"Today in the Outdoor Classroom..."

...we dove deep into some very curious questions.

One fifth grade naturalist brought us some "bee" carcasses and we had a great conversation while simultaneously asking for string for more weaving—I swear, all I want for the holidays is 1000 feet of natural fiber twine! But seriously: If naturalists want to bring something to share, every naturalist club is show-and-tell day.

We talked about how there are around 432 species of bees that evolved, and are still in, what we call MD today. We also talked about how honeybees are more like dairy cows than our native bees; they're better thought of as livestock (some of which may be feral). And we talked about why one group is more likely to sting. Most (not all) of our native bees live as single moms. Alone with the kids in a hole in the ground. Stinging, we discussed, is like getting a crochet needle stuck in your work and trying to pull it back out. Only for the bee, it literally means puling yourself into pieces. A bad choice if you've got hungry mouths to feed. So...most of our native bees have learned that the only time to sting is if you're probably going to die anyway thus saving someone else's brood (and maybe yours). Yes, that's a lot of personification; no, bees probably don't think that far into the future or that altruistically (not in a way we'd recognize), but it makes the conversation easer to have. And then we looked at our sample bees and decided that they're wasps (there are over a thousand species of those in MD!). Maybe yellow jackets, but I forgot my glasses and couldn't tell for sure. They're definitely yellow-stripey and in the bee-wasp-ant family. (More about bees.)

We also went kind of darkly philosophical...I don't know how the conversation turned to human population, but there was a great discussion about whether eight billion people is too many and what if anything humans should do about it. I (barely!) kept us away from the darkest parts of the conversation, and I think we concluded that it's a really complex question—although most of our group was definitely in favor of fewer humans. 

Fairy villages (like suburbs) expanded (I'll get over it), and bald cypress cones were closely examined. We found sunchokes and "weird, interesting organisms" (soil centipede and pupal stage of some kind of moth/butterfly). To say nothing of sharing the differences between meteorological and astronomical seasons!

We'll be on Winter Break next week; I hope all of our naturalists have a wonderful time off and that they'll enjoy going outside and finding all the weird, interesting, creeping, crawling, things that nature has to offer—even when the Earth is pointed away from the Sun. 

Happy solstice, happy winter; have fun outside!

...I started with a plan and then we just enjoyed being outside.

We briefly discussed the differences between wild, domestic and feral animals; there was supposed to be charades, but...fairy villages aren't built in a day so...

I need to learn if Dingoes are descended from domestic animals (making them feral?) or if they are wild...thanks to Francis for piquing my curiosity!

Of course what they don't realize is that they still managed to learn a few things. Like: what makes a tree a tree or a shrub a tree? It's not a trick question, like witches, trees are made of wood. Half of that statement is true. Shrubs and trees are, botanically speaking, pretty much the same thing. There are no scientific differences; like art, though, you know a shrub when you see one. (Sometimes.) There are mature trees that are measured in centimeters and shrubs that can be measured in 10's of meters. Generally speaking trees are taller and have a single dominant trunk whereas shrubs...don't.

We discussed what parts of plants we get the fibers for twine, we used fibrous vines to weave twigs together to make all sorts of things. And...we learned again about sunchokes. Oh, and a couple of students were very--very—into harvesting sunchokes. One naturalist used a tool I gave her, two others channeled their inner Homo neanderthalensis and made their own digging sticks. There is a reason almost no kid can resist playing with sticks. Humans have probably been using sticks since beffore we were humans. Since I didn't have any suitable containers for the sunchokes, I gave them some mason jars I don't need. I asked them to make sure to be careful with the glass jars. No one wanted to put the sunchokes in their lunchboxes... 

At least two Naturalists did manage to play Charades for a while. Despite the cold, by the time it was time to go no one wanted to leave. I count that as a sign of success.

Have fun outside! (And don't be surprised if you learn something, too.)

Charles J. Sharp - Own work, from Sharp Photography, sharpphotography.co.uk

...we learned what it means to be an observer, and we managed to have fun doing it.

While we discussed what it means to be an observer there were several objects, unmentioned, unremarkable, in front of us. When we finished our discussion I covered those objects up and asked what they were. One naturalist nailed almost all of them. Every naturalist was able to name at least a few things that were there. Some gave more details than others.

We talked about times when being a close observer might be a good thing and times when it might not be the best choice—like when we're on our way to school, running late, but really, really, really  want to look at that butterfly. We also touched on how humans (and many animals) are able to ignore a lot of the things going on around us without conscious awareness that we're filtering anything. Then we turned our attention to observing the world around us. 

Fifth graders even had a little time to play predator and prey tag!

Some of our naturalists went home with sunchokes either for eating or planting. Note: if you plant them, you may have sunchokes forever after. Not a bad thing, but be prepared.

Image credit: https://www.lakewinds.coop/blog/what-are-sunchokes/