In October, I took the students of my Civic Literacy class outside.
We usually go outside about once a week for a variety of reasons, from a mindful walk to conducting a classroom discussion. Our high school is blessed with several nearby outdoor spaces suitable for a variety of activities. On this particular October Monday, I tasked my students with an activity they had not yet done before: nature journaling.
Sitting in foldable chairs from our classroom, on the built-in benches by the school, or sometimes on the ground (if they preferred), students had clipboards equipped with this handout and a handful of crayons or colored pencils of their choice.
I was inspired by a research study from Rachel Arbor and Kevin Matteson about interdisciplinary nature journaling for middle school students in New York. I was inspired by their work for the prompts I provided to students. In their research, Arbor and Matteson found that the participating students experienced “positive shift in moods, reduced stress, and enhanced feelings of self-valuation and connection to the natural world.” Given their positive results, I wanted to provide my students with a similar opportunity in our classroom.
One point of emphasis in Arbor and Matteson’s research is the interdisciplinary nature (pun intended) of nature journaling. By slightly altering the prompts you provide students with, you can shift a student’s focus to content relevant to your class. There are obvious connections for a natural science classroom, but creativity leads to options for other disciplines. In language arts, you may invite students to describe their observations in certain ways depending on what you’re learning (or perhaps even write a poem about something they observe). In math, students may look for evidence of math in nature (such as fractals, ratios, or the fibonacci sequence). In social studies, I wanted students to experience an appreciation for nature that emphasizes our interconnectedness and fosters a sense of environmental stewardship:a key part of good citizenship.
I always allow myself room to be surprised by the observations they make. One student chose to draw a “bird’s eye” view of our class, showing themselves and other students arranged around our bulldog statue. Another student drew a tree and included its roots, imagining what they looked like below the earth. Even in high school, students constantly prove themselves capable of childlike wonder and curiosity when given the opportunity.
Of course, that’s not to say that things went perfectly. There was a group of freshman boys I had to separate because they chose to engage in behavior that was distracting for themselves and other members of the class. And there were some students who wrote little or nothing at all. But most students earnestly engaged in the activity, and I can see the results for those who did. I have no doubt even more would engage if provided another opportunity.
Perhaps you can find a way, in your context, for your own students to observe and reflect on the natural world around them.
Robert Alvis
