Field Notes on Science and Nature

Field Notes on Science and Nature
Author: Michael R. Canfield
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 315
Release: 2012-07-09
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 0674072065

Once in a great while, as the New York Times noted recently, a naturalist writes a book that changes the way people look at the living world. John James Audubon’s Birds of America, published in 1838, was one. Roger Tory Peterson’s 1934 Field Guide to the Birds was another. How does such insight into nature develop? Pioneering a new niche in the study of plants and animals in their native habitat, Field Notes on Science and Nature allows readers to peer over the shoulders and into the notebooks of a dozen eminent field workers, to study firsthand their observational methods, materials, and fleeting impressions. What did George Schaller note when studying the lions of the Serengeti? What lists did Kenn Kaufman keep during his 1973 “big year”? How does Piotr Naskrecki use relational databases and electronic field notes? In what way is Bernd Heinrich’s approach “truly Thoreauvian,” in E. O. Wilson’s view? Recording observations in the field is an indispensable scientific skill, but researchers are not generally willing to share their personal records with others. Here, for the first time, are reproductions of actual pages from notebooks. And in essays abounding with fascinating anecdotes, the authors reflect on the contexts in which the notes were taken. Covering disciplines as diverse as ornithology, entomology, ecology, paleontology, anthropology, botany, and animal behavior, Field Notes offers specific examples that professional naturalists can emulate to fine-tune their own field methods, along with practical advice that amateur naturalists and students can use to document their adventures.

Nature Study Collective

Nature Study Collective
Author: Jamie Current
Publisher: Amblesweet Press
Total Pages: 204
Release: 2021-06-15
Genre: Nature study
ISBN: 9780578937250

Easy-to-implement nature study lessons designed for homeschoolers, co-op groups, and traditional classes, each activity helps students observe and discover for themselves through a firsthand experience with nature. With scientific information, diagrams, and journaling prompts, this book inspires a love for nature and makes teaching it accessible to all educators.

Home Education

Home Education
Author: Charlotte Mason
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 401
Release: 2013-02-18
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1625586183

Home Education consists of six lectures by Charlotte Mason about the raising and educating of young children (up to the age of nine), for parents and teachers. She encourages us to spend a lot of time outdoors, immersed in nature, handling natural objects, and collecting experiences on which to base the rest of their education. She discusses the use of training in good habits such as attention, thinking, imagining, remembering, performing tasks with perfect execution, obedience, and truthfulness, to replace undesirable tendencies in children (and the adults that they grow into). She details how lessons in various school subjects can be done using her approach. She concludes with remarks about the Will, the Conscience, and the Divine Life in the Child. Charlotte Mason was a late nineteenth-century British educator whose ideas were far ahead of her time. She believed that children are born persons worthy of respect, rather than blank slates, and that it was better to feed their growing minds with living literature and vital ideas and knowledge, rather than dry facts and knowledge filtered and pre-digested by the teacher. Her method of education, still used by some private schools and many homeschooling families, is gentle and flexible, especially with younger children, and includes first-hand exposure to great and noble ideas through books in each school subject, conveying wonder and arousing curiosity, and through reflection upon great art, music, and poetry; nature observation as the primary means of early science teaching; use of manipulatives and real-life application to understand mathematical concepts and learning to reason, rather than rote memorization and working endless sums; and an emphasis on character and on cultivating and maintaining good personal habits. Schooling is teacher-directed, not child-led, but school time should be short enough to allow students free time to play and to pursue their own worthy interests such as handicrafts. Traditional Charlotte Mason schooling is firmly based on Christianity, although the method is also used successfully by secular families and families of other religions.

Nature Guiding

Nature Guiding
Author: William Gould Vinal
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 866
Release: 2019-03-15
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 1501740873

Nature Guiding is the science of inculcating nature enthusiasm, nature principles, and nature facts into the spirit of individuals. "Doing" nature-study means observing, wondering, and solving problems. It could include collecting, building, measuring, painting, planning, writing, touching, experimenting or any of a wide range of other activities. Most importantly, it allows children to be "original investigators." This book is intended as a resource for teachers and students engaged in nature study at summer camps and in schools. William Gould Vinal believed that the teacher of nature study should be "in sympathy with the simple life and the country way," that the nature study should emphasize observation of the interactions of plants and animals in their environment, and not be reduced to matters of taxonomy and anatomy. In Nature Guiding, he offers advice to camp counselors and school teachers on incorporating nature study into everyday activities, as well as suggestions for parents and others about using visits to state and national parks to teach nature lore.

For the Children's Sake

For the Children's Sake
Author: Susan Schaeffer Macaulay
Publisher: Crossway
Total Pages: 190
Release: 2022-06-06
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1433580039

An Effective, Holistic Guide for Teaching Children in Any Educational Setting Every parent and teacher wants to give his or her children the best education possible. They hope that the teaching they provide is a joyful adventure, a celebration of life, and preparation for living. But sadly, most education today falls short of this goal. For the Children's Sake imagines what education can be based on a Christian understanding of the meaning of life and what it means to be human—a child, a parent, a teacher. The central ideas have been proven over many years and in almost every kind of educational situation, including ideas that author Susan Schaeffer Macaulay and her husband, Ranald, have implemented in their own family and school experience. Includes a foreword by daughter and educator Fiona Fletcher. Simple and Practical: This user-friendly guide helps educators build a stable, enriching, and intellectually stimulating environment for children and also includes a list of additional resources Immersive Teaching: Shows parents and teachers how children's learning experiences can be extended to every aspect of life Proven Methodology: Used in school settings for 14 years, these easily applicable ideas will benefit parents and teachers in homeschooling, public school, or private school

Nature Rx

Nature Rx
Author: Donald A. Rakow
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 121
Release: 2019-05-15
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1501715291

The Nature Rx movement is changing campus life. Offering alternative ways to deal with the stress that students are under, these programs are redefining how to provide students with the best possible environment in which to be healthy, productive members of the academic community. In Nature Rx, Donald A. Rakow and Gregory T. Eells summarize the value of nature prescription programs designed to encourage college students to spend time in nature and to develop a greater appreciation for the natural world. Because these programs are relatively new, there are many lessons for practitioners to learn; but clinical studies demonstrate that students who regularly spend time in nature have reduced stress and anxiety levels and improved mood and outlook. In addition to the latest research, the authors present a step-by-step formula for constructing, sustaining, and evaluating Nature Rx programs, and they profile four such programs at American colleges. The practical guidance in Nature Rx alongside the authors' vigorous argument for the benefits of these programs for both students and institutions places Rakow and Eells at the forefront of this burgeoning movement.

Tracks and Shadows

Tracks and Shadows
Author: Harry W. Greene
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 296
Release: 2013-10-28
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0520232755

Tracks and Shadows is both an absorbing autobiography of a celebrated field biologist and a celebration of beauty in nature. Harry W. Greene, award-winning author of Snakes, delves into the poetry of field biology, showing how nature eases our existential quandaries. More than a memoir, the book is about the wonder of snakes, the beauty of studying and understanding natural history, and the importance of sharing the love of nature with humanity. Illustrations.