Further investigative techniques
As mentioned earlier, there is no strict division between the techniques which may be used in the study of human environments and those suitable for studying natural environmental features. Many of the approaches described above under the study of human environments are equally applicable here. This section of the guidelines includes a number of further approaches which are particularly suited to the exploration of natural environments, but in the main it will demonstrate how some of the tools discussed earlier under the study of human environments may also be applied to natural features. This section should therefore be read in conjunction with Investigating human environments (pp. 81-96) and with the important advice on safety and other issues contained in the section Organising fieldwork (pp. 74-80).
What should the study of natural environments include?
Children's investigations of natural environmental features should seek to achieve three broad aims:
- to enable children to recognise and identify common physical features
- to develop children's understanding of how elements of the natural environment have been formed and how they may change
- to encourage children to appreciate and investigate the interrelationships between natural features and the lives of plants, animals and people.
The work to be completed on natural environments is described in a separate strand of the curriculum but this does not imply that the study of natural environmental features is to be divorced from children's explorations of human environments. It should be remembered that few, if any, entirely natural environments exist in Ireland. The influence of human activity is to be found in virtually every part of the country. Some schools may be situated where specific natural environments are available for study, for example, they may have ready access to a peatland or a rocky seashore or a remnant of a natural forest. The opportunities presented by the flora, animals and physical features of these places should be exploited.
However, most schools will find that their locality includes examples of individual natural features rather than an extensive natural environment. These may include features such as a hillside, a rocky outcrop near farmland, a river, a lake or a pond. It should also be remembered that many natural processes may be observed in environments that have been shaped by human activity but recolonised by nature, for example a hedgerow, an old graveyard, part of a park or a piece of waste ground. So the investigation of natural environmental features should form an integral part of the exploration of the local environment at all levels in the school. Studies of the locality, a contrasting place in Ireland, a European environment and an environment in another part of the world should also incorporate, wherever possible, work on natural environmental features.
Recognising and examining features in photographs
The development of children's concepts of natural environmental features is often less well developed than their understanding of the human elements of the environment. A number of factors contribute to this, including the inconsistent way in which we use terms (for example the word 'hills' may be used to label features others would refer to as 'mountains'), the scale of the features involved and the fact that the processes which create natural features take place over such a long period that they have little meaning for children.
Collecting, labelling, displaying and examining a wide range of photographs of natural features can play a crucial role in helping the child to acquire and refine his/her concept of environmental features. General and specifically geographical magazines, holiday and travel publications and newspapers can be excellent sources for these illustrations and when mounted in classroom displays they can become the focus for interesting discussion from infant classes onwards. These discussions provide the opportunity for the teacher to introduce a range of vocabulary, including both the names of the features (river, lake, pond, etc.) and of their constituent aspects (bank, bend, shore, etc.).
Aerial photographs can play a very enriching role in the investigation of environments. Good oblique aerial photographs of the locality can give the child an overall impression of the topography of the area. The relative location of large features such as hillsides, rivers, hedgerows and forests can be more readily understood and the links between these features and human activity will be clearer.
This overall impression is almost impossible to achieve on the ground and yet it is crucial to the child's understanding of the way in which large-scale features may have influenced the shape and nature of the landscape. For example, younger children who trace the route of a stream on a photograph might appreciate for the first time that the stream they see outside the school is the same stream that they cross over on the bridge at the end of the village. As larger areas are explored more complex relationships may be examined. The sloped nature of the streets in a village located on a drumlin hillside may be revealed and explained in a photograph. Similarly, a photograph can explain to older children, much more readily than any other means, how flat land and a suitable crossing point on a river may have influenced the siting of a village at a particular point in a mountain valley.
As with the exploration of human features, children should be encouraged to look closely and critically at the natural features depicted in photographs and to identify patterns: where the land is sloped and where it is flat, the areas where trees do or do not grow, the relationship between surface features such as rock, water and soil and the plants and animals found there, the places where people have built or the areas they have farmed or have avoided. Once these patterns have been established then children should be encouraged to speculate on the reasons behind their existence and to investigate further. Explorations in the environment, using some of the techniques described in the remainder of this section and in Exploring human environments, could follow. In this way the examination of aerial photographs can provide a focus for explorations in the environment as well as their more common usage in map work.
