With inner motivation for the work you have to do, you feel competent, autonomous. It controls your own behavior, your own learning and you achieve better results. And that certainly applies if you can fully use your own learning style in your learning process. Then it still concerns the activities in that learning process. Which motivational activities can you use in the field of “Nature”, about animals and plants?
The rich learning environment
You need learning stimuli to learn. On the one hand they come from yourself, you want to acquire a certain skill or certain knowledge. On the other hand, the environment in which you learn must challenge you, provide you with stimuli for thought, information sources and space to achieve an optimal learning process with the appropriate methods and activities. The rich learning environment therefore means more than a bookcase full of books, a computer with internet or boxes full of learning materials. That is all important, but it is also the teacher who gives the student space to discover, explore and develop his qualities in the learning process. The pupil experiences that space, learns to deal with the choices to be made, with the possibilities that are offered, and in this way learns a lot more than just a piece of knowledge. The student is also working on himself.
Motivational learning
Children who in their learning are given the opportunity to self-direct, to make their own choices, will feel more competent under the guidance of the teacher. They are made jointly responsible for their learning process and are not dependent only on the teacher who assesses the children’s behavior and learning. As a result, children are self-motivated, intrinsically, which generally leads to more balanced adults and better learning outcomes.
Can they know everything themselves?
All this does not mean that children are completely free in what they want to learn. We are simply dealing with frameworks set by the legislator and laid down in core goals. These core objectives must be met by the end of primary school. It is the teacher who should monitor this progress and make adjustments to children in their choices. Making choices in, for example, world-oriented disciplines is also only possible if a part of basic education has been met. Children will have to be able to read fluently technically and comprehensively in order to become familiar with written and printed information. Children will need sufficient language and math tools to understand, verbalize and present the information learned.
An example: Animals and plants
We make it more concrete with an example. Within the field of Nature (sometimes also Nature Knowledge) the following is stated in the core objectives:
In the section People and society
Core target number | Core purpose |
---|---|
39 | The students learn to deal with the environment with care. |
In the section Nature and technology
Core target number | Core purpose |
---|---|
40 | The students learn to distinguish and name common plants and animals in their own environment and learn how they function in their living environment. |
41 | The students learn about the construction of plants, animals and people and about the shape and function of their parts. |
In addition to these specific core objectives, a number of core objectives are always added to the sections when processing the learned knowledge. Written language teaching and Linguistics, including strategies:
Core target number | Core purpose |
---|---|
4 | The students learn to retrieve information from informative and instructional texts, including diagrams, tables and digital resources. |
5 | The students learn to write texts according to content and form with different functions, such as; inform, instruct, convince or provide pleasure. |
6 | The students learn to organize information and opinions when reading school and study texts and other instructional texts, from systematically ordered sources, including digital ones. |
7 | The students learn to compare and evaluate information and opinions in different texts. |
8 | The students learn to organize information and opinions when writing a letter, a report, a form or a paper. They pay attention to sentence structure, correct spelling, legible handwriting, page layout, possibly visual elements and color. |
9 | The students enjoy reading and writing stories, poems and informative texts intended for them. |
12 | The students acquire adequate vocabulary and strategies for understanding words unfamiliar to them. Under ?? vocabulary ?? also includes concepts that enable students to think and speak about language. |
Depending on the chosen elaboration, one or more musical core objectives could even be added.
Freedom of choice
As you can see, the core objectives do not speak about knowledge about specific plants or animals. Recognizing and classifying into groups and knowing characteristics is much more important, and understanding why certain animals or plants may or may not occur in certain regions. All this gives, within the set frameworks, some freedom in the choice and elaboration of themes.
Research
Learning about animals and plants is very limited through books. There is a rewarding area for working on learning objectives about animals and plants: practice. Children are surrounded by natural elements at home, at school and on the road that can be viewed and explored. Plants and animals are also in the immediate vicinity in urban areas. This means that children can conduct their own research into living organisms in their own environment, and can think about environmental questions and nature policy. Children can set up their own research, perhaps with additional substantiation with an interview of people who manage the green space. This type of research motivates children, it strengthens the feeling of autonomy, of being competent and children direct themselves here: there is always something more, something extra to discover. It is great if policymakers and their policy can also be involved in the research, or the environmental service.
A selection of the possible activities
Here you see a number of activities, topics and methods that could be used in the Nature course. Some of these activities are especially suitable for written processing, others more for drawing, crafts, presentations, etc. The broader the offer, the more the children experience freedom of choice and can choose something that fits their personal learning style and will therefore be extra motivated. to be.
- The pet passport. Make a passport of your animal, in which you include all important information about your animal. There is also room for a description, a photo, drawing or image. Also indicate which animal species are related to your animal.
- The plant passport. Make a passport of your plant, in which you put all important information about your plant. Think of a description, photo, drawing, etc. Which plants are related to your plant?
- The biotope. What kind of environment does your plant or animal live in? What other animals and plants live in this type of environment?
- Biotopes. Find out which important biotopes exist. What are the differences and where can you find these biotopes?
- Skeleton. Compare the skeleton of your animal with the skeleton of humans.
- That is nice. What does your animal prefer to eat? Is your animal a plant, meat, insect or omnivore?
- Food pyramid. Some animals eat, others are eaten. What is a Food Pyramid? Where in the food pyramid is your animal?
- Communication. How does your animal communicate? Maybe your animal makes noises, but it also uses other ways to communicate.
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Page from ‘Fluff Animals and Plants’: What animals like
From food to ?? What happens if you eat something with that food? How does your digestion work, what happens in the different organs?
- What is waste? People have a lot of waste. How about animals? What happens to animal waste?
- Waste. People produce a lot of waste. What types of waste are there? Is it biodegradable or not?
- Useful or not. People find some plants or animals very useful, others not at all. What’s up with that?
- The classification of the vegetable kingdom. Find the characteristics of the different plant groups.
- The classification of the animal kingdom. Find the characteristics of the different animal groups.
- Nature research. Go out, find a piece of nature and describe what animals and plants can be found.
- How does a plant grow? Draw pictures of the different steps and describe what happens.
- Research. What is the influence of light and water on the growth of a plant? Make a test setup in which you allow seeds from the same plant to germinate and grow under different conditions.
- I know everything about this plant. Write down everything you know about your plant. Of course, drawings and photos are allowed.
- Then this animal I know everything. Write down everything you know about your animal. Of course, drawings and photos must be included.
- Annual rings. You can tell from annual rings how old a tree is. Find out how this works, try to read from a piece of wood tree trunk whether you can recognize the annual rings. How about different types of trees?
- The tree. What do you see of a tree above and below the ground? Sign this and write with it.
- A model. Build a model of a zoo, animal park, or part of a biotope.
- Kijk box. Make a viewing box of your animal’s biotope. Show which animals and plants live there.
- Interview. Ask your questions to an expert from animal protection, animal ambulance, etc. Think in advance about which questions you want to ask and where you will meet. You will of course also make a report of the interview.
- Mammals can be divided into different groups. Which groups are there? Which animals from those groups can you find in the Netherlands or in another country in the world?
- The birdwatcher. What are the characteristics of your bird? Can you find your bird in the Netherlands? Maybe nice to keep a bird count.
- Make a herbarium, a collection of dried plants.
- PowerPoint presentation with pictures of mushrooms, certain plants, etc.
A whole series of ideas, which will undoubtedly spark new ideas!