LIFE IN A BOTTLE – WHY STUDY ECOSYSTEMS AT SCHOOL

The Bottle

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While studying in a nearby forest we found a bottle with beautiful green mosses growing inside a bottle, an entire ecosystem of its own. The imagination of pupils started running. They were considering different scenarios about artificial ecosystems. Could we actually build one that worked independently of the rest of the world? Pupils were vividly discussing pros and cons while little by little approaching the ultimate question, what are the prerequisites of life?

 

Why do we need to understand how ecosystems work?

 

All living organisms need energy, certain chemical compounds such as nutrients and water, and as a matter of fact, each other. Most energy is originally provided by the sun, chemosynthetic autotrophs being an exception, chemical compounds are obtained from the environment, either from organic or inorganic sources. It is also vital to understand that all life exists in ecosystems. Living organisms actually need each other to live [1].

 

All young people have a right and an obligation to understand, how all life, including our own, is dependent on the working ecosystems on Earth. But we do have to go further. How are we able to live our lives and build our societies so that we are not endangering the very existence of life or destroying the material basis for our culture.

 

A local approach is a meaningful approach

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Since we are living in taiga, the world's largest land biome, our forests, bogs, mires, other wetlands and of course various water bodies are important to us. We need to know, how to practice sustainable forestry and agriculture in the Northern climatic conditions and to understand, how to produce enough healthy food and how to use other natural resources in a sustainable way.

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Forests are a major ecosystem in Taiga

 

It is easy to list reasons for teaching about forests from different angles and perspectives.

 

• A working forest ecosystem provides habitats for many different species of trees, animals and other organisms, but also wood, berries, mushroom, game and joy for humans

• Forests are an important renewable resource for energy and raw materials in Finland and many other countries

• Forestry is an important rural livelihood and forest industry provides jobs for many people in production of paper, pulp, insulators, etc.

• Forests, swamps and their usage affect climate change in different ways, but they may be important carbon sinks if treated properly

• Many studies show that forests promote mental health

• Many aspects of our own and other taiga people’s cultures have origins in forest

 

Levels of understanding

 

Is it sufficient for students to hear and recognise the concept or should they be able to explain it in their own words? Should they be able to use the concept in their own speech, apply the concept to their assignments, understand, how the concept relates to other concepts and phenomena or should they be able to evaluate and direct their own actions in relation to the concepts they learned?

 

The knowledge of forest plant species is a good example of exploring the impact of different target levels on student activities. Student is able to:

 

1. List names of plant species growing in forests

2. Identify and name actual species

3. Explain why different species grow in different places

4. Determine types of forests on the basis of vegetation

5. Apply knowledge of species in solving a research problem.

 

Relationship with nature is vital

 

One’s relationship with nature is a prerequisite for the internalisation of knowledge and skills related to forests and certainly the prerequisite for the perception of sustainable use of forests.

 

More and more young people are in many ways lost in and about the woods. They don’t have proper clothing such as rubber boots, they cannot find their way and they are afraid of getting lost, and what is more, they find it difficult to walk on rough terrain. They cannot separate pine from spruce or recognize lingonberries and blueberries. The change has been rapid. Of course this does not apply to all the students but many. In any case, all the New Finns who have immigrated to Finland need to find a path to forests and their nature, a dearest destination in their new homeland.

 

Significance of the child's relationship with nature is important [2]:

 

• Children need experiences of nature during their development

• Relationship with nature is created only in repeated physical contact with natural surroundings

• Also self-esteem and respect for life are evolving in this way

• One’s experiences in nature wake up the desire to learn and embrace more information

 

Learning effectively in practice

 

While social constructivism lies in the background, in natural sciences problem or inquiry based learning is a good approach and with teenagers learning by doing is definitely a working idea. This gives more permanent results for most students and, in any case, every student will learn something. Studying and working in nature will fulfil almost all the goals of the curriculum's transversal competences and goals of studying forest ecology at the same time.

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In Käpylä Comprehensive School in Helsinki about 32 lessons during the first nine week’s period in autumn are used for studying forests and Finnish forest ecosystems. The limited time lays great stress on trying to reach all the goals in the curriculum.

 

Laying foundation for future studies

 

In natural sciences the basis for acquiring information and knowledge, is making own observations in real surroundings, not just relying in observations made by others. Therefore, already on the first lessons studying starts in a nearby wood by looking at plants growing in the forest. Students collect as many different plants as they can in 15 minutes and then discus together, how to differentiate species they found. Finally, they get a list with which to collect a small herbarium of the typical forest species.