Using simulations and models
Simulations and models can be used to illustrate and investigate the way in which many natural processes shape the landscape. Using common materials, a model landscape or section from it can be created and the effects of elements such as running water observed. Valuable lessons can be gleaned from these activities, particularly if children are encouraged to observe, compare and record the changes they see and if the opportunities offered for language development are exploited. A range of possible models and simulations are included in Exemplar 5 which follows on pp. 102-104.
However, simulations need to be treated with care. While it is valuable for children to be able to see the effects of a process it should be stressed that the scale of models (for example a model of a river valley) is not accurate and the rate at which the processes take place in the model is many times greater than that which occurs in a natural environment. Furthermore, it should not be assumed that children who see processes in action in the artificialcontext of a model can transfer this knowledge readily to features in the environment: the links can be tenuous and the model, by eliminating many extraneous factors, can give a somewhat unreal notion of the way in which a landscape feature is formed. Therefore, simulations and models should be used in conjunction with explorations and investigations in the environment and not as substitutes for oudoor activities.
EXEMPLAR 5 - Modelling natural processes
Observing and sketching in the environment
The use of this technique and its development through the primary school years have been fully discussed earlier under Investigating human environments. Observing and drawing natural features will also be an important activity in fieldwork. Recognising features in the environment and completing sketches of them should help in refining the child's concept of the features involved and, if locations and examples are chosen carefully, the child may be encouraged to observe and record how some features are formed. For example, the effects of weathering caused by physical processes (such as heating and cooling) and the growth of plants may be recorded as they are to be found on the headstones of a graveyard; the gently sloping inner curve of a stream with its deposit of sand and gravel and the undercut outer bank opposite may be recorded in a simple, annotated sketch; and both sets of features should lead to a discussion of the weathering, erosion and deposition processes which are in evidence.
The development of landscape sketching will provide many opportunities for language development and should also involve the use of more accurate measurement. Simple equipment and basic mathematics may be used to measure the heights of trees, hedges and other features, the width of streams, the speed of water flows, the temperature in various locations and the slope of land.
EXEMPLAR 6 - Water in the environment (infants to second classes)
EXEMPLAR 7 - Investigating a stream (third to sixth classes)
Experiments and investigations
Engaging in experiments and investigations is an essential element of the child's development in geography and science and it can be a most enjoyable and exciting activity. Many activities in the exploration of natural environments are particularly suited tothis approach. Observing, sorting, classifying, posing hypotheses, testing and experimenting and drawing conclusions will all be involved.
Exemplar 8 contains just a few suggestions which might be considered by teachers but it should be remembered that as children grow older they should be encouraged to identify their own problems for investigation and to suggest ways in which experiments might be carried out.
The experiments described in Exemplar 8 concentrate on physical features such as rocks and soils, but in any exploration of natural environments the interaction of plants and animals with their physical surroundings will be significant. The use of techniques which are suitable for the investigation of flora and fauna (such as quadrats and line transects to chart the occurrence of plant species) is fully described in the Teacher Guidelines for Science. Schools that wish to explore the geography, history and biology of Irish peatlands will find many experiments, modelling exercises and suggestions for integrated studies in a comprehensive guide: Catherine O'Connell, Peatlands and the Primary Curriculum (Irish Peatland Conservation Council, Dublin, 1994).
Many excellent suggestions on how a range of further experiments and investigations may be used in the study of natural environmental features may be found in a series of three books for teachers by Rachel Bowes, Earth in the Environment; Soils, Plants and the Environment; and Water in the Environment (Geographical Association, Sheffield, 1992).
Keeping a wildlife garden
Becoming involved in the establishment and development of a wildlife garden is an excellent way for children to come to appreciate natural features and how these may be managed or changed by human intervention. The links and interdependences between physical features (such as water, rocks and soils), natural phenomena (such as rainfall and temperature changes) and the lives of plants and animals will become very real for children. Many valuable lessons may also be learned about environmental care and enhancement.
A comprehensive guide for teachers on how to create and maintain a wildlife garden by Patrick Madden, Go Wild at School (School Wildlife Garden Association, Dublin, 1996) and an accompanying video have been published by the School Wildlife Garden Association, Scoil Treasa Naofa, Donore Avenue, Dublin 8.
EXEMPLAR 8 - Experiments with rocks and soils (third to sixth classes)