Moving Field Guide

AN IN ITIATIVE O F THE

IN PA R TN E R S H I P WI TH T H E

DANCE EXCHANGE

U.S. FOREST SERVICE

C A S S I E

M E A D O R’S

Moving Field Guide

A Teacher Training Toolkit FOR GRADES 3-5

S CH O O LYARD E DIT IO N

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VO LU M E 0 0 01 danceexchange.org

FOR THE CHILD. . .

IT IS NOT HALF SO IMPORTANT TO KNOW AS TO FEEL. IF FACTS ARE THE SEEDS THAT LATER PRODUCE KNOWLEDGE AND WISDOM, THEN THE EMOTIONS AND THE IMPRESSIONS OF THE SENSES ARE THE FERTILE SOIL IN WHICH THE SEEDS MUST GROW. . . .

IT IS MORE IMPORTANT TO PAVE THE WAY FOR A CHILD TO WANT TO KNOW THAN TO PUT HIM ON A DIET OF FACTS THAT HE IS NOT READY TO ASSIMILATE. —Rachel Carson, A SENSE OF WONDE R

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This book is dedicated to all those teachers who bring our attention and care to the world around us.

In Grateful Memory of

DR. I NÉS CI FUENTES (1955-2013) Whose work in the field of science and love for the environment inspired so many and continues to flourish in the hearts and minds of all those she touched.

THE ARTS INFORM AS WELL AS STIMULATE; THEY CHALLENGE AS WELL AS SATISFY. THEIR LOCATION IS NOT LIMITED TO GALLERIES, CONCERT HALLS AND THEATRES. THEIR HOME CAN BE FOUND WHEREVER HUMANS CHOOSE TO HAVE ATTENTIVE AND VITAL INTERCOURSE WITH LIFE ITSELF. –Elliot W. Eisner, THE A R TS AND CREATION OF THE MIND

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Copyright © 2015 by Dance Exchange All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the Dance Exchange except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Printed in the United States of America First Printing, 2015 ISBN 978-0-9727385-1-7 Dance Exchange 7117 Maple Avenue Takoma Park, MD 20912 www.DanceExchange.org

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C A S S I E

M E A D O R’S

Moving Field GuidE

SC HOOLYARD EDI TI ON

CREATOR OF MOVING FIELD GUIDE: Cassie Meador

LEAD AUTHORS: Cassie Meador, Mark Twery

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: John Borstel, Sarah Case, Matthew Cumbie, Meagan Leatherbury, Melanie Meador, Amanda Newman, Elizabeth Getsinger, Jessie Scott III, Wendy Rouget, Emily Macel Theys

EDITOR: Emily Macel Theys

ASSISTANT EDITORS: John Borstel, Amanda Newman, Jessica Nickelsen

SCIENCE EDUCATION STANDARDS CORRELATION Samantha Dean, Cradle of Forestry Interpretive Association; Jessica Nickelsen Natural Inquirer, www.naturalinquirer.org

DESIGNER AND ILLUSTRATOR: Jenny Greer Fares, Sound Mind Creative, www.soundmindcreative.com

An Initiative of

In Partnership with

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TABLE OF CONTENTS Refinements and Variations ................................................... 19

INTRODUCTION............................................ 7

The Importance of Arts Integration .................................... 20

What is a Moving Field Guide (MFG)? ..................................7 Field Note from the Choreographer ......................................8 Field Note from the Forester ...................................................9 How To Use this Guide.............................................................10

Compass Rose ............................................................................ 21

CHAPTER.2: MOVING .........22 FROM THE FORESTER: Energy, Growth, and Reproduction .................................... 24

Outdoor Activity Safety ........................................................... 11

FROM THE CHOREOGRAPHER: Moving to Notice/Noticing to Move ................................... 25 Let’s Prepare .............................................................................. 26 Scale your Experience ............................................................ 26 Let’s Move....................................................................................27 The Role You Will Play ............................................................ 28 Let’s Reflect ............................................................................... 28 Refinements and Variations .................................................. 28

