01 May 2004

The Use of Field Experience In Formal Biology Teaching for 1st through 10th Graders

James W. Farr

While working for Nassau County’s BOCES (Board of Cooperative Educational Services) in Long Island, New York, I taught at the Caumsett Nature Preserve in Nassau as a part-time Naturalist. My job was to take students from different school districts and classes ranging from grade one to grade ten on field excursions. What I taught was up to me. I began teaching young students what I learned when I first grew up on Long Island. The various plants and animals we encountered were explained by common name, and also by their general use in early American or Indian culture. For example the sycamore tree used to provide Indians sycamore beer which they drank like we drink our beer. Certain flowers such as sunflowers may have led to their origination of cultivated corn. Sunflowers are evolutionary similar to corn. They are a relatively primitive flower that uses simple crossing or hybridization to grow. The first ideas about agriculture could have stemmed from observing sunflowers.

Also by a creek, I told students to listen for sounds, much like the early Indians placed their ears to the ground to here other persons from afar. Suddenly the sounds of the pond became quite distinct. "You see," I said, "there are frogs here and also crickets." I began to explain why the two animals would be found predominantly in our ponds at that particular time of the summer.

As we approached the shore by Long Island Sound. I began a lesson, which many of the students enjoyed greatly. We stood at the edge of a barren white beach, with pebbles. Not much life seemed to be around. I then told students to search the beach to see if they could find any living forms. Much like a tribe of hunter-gatherers, they came up with quite a variety of organisms. Among them was a group of snails. Another student found a young green lobster on a rock, which was very exciting. I told the students to place the snails in a bucket of salt-water. It turned out they had found hermit crabs that had stolen the snails’ shells.

My last talk was both moral and a good summary for the day. I said, "Even in a desert there is life. No matter where you wander on earth, some form of life is there one way or another." That certainly opened up some eyes, and led to a realization of how wonderful the science of life is.