous). /Young are born with 6 pairs of feet. After leaving the marsupium, they feed on their mothers’ nutritious feces. They get their 7th pair of legs during their first moult.

old carapace

new and bigger carapace

Image from Susana Loureiro

Image from Anita Jemec

/A young woodlice takes 3 to 6 months to become an adult and as a lifetime of 1 to 9 years, depending on the species.

pseudolungs

uropods

marsupium

mouth

Image from Anita Jemec

Pregnant female woodlice


Module II Familiar bugs: woodlice. Classroom projects.

Experimental terrariums /Place dark moist soil, containing leafs in decomposition on small plastic boxes. These boxes should have a hole on the lid. Experiments /Engage children in presenting questions they would like to investigate about the conditions that affect the life of woodlice. For example: Do they prefer to live in the dark or at sunlight? Which type of leaves do they prefer to eat? What happens if we join two species of woodlice in the same terrarium? Motive them to develop hypothesis. /Plan with children the set of conditions for each experiment to test their hypothesis. Use drawing as a mean to record observations (initial situation and term of the experiment). Engage children in a discussion about the evidences shown by the results in relation to their questions and hypothesis, in order to reach a conclusion.


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Module III

First-time naturalist. Notebooks and collections.

Being a naturalist /is to have pleasure in observing the natural world and having curiosity to understand how it works. Notebook /is a pocket size book where children write and draw about what they observe. This will help children to identify and learn more about the species they observed.

/pieces of plants and feathers can bonded with adhesive tape to the notebook. /notebooks foster the artistic potential of children as well their observation capacities.

The diversity of snail shells


Module III First-time naturalist. Collections.

Shell collection /There are many species of snails. Within each species there is a wide variation in shell coloration pattern. Variation among species (genetic variability) was one of the key fact that lead Darwin’s theory of evolution.

/Ask children to collect empty shells. Wash and dry it. Organize shells by their shape, color patterns, presence or absence of bands, characteristics of the inner and outer sides of the shell. Use an ID species guide book to identify each group of shells and learn about each species. Conserve shells within identified small containers.

Module I /In yours words, how do you describe the IBSE method? /After applying this method, do you think it is effective to teach science? Why? /Is there any aspect you did not well understood? /Do you have any question?

Questionaire


Module III /Which attitudinal changes or improvement of capacities did you see in your students by exploring life sciences in a naturalist way? /Is there any aspect you did not well understood? /Do you have any question?

Module II /What is a snail? (and woodlice) /How is its life? /Which aspect(s) did you find more interesting to teach to the children? /Which practical projects did you (or will you) implement and how was that experience? /Is there any aspect you did not well understood? /Do you have any question?

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