CHAPTER.3: MAKING ........ 30 FROM THE FORESTER: Cycles of Change ...................................................................... 32 FROM THE CHOREOGRAPHER: Building a Sense of Wonder ................................................. 33 Integrating Technology In—and Out of—Your Classroom.......................................... 34 Let’s Prepare .............................................................................. 34 Let’s Move................................................................................... 35 Let’s Reflect ............................................................................... 36 Refinements and Variations .................................................. 36

photo by Jori Ketten

CHAPTER.1: GATHERING

.. 12

FROM THE FORESTER: Cardinal Directions.................................................................... 14

Forester-turned-Dancer ..........................................................37

RESOURCES

FROM THE CHOREOGRAPHER: Gathering Across Generations and Disciplines ................ 15 Let’s Prepare .............................................................................. 16 Let’s Move.................................................................................... 17 Why Variations Matter ............................................................. 18 Let’s Reflect ................................................................................ 19

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Glossary....................................................................................... 38 Next Generation Science Standards ................................... 39 National Science Education Standards..............................40 About the Authors ................................................................... 42 Acknowledgments ................................................................... 43

INTRODUCTION

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What is a Moving Field Guide?

A Moving Field Guide (MFG) uses movement and dance-making as creative tools for exploring changes in the environment around us and offers a way for students to discover a deeper connection to the world around them.

During this immersive experience, students activate their senses and observation skills through a series of outdoor movement activities.

Combining an artistic and ecological approach to learning, students have an opportunity to get outside, to learn about their local ecosystems through art and science, and to move along a path from appreciation to knowledge to active stewardship of the environment. MFGs use dance to make new discoveries and connections between our bodies and the environment.

The MFG program, created by Cassie Meador at Dance Exchange in Takoma Park, Maryland, has expanded and gathered partners and participants across the country. MFGs have happened in urban parks in big cities like Baltimore and Boston, along rivers in D.C. and Maryland, along the shores of the Pacific Ocean in Sonoma, California, in the deserts of Arizona, and at the foot of the Appalachian Mountains in West Virginia.

Dance Exchange has led MFGs in city centers, at botanical gardens, at national parks and in the quiet depths of forests. The artists have worked closely with the U.S. Forest Service, nature centers, schools, and community organizations to expand the MFG program to these diverse environments.

In this first volume of the Moving Field Guide book series, Dance Exchange and the U.S. Forest Service will share approaches to bringing a MFG to your schoolyard. The examples included in this workbook are geared towards grades 3-5, but can certainly be adapted for other ages and grade levels.

In this Schoolyard Edition of the MFG, students get out of the classroom to connect directly with the ecology of their own schoolyard. Students have the opportunity to observe and create movement as a way to learn about the environment, to cultivate their senses, and to close the divide that can so often exist between their bodies and the natural world.

Mark Twery from the Forest Service will join Cassie Meador in guiding you through this workbook. Each chapter begins by introducing a set of scientific principles and setting up the methods to make these ideas move.

Through the Schoolyard MFG, you and your students will have the opportunity to relate to your schoolyard and ecological region in new, exciting, and memorable ways.

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INTRODU CTIONS

FIELD NOTE FROM THE CHOREOGRAPHER: Dancing has always been a way for me to understand the world around me.

As a dancer and choreographer who cares about social engagement and the resilience of communities, I was fortunate to find a home at Dance Exchange. Since 1976, this intergenerational company has been making dances about real-world topics and using art as a vehicle for learning and community building.

into inquiry, encouraging me to look at how my experiences could inspire communities to create new and needed relationships with the environment around them.

Since then, I’ve had the opportunity to collaborate with climate scientists in Guyana, South America, where the rain forest became our laboratory, classroom, and rehearsal studio.

I’ve danced with farmers, river keepers, and foresters. I’ve choreographed for the United Nations Climate Conference in Durban, South Africa, and along a 500-mile walk, tracing the source of the electricity that powers my home in our Nation’s Capital, to a mountaintop removal site in West Virginia.

