Sustainable mathematics in and with the living world outdoors
Summary of Sustainability Education’s Gift: Learning Patterns and Relationships
Williams explores sustainability education as a means to teach kindergarten through to grade 8 students how to grow food, build gardens, harvest, and cook. This reinforces that “progressing [schooling] to a more sustainable world requires a fundamental shift in the framework of formal education–its structure, content and process–to include principles of systems thinking and holistic learning” (Williams, 2008, p.41). In this case, students learn concepts in various subjects by exploring gardens and food. Students are immersed in gardening and explore sustainability concepts that are embedded throughout their learning and alter their understanding of place.
My first stop when reading this article was when I came across the following quote. “Gardens and food, which are an important connection to embodied learning, have enabled students to not only think about their own health but also that of the planet resulting in a shift in the way they learn” (Williams, p.42). By giving students a first hand experience with understanding where their food comes from, students gain a sense of ownership over the problem. It places them closer to the issue, thus helping them see how they can make an impact.
My second stop when reading this article was when David Orr’s term of ‘Crisis of Sustainability’ was introduced. This talks about how school systems separate subject areas, thus making it more challenging for students to see the interconnectedness of subject areas and how they interact together in the real world, not just in the classroom. “With the compartmentalisation of disciplines into various subjects often learned rote without real-life experiences to ground their learning, young children are initiated into a worldview based on technocratic and mechanistic frameworks used by schools” (Williams, 2008, p. 42). This left me wondering how we, as educators, can help students make these connections to interconnectedness in a system that still thinks of disciplines separately.
Exploration of Mathematical Task
In order to observe the living beings and human-made things around me, I found a sit spot in my backyard. In my sketch below, I included a cedar tree, a lilac tree, and the river stones surrounding them. Looking at the human-made things in my sketch, I included a metal fence that surrounds my trees, bricks, and the fence that surrounds the property.
As I started to think about the lines and angles that were visible from my sit spot, I could not help but think about this as an activity to have students participate in. Having the class find a spot outside to reflect on the lines and angles that are present around them. Thinking about if these lines and angles are created by living beings or human made things. These types of activities can help students to see the interconnectedness of subjects and how the mathematical notion we learn in the classroom translates to the real-world.
After immersing myself in this week’s course content, I am left wondering:
How can we shift our teaching to allow students more opportunities to explore concepts outside of the classroom before having them make the connection to the mathematical notation taught in the classroom?
References
Williams, D. (2008). Sustainability education’s gift: Learning patterns and relationships. Journal
of Education for Sustainable Development, 2(1), 41-49.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/14HPRoGdieGiDe0i-4Mg12Vw2gQP3t1eq/view
In your second stop, you discuss how teaching through multiple subjects allows for that interconnectedness around how each discipline interacts with one another. I see so much value in teaching multiple subjects together through interdisciplinary projects and activities however on the other hand struggle with it as well. Being a specialist in mathematics and only teaching one subject all day hinders my ability to do that. I've also struggled with the idea that bringing other subjects and social issues into my class though valuable and makes learning more meaningful I wonder how I would get through an already big curriculum when spending extra time on such activities and learning.
ReplyDeleteI think a lot of these readings that we've been exploring this week have been about a shift in math and formal education towards immersive activities that explore big concepts like sustainability. It's certainly a more holistic and interconnected approach than I have historically been exposed to. The quote from your post that resonated with me was the one about students developing a sense of ownership over issues when they have tangible experience.
ReplyDeleteI find I'm not a very creative person, but am happy to carry out lessons that others have shown me or I have experienced with my students. I sometimes have a hard time forging the connections myself but if someone models an outdoor activity that encourages students to explore mathematical concepts in nature, I can carry it out myself as well.
Building on the idea of outdoor lines and angles I think students could maybe engage in a project where they identify geometric shapes in their environment, measuring angles, identifying lines, calculating perimeter and area. This helps to bridge that gap between real-world application and allows students to see math concepts in their daily lives. I'm going to try to do more of this!