 | Environmental Education in the Schools (Peace Corps, 1993) |
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Using the senses
It's hard not to have a reaction when you hold a handful of squirming earthworms or watch wildebeest thunder across the savanna. Or to smell a stinkhorn fungus. Or eat a ripe berry from the vine. Immersing students in activities that encourage seeing, tasting, touching, hearing, and smelling is an important piece of a holistic environmental education program. Both indoors and out sensory activities can help students learn about their world first hand and discover information on their own and in their own ways. From wading into a wetland to taking a sensory hike, sensory activities can help promote positive feelings about the environment, provide students with new information, and develop sensitivity to their immediate surroundings. Sensory experiences-especially for younger students-are especially critical in setting the stage for future environmental learning.
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"Teach the legal rights of trees, the nobility of hills,
respect the beauty of singularity, the value of
solitude." -Josephine Johnson |
We've included two examples of sensory and awareness activities that you can use and adapt to fit your needs. The first activity stresses observation and awareness by encouraging students to "adopt-a-tree.". The second helps younger children strengthen their memory and observation skills. You might also want to try the activity "Expanding sensory Perception" in Section 18, which takes students on a sensory hike through a forest.
ACTIVITIES IN THIS SECTION
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1. ADOPT-A-TREE, adapted with permission from Project Learning Tree published by the American Forest Council and the Western Regional Environmental Education Council. 2. DUPLICATION, reprinted from Sharing Nature With
Children by Joseph Cornell, published by Dawn Publications (1979).
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