When I joined the Dance Exchange in 2002, it was my dream job. I was getting to be a part of the company’s Through these encounters, I meaningful work in communities experimented and refined ways around the world. But we were for people to connect with nature, on the road constantly and learn about their regional ecology, realities of touring often left me and recognize our changing feeling little sense of connection planet through movement and to places I visited or to changes dance-making, ultimately leading in the environment around me. us to a partnership with the I spent much of my time in Forest Service. Collaborating with dark theaters, hotel rooms, and naturalists, outdoor educators, and airports, traveling from one city environmental leaders inspired me to the next. The only way to to create the Moving Field Guide. orient to the season was seeing photo by Matt Mahaney Many wonderful artists from Dance spring daffodils or autumn leaves Exchange, including our founder Liz Lerman, on magazine covers at airport newsstands. The have cultivated the ground where this work work was happening with such speed and in grows. We are composting some older ideas in so many directions that we rarely had time to the MFG, in hopes that they can grow in new consider, or even notice, what maybe mattered and vital ways, connecting us more deeply with most—that our planet was, and is, changing. our changing planet.

Not just seasonal change, but large-scale ecological change caused by our human impact Remember, nothing is too small to notice. You on the planet. don’t have to go on a long journey or distant

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This nearly made me walk away from this career. I thought I might make a more meaningful contribution pursuing another path. Thankfully though, the values of Dance Exchange asked me to turn my discomfort

adventure to experience the beauty and complexity of nature. Creating positive change for the environment can begin in our homes, communities, and schoolyards.

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—Cassie Meador

INTRODUCTIONS

FIELD NOTE FROM THE FORESTER: that it benefits both art and science to share experiences and learn from each other.

photo by Jessie L Scott III

Learning and teaching science can sometimes be a dry exercise, but it need not be.

Moving Field Guides are an effective way to actively engage students in the learning process. Integrating the art of dance into the teaching of ecology through the MFG enhances the experience that students have and improves the retention of concepts.

Both scientists and artists look for ways to better understand the world and to express that understanding. Whether creating awareness of scientific knowledge or creating new works of art, both begin by asking questions about what they experience and both follow processes that include components of observation, analysis, interpretation, and communication. A scientist may practice these components as a sequence of steps, namely data collection, statistical analysis, synthesis of results, and publication of a technical article. Artists work in many different ways but often start with research through careful observation and analysis of a phenomenon of interest, followed by the synthesis of ideas into an interpretation in a particular medium that can then engage a public audience. This can empower people to connect on a personal level to the larger changes in our environment, leading to deeper understanding and a greater sense of connection. These parallels tell us

MFGs can act as a vehicle to merge the parallel processes. Introducing movement into the act of learning about ecology can help convey scientific concepts to students while stimulating more questions about the environment. That can lead to new scientific research aimed at answering those questions.

Similarly, the scientific content may inspire the artists to find alternative means of interpreting and expressing what they see.

From my perspective and experience, MFGs are an excellent way to get students outside, actively learning about the world around them.

That is an essential step in education and in preparation to become active and involved citizens.

— Mark Twery

photo by Jer Banks

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HOW TO USE THIS GUIDEBOOK SCIENCE STANDARDS At Dance Exchange, we work with experts from a variety of fields to ensure our research is thorough and our projects are useful and impactful to each participant. For this book, our Forest Service partners advised that we include both National Science Education Standards and Next Generation Science Standards correlations to help teachers to more easily assimilate this curriculum into existing lesson plans. With the assistance of Jessica Nickelsen, Director of Education for the Natural Inquirer and Investi-gator and her colleague Samantha Dean of the Cradle of Forestry Interpretive Association, we have included a section at the beginning of each chapter outlining which Standards are featured within the chapter. On pages 39-41 as well as on our website (danceexchange. org), you’ll find a complete list of the National Science Education Standards and Next Generation Science Standards included in this book.

Chapters are structured to support you in assembling the pieces that work best for your needs and interests.

Each chapter follows a standard format: CHAPTER OPENERS

NEXT.GENERATION.SCIENCE.STANDARDS:

FROM THE FORESTER: A field note from Mark Twery of the Forest Service describing science/ nature content appropriate to the chapter’s core activity.

As you follow along through this book, you’ll find we often use the eight practices of science that the Framework for K-12 Science Education identifies as essential for all students to learn: 1. Asking questions- At the center of the activity is questioning, exploring and analyzing, all begins and returns to the prompts “What do you see?”