The aim with collecting the herbarium is to start making observations, remembering and recognizing species, organizing them into different groups, in addition to getting used to going around in woods. These skills are part of building foundation for applying and analysing information when constructing the concept of ecosystem later on. In the process students advance from receiving information to actively participating in the learning process.

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In order to create broader perspectives on studying forests, finding new information and even a more active attitude towards daily life, students formulate as many different types of questions about the surroundings as they can while sitting on a small opening in a forest. These questions are documented at the end of the first lessons and returned to during the course of the studies. At the end of the course students design and carry out a small research project.

 

Scaffolding keeps learning process in progress

 

There is a thin line between giving too much guidelines for the task and not helping enough, both of which can kill motivation and activeness. An appropriate scaffolding is needed for different learners.

As teacher does not tell students the names of the herbarium species at any stage, pupils face the problem of identification themselves. They are encouraged to use their textbook, web and other identification tools, but also friends and parents.All this leads them to communicating with each other and with specialists. They learn to understand that constructing knowledge together is not such a bad idea. However, teacher does give a hint whether the specimen is one of the species needed to be collected or not.

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During most of the biology lessons students are out in the woods making observations so the plant collection accumulates little by little. The appearance of herbarium is not important, attaching a plant specimen in a regular notebook is enough. However, attaching them in the same order helps students when they check with friends, whether their identification of the species is correct. Of course some students love to create beautiful herbariums.

The whole process throughout the course is designed to help differentiating pupils and supporting different learning styles.

 

Active learners deepen their learning process

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During the next steps students can already apply their knowledge of plant species in a deeper level. They observe different plant layers and classify them. It is rather easy to observe and classify trees (canopy) and bushes (understorey) being already known from daily life. Field and ground layers are less familiar.

The course continues by making descriptions of different sites on the basis of plant species growing together and then comparing their sites with each other. Students make hypothesis on the growth conditions of each site based on the appearance of plant species and soil, for which little holes are dug to observe the properties of the soil.

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During the process students discover themselves the typical species of different forest site types. Based on their own work and use of various sources of information they begin to use names of the species and basic concepts of forest ecology, even though those have never been taught explicitly by teachers. The main task for the teachers is to guide and facilitate the learning process. Compared with the more traditional type of teaching this is more demanding and more intensive for both teachers and students, but the results are also likely to be more permanent.

 

Inspiring social structure

 

In order to support the interest of all the teenagers, little competitions and quizzes, such as hunting for invertebrates or recognizing a chosen forest cite type, are organized in the field. All of these are carried out in varying groups to promote building of a supporting social structure in the study group.

Co-operation is promoted throughout the biology course: when collecting herbariums, completing other tasks and even when taking little tests in the field. A socially safe and friendly learning environment is essential for successful learning process.

 

Applying and evaluating

 

Evaluation is carried out throughout the course. From the beginning students present and defend their views by making judgments based on their observations and other information. When assessing little tests, for example, about the forest site types, a great emphasis is put on, how a group argues and motivates its decision about the site type. The concept of ecosystem is also applied to another ecosystem, usually a manmade food garden of the school. Parts as well as processes of an ecosystem are, of course, studied with diagrams, process charts and other regular methods, but also by applying concepts in observing nature.

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At the end of the course each group of students plan a small research work. First they select their own research ideas, such as, what kind of forests have the largest number of bugs, how do the leaves turn yellow or what is the largest tree in the forest. After that they make a plan to operationalize their research problem and finally, carry it out in the field. They also report their findings and make conclusions based on the evidence.Finally, they evaluate the whole process and the results in co-operation with other groups.

Each student also prepares an individual presentation of a forest animal. In groups animal species and collected plants are combined into a food web. At the end pupils have received an answer to the basic question of this biology course: How does nature work? This creates a sound base for promoting sustainable lifestyle during the later school years.

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Conclusions

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All life is dependent on working ecosystems on Earth. We need to live and build our societies in such a way, that we do not destroy the material basis for our culture or endanger the very existence of life. In order to understand this fully, building a relationship with nature is vital. For all this we need a local approach. It is also central to build a systematic plan to go deeper in implementing sustainable life style both personally and in everyday practices at school.

 

Bibliography

 

1. Fiscus, Daniel A. The Ecosystemic Life Hypothesis. Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America, April 2002. Archived from the original on 6 August 2009. Retrieved 28 August 2009. Access mode: https://web.archive.org/web/20090806015449/http://www.calresco.org/fiscus/esl.htm

2. Richard Louv: The Last Child in the Woods. Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder. Algonquin Books. 336 p.