2. Developing and using models – The natural world/ landscape is the model from which the students will demonstrate learning and observation through movement.

3. Planning and carrying out investigations- The movement phrases created by each student require close, critical investigation and exploration of the natural world.

4. Analyzing and interpreting data- The students make close observations, translate and synthesize data into movement and share the movement with the group.

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5. Using mathematics and computational thinking- Building the movement phrase requires recall, sequential thinking, accuracy and attention to detail.

6. Constructing explanations- As each observation is translated into physical responses, each student must explain his or her choices to the group, illustrating and explaining the learning and observation.

7. Engaging in argument from evidence- the movement, discussion, and reflection within the activity require the students to express their thinking, choices and reasoning for their specific movement choices.

8. Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating informationLearning and connection is achieved not only through careful observation and analysis of our natural world (such as the wind, seeds or trees), but also in the communication of these observations through one’s own body and creative expression.

Illustrated two-page spreads introduce the activity and offer visual tools and guides.

SCIENCE STANDARDS These standards indicate how the lessons in each chapter relate to national science education standards.

INTRODUCTIONS

FROM THE CHOREOGRAPHER: A field note from Cassie Meador of the Dance Exchange sharing the history of the activity and the connections between art, science, and learning that it emphasizes.

LET’S PREPARE Guidelines for getting ready, materials, tips for planning and definitions of key science terms and dance/movement concepts.

LET’S MOVE The core, step-by-step instructions for the activity you’ll be guiding.

LET’S REFLECT Questions to deepen the experience for you and your students and potential follow-up activities.

VARIATIONS Additional ways to apply the primary concepts in the chapter.

SIDEBARS Additional ideas, applications, and reflections on practical experience from classroom and outdoor educators are highlighted in additional text throughout the chapter.

M OV I NG FI ELD GUI D E, S CHOOLYARD EDITION

FOR STUDENTS GRADES 3-5 These methods are adaptable to varied skill levels and are designed to be accessible to teachers regardless of subject expertise. We encourage variations and modifications that customize the Schoolyard MFG in response to the region where you are working and the students you have gathered to participate. In that spirit, this book is not a stepby-step curriculum; it is a guidebook that offers creative tools for engaging with and learning about the ecology and changing environment in and around your schoolyard. In leading these activities, we encourage you to remind students that they are in charge of their own body and experience and they can make variations and adaptations for themselves.

ADAPTABLE FOR CLASSES OF ALL SIZES

OUTDOOR ACTIVITY SAFETY RECOMMENDATIONS • Work with your students to identify which classroom rules/ expectations also apply to your time together outdoors.

• Note unsafe areas in your schoolyard to avoid. Depending on the location of your Moving Field Guide, students may be required to remain on a path or sidewalk. Discuss why this is important (i.e. for the safety of students AND the environment).

• Check the forecast before embarking on your MFG. Make sure students are prepared with layers and coats if it’s colder or sunscreen and water if it’s warmer.

• Be aware of any student allergies (e.g. bees), and be prepared to handle a reaction should one occur. Have a first aid kit on hand.

• Be aware of the creatures that call your schoolyard home.

As a teacher, you will design and facilitate the MFG Encourage students not to bother any insects, spiders, to meet you and your students’ needs. With this small birds, or mammals they may discover. idea in mind, in this guide we strive to balance clear, • A principal, school nurse, caretaker, environmental actionable directions with the spirit of freedom and educator, or local naturalist may be an additional resource adaptability, giving you a clear road map on the one in identifying and addressing safety concerns. hand, while suggesting lots of variations on the other.

We encourage experimentation. Ultimately, you’ll make the Schoolyard MFG a meaningful experience for your students in your schoolyard by applying You are now ready for the GATHERING your own ideas and sense of invention.

phase.

SCALABLE AND TAILORED EXPERIENCES The large unit version is to facilitate the three-activity arc of GATHERING, MOVING, and MAKING outlined through the individual chapters of this guide. This can be a single, unified experience, taking place in one afternoon, or three events taking place over a longer period of time, like several class sessions. Or you can look to the tools and component ideas for what they offer in lesson plans of your own design.

Bee and E ch

inacea 11 photo by Jer Banks danceexchange.org

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CHAPTER 1 danceexchange.org

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GATHERING

photo by Kate Freer

NATIONAL.SCIENCE. .

EDUCATION.STANDARDS. Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry Understandings about scientific inquiry Positions and motion of objects Motions and forces Light, heat, electricity, and magnetism Transfer of energy Organisms and environments Populations and ecosystems Objects in the sky Changes in earth and sky Abilities to distinguish between natural objects and objects made by humans Understandings about science and technology Personal health Characteristics and changes in populations Populations, resources, and environments Changes in environments Science and technology in local challenges Science and technology in society Science as a human endeavor Systems, order, and organization Evidence, models, and explanation Change, constancy, and measurement

NEXT.GENERATION..

SCIENCE.STANDARDS 3rd Grade Standards 3-LS1-1 FROM MOLECULES TO ORGANISMS: STRUCTURES AND PROCESSES • Developing and Using Models • Connections to Nature of Science • Patterns See pages 39-41 for full descriptions of standards.

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FROM THE FORE STER:

CARDINAL DIRECTIONS The four cardinal directions (north, south, east, west) are a useful convention for navigation from place to place. Magnetic compasses have been used for navigation for about 1000 years.

Prior to that, people relied on the sun and stars for orientation.

However, when the weather was cloudy, navigation was difficult beyond visible landmarks.

Other means of orientation can be developed through observation of local details. For example, moss on the forest floor prefers shady areas because it can get too dried out in direct sunlight. If you look at the bases of trees and find moss growing generally on the same side of many trees, that will be the shadiest side. In the northern hemisphere, that’s the north side of the tree, because the sun always stays (at least a little) to the south of directly overhead.

Foresters use a map and compass to navigate through the woods because it is difficult to see long distances through the trees and landmarks can be hard to find. Even in the new era of satellite-based global positioning systems (GPS), a dense forest canopy and steep hills can make a GPS unreliable. So a compass is still a necessary tool.

Helping students to understand the cardinal directions through physical orientation is a natural place to start when orienting your students to the outdoors, and in this guidebook it’s our first activity in the Schoolyard Moving Field Guide. But first, Cassie will explain the importance of an intergenerational MFG team with diverse voices.

Maple Tr

ee Seeds

— Mark, the Forester

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F ROM THE CHOREOG RAPHER:

GATHERING ACROSS GENERATIONS AND DISCIPLINES At Dance Exchange, we believe in the value of gathering a diverse range of movers and makers to enrich an experience across generations and disciplines.

A Moving Field Guide is often led by multiple facilitators— artists pair with foresters, naturalists, and local knowledge keepers. While it may not always be possible to include outside partners for the MFG etten photo by Jori K you lead, you may find that it’s more fun and effective to lead it with a partner from another discipline. Try combining classes and doing a MFG with a fellow teacher; planning with a teaching assistant or parent volunteer; enlisting a teacher in music, art, or physical education; or bringing in a forester or other specialist for the outing.

Remember, everyone has a story to tell, and everyone has a different relationship to the land around us. Use these individual experiences and varied perspectives to enhance learning in your Schoolyard Moving Field Guide.

Moth

In the GATHERING section, we’ll be practicing different ways to observe our surroundings using our bodies and senses to make new discoveries about our environment.

— Cassie, the Choreographer

s ssie L Scott

photo by Elena

photo by Je

III

Kerr danceexchange.org

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LET’S PREPARE ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION TERMS: Compass, compass rose:

MATERIALS NEEDED: -

compass compass rose (see pg. 21) drinking water chalk or stakes and marking tape to make a large square in the schoolyard.

SELECT A SITE: In advance, you’ll need to set-up the space where you will gather your group to start your Schoolyard MFG. Select an open site where your class will gather. You will be doing some movement activities here, so we recommend a space that is flat and clear of debris and objects. An open field, a small clearing in your schoolyard, or an open courtyard space are all good options.

Mark off a square-shaped area within this space. To estimate the size of the space you’ll need, take the total number in the group, then make each side of the square at least that many steps. To set up the boundaries of the space, use marking tape and stakes. If those aren’t available, get creative: Does your school have sports cones or chalk? If your schoolyard has a space that is already defined like a courtyard or seating area, use that. Are there prominent trees and rocks that you can use as boundaries?

A compass is an instrument used for navigation by determining direction with a floating, magnetic component that orients to north. A compass rose is an image or diagram found on a map to show directions graphically; it includes at least a north arrow but often also includes cardinal and intermediate directions.

Orientation: One’s position relative to one’s surroundings, such as knowing which way is up, which way is north, or which way is home.

Landmark: An easily recognizable feature or object that can be used to identify a location and to help find a known path or direction.

Primary cardinal directions: North, South, East, and West: the basic four directions on a compass or map; used to standardize navigation.

Intermediate cardinal directions: Northeast, Northwest, Southeast, Southwest: the points on a compass that indicate directions halfway between each of the cardinal directions; used to enable more precise navigation than just using the cardinal directions.

Navigation: The charting of a path or route to get from one point to another; includes locating one’s current position.

MOVEMENT TERMS: Warm-up: Preliminary activity that prepares the body to safely engage in a bigger task.

Dance components: Actions that come together to engage the body in expressing emotions, ideas and observations, including: • Movement – Motion in any or all parts of the body. Examples: raising eyebrows, arm and hand movements, swaying the torso, galloping with feet.

• Shape – A fixed configuration of some or all parts of the body.

Examples: making a circle with the arms, spider shapes with fingers, leaf shapes with the entire body.

• Level – Position of a shape or movement relative to the ground; Examples: crouching to make a low movement, rising on tiptoe with the arms reaching upward.

• Tempo – Speed of movement, slow, moderate or fast.

• Traveling – Transitioning a shape or movement from one location to another.

Dance phrase: A series of shapes and movements in a finite, repeatable sequence.

Variation: A change that alters one or more element of a movement or phrase, such as speed, size or level.

Facilitator: Activity leader who guides the group experience and helps to shape an outcome from contributions made by the participants.

photo by Jori Ketten

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Pine Cone

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LET’S MOVE

Caterpillar The cardinal directions, defined on page 16, are used throughout the Schoolyard MFG. In this introductory activity you and your students will discuss and use what you already know about the cardinal directions to orient yourselves to the space and prepare to go on your journey.

ACTIVITY.1:.

SHARING OBSERVATIONS AND PREPARING OUR BODIES

1.

TRAVEL.OUTSIDE

To begin the MFG, while you’re still indoors, ask your students to find a partner. As the students walk outside, have them talk to their partner about what they are seeing and noticing along the way. For example: • What do you notice as you go from indoors to outdoors? What changes?

(Temperature, lighting, etc.)

• Find something you think no one else would notice along the way.

• Name three things that you find interesting or exciting on your journey.

Travel with your group to the center of the space you have set up to start your Schoolyard MFG. Ask students to form a big circle, making sure to stay within the contained space. We’ve found working in a more contained space helps to focus the students before moving out in more open space.

2. .

SHARE.OBSERVATIONS. .

AND.GET.MOVING.

As you learn to lead a Schoolyard MFG in this guidebook, we will be giving you ideas and tools to get your students moving together, and observing what they see around them to create movement phrases.

Going around the circle, have students share something observed from the walk, using the prompt that you chose. Invite each to make a shape to create a physical representation of the observation: “Can you make a shape with your body to show what you saw?”

For example, a student who notices ivy climbing up the side of the building could twist both arms to represent the vines. One who sees a bee buzz from plant to plant might trace the pathway in the air using a foot or hand.

After each student shares an observation and makes a movement to represent the observation, invite the rest of group to follow along and find the movement, or a version of the movement, using their own body. By the end, each student will have contributed a movement and had a chance to find the shapes shared by other students in their bodies. This will allow the group to begin warming up their bodies and building their observational skills.

3.

COLLECT.MOVEMENTS..

AND.CREATE.A.WARM-UP

As shapes are being made and shared by the students around the circle, select four to eight that you and the group can repeat. Use the selected shapes to create a warm-up that gets the shapes moving in varied ways through the body and in the space. To help you out, we’ve shared some warm-up movement ideas in the call-out box, below.

Once you’ve sequenced these movements into a movement phrase, repeat it at least twice at a moderate speed so that everyone has a chance to learn and remember.

The final time the group repeats this movement phrase, have the students move to a different place in the circle.

When everyone has arrived to a new place in the circle, ask the students how they got there. Examples of questions include: • Was your path direct or indirect?

• Did you have to change course?

• In what direction did you travel (north, south, east, west)?

• How do you know what direction you were traveling?

WA R M- UP MOVEMENT I DEAS Since you’ll be moving your bodies, it’s important to warmup, just as you would before gym class or dance class. Some helpful things to think about when designing a warm-up based on your observations: • Movement that contracts and expands, moving towards and away from the body will prepare the body to move in small and large ways. For example, make a large X with your body, reaching your hands and feet away from each other as far as you can. Once you have reached your limit, bring it all back in and curl into a tight ball closer to the ground.

• Movement that reaches across the body will prepare for cross lateral and directional changes. For example, take one hand and reach across your body as if you are bringing something closer to you. Allow your spine to spiral with the reach, but keep the pelvis stable. Repeat this on the other side.

• Movement that mobilizes major joints prepares the body to move at different levels. For example, focus on the shoulder joints and hip joints. Circle your shoulders both forwards and backwards. As a variation, you could extend your arms while circling the shoulders to increase the stretch. To mobilize your hip joints, walk in a place a few times and bring your knees higher than usual. You could also sit down and stand up a few times!

• Movement that accelerates heart rate and blood flow prepares the body to move at varying tempos, speeding up or slowing down the dance phase. Try bringing your palms together in front of your heart. Press your hands together and allow the pressure to move your hands sideto-side very quickly. This action will cause your chest and torso to move, followed by movement in your arms and shoulders.

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ACTIVITY.2:..

CHANGE DIRECTIONS, CHANGE FOCUS USING THE CARDINAL DIRECTIONS In the next activity you’ll lead, you’ll dive into the cardinal directions. First, let’s find out what your students already know by asking questions.

Ask a few questions like: How did you get to school today? If you didn’t have a GPS or map, how would you know what direction to travel to get here? How can the location of the sun help you tell which way is north from here?

Bring content that you’ve covered in class about the cardinal directions, or pull from Mark’s introduction materials for a larger discussion on cardinal directions.

1.

ORIENTING.USING. . .....YOUR.SENSES:.

As we mentioned, shifting our attention to our different senses can actually build the capacity to observe and collect more details. The more we can fully integrate the way we observe and perceive, the better we can make sense of the information received and orient ourselves towards our surroundings.

Have your students help you place the compass rose (reproduced from page 21) in the center of your circle, correctly oriented to north and south.

After everyone has had an opportunity to look at this marker, have the students spread out within the marked square and face in one of the cardinal directions. Ask the students about what they observe facing this direction.

Have the students turn to face a new direction and close their eyes. Ask the students about what they observe.

For example:

move lower to the ground. How does a change in level affect our observations?

Repeat this, asking students to shift in levels once or twice more. You can also introduce intermediate directions (northwest, southwest, southeast, northeast) and allow students to choose one of these directions to face as well.

2.

ORIENTING.USING. ......YOUR.BODIES:.

As a way to build on and integrate your observations from the previous activity, start to introduce moving into and out of shapes. For example: • Level and shape: When you indicate a direction to turn towards, also specify a level that the students should end on when making a shape. For example, “Turn toward the west and end in a shape on a high level. Now can we all turn south and end in a low level shape?”

• Change speed: To encourage quick choice-making, start to introduce speed in how you change directions and level. For example, “Can we all turn east quickly and find a medium level shape? Let’s turn slowly to face northeast and find a high level shape.”

• Travel the shape: To integrate these perceptual modalities even more, encourage your students to move their bodies through the space by traveling the shape they end on. For example, “Let’s turn quickly to the west and find a low level shape. Can you move this shape to the east while facing west? Move this shape north three steps.”

Try using this structure to travel your group to each new site along the MFG.

Turn to face the west and close your eyes. Using your other senses, what do you observe? What do you hear or smell? Can you feel where the sun is?

Repeat this instruction, invite students to open their eyes when turning to face a new direction. With each new cardinal direction that you face, focus on a different one of the five senses.

On the third repetition, ask them to

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Blue Jay

WHY VARI ATI ONS MATTER In leading a Moving Field Guide, its important to remind your students that they’re in charge of their body and their experience. Encourage variation and adaptation as they often lead to new ideas for movement and allow us to practice our capacity for divergent thinking, a creative mindset that recognizes that a problem can have multiple solutions. Variation and adaptation allow for each person to participate fully. Leading MFGs in a range of environments has helped us to think about how to prepare and accommodate for people’s needs. For example, in one MFG that we led in West Virginia, several of the older participants needed to remain seated for the duration of the activities. We shifted our circle to include them, and at times moved the chairs a short distance to change perspective or to find a new relationship to the environment. Another example occurred at a MFG that we facilitated at an environmental gathering with the Girl Scouts of America. We covered a significant distance and the group had varying levels of stamina and comfort as we went on to higher elevations. We accommodated by dividing the group in two, one group explored and made a dance about the ecology at higher elevations on the mountain, while the other group created a dance about the ecology at the base of the mountain. At the end, we re-gathered and the girls had the opportunity to share out and learn from each other’s dances.

These are just a few examples of how we adapt on the ground, and hopefully give you ideas about how you can make an MFG work for your group too!

—Matthew Cumbie,

DANCE EXCHANGE ARTIST

Having experienced the versatility of Moving Field Guides first hand, I like the way a MFG catches the attention of all participants and allows them to participate, regardless of their ability level. I watched how the kids who actively expressed disinterest in the program at the beginning quickly became immersed in the activity. I’m not aware of a similar outdoor education program, and I’m not aware of one where the intensity/activity level can be instantly dialed-up to increase or meet the energy level of the participants. The MFG relies on discovery and observation, which are important skills across all disciplines. This is important because it allows nearly all age groups to participate, it promotes critical thinking, it encourages participants to engage their environment, and allows for creative expression.

—Jessie L Scott III,

BOSTON URBAN CONNECTIONS COORDINATOR, USDA FOREST SERVICE M OV ING FI ELD GUI D E, S CHOOLYA R D EDITION

LET’S REFLECT HOW DID IT GO?

Take time before moving on, or after you’ve completed the Schoolyard MFG, to ask questions of your students and yourself to assess your experience and learning from these cardinal directions activities.

Monarch Butte rfly

Questions for Students: 1. What was something that another student pointed out about your schoolyard that you hadn’t noticed before? When you closed your eyes what did you notice that you hadn’t noticed before?

2. What change did you have to make with your body to get lower to the ground? Further away from the ground? What did you notice when you were at different levels that you didn’t notice before?

3. Name some differences you observed when facing different cardinal directions?

How could you determine which direction is north without a compass? Was there an environmental element that helped to determine which direction was north? (For example, the direction of the sun?)

Questions for Teachers: 1. What did you notice about the students’ observations of a familiar schoolyard? What kinds of questions were useful in getting them to reflect on the schoolyard? What might you ask next time?

2. How might you build on the students’ understanding of the cardinal directions in other classroom activities? How could you encourage students to try out what they learned about the cardinal directions in other areas of their lives?

3. In this section, you asked students to use their bodies in a group activity that allowed them to move together in relation to others, as well as work together as a team. How might this activity be varied and used in other parts of the curriculum to promote team building and awareness of others?

R E F IN E M E N TS AND VARI ATI ONS Make your own compass rose:

Ivy

Using the compass rose on page 21 as a model, have your students make their own compass roses prior to the Schoolyard MFG. What landmarks or images would they use to decorate their compass rose? You can use this activity to help teach about cardinal directions and intermediate directions.

The students can then take their personal compasses on the Schoolyard MFG to help orient and navigate as they walk.

Use the cardinal directions to travel: While on the Schoolyard MFG, focus on using the cardinal and intermediate directions to travel from one site to the next. Along the way, encourage students to look for landmarks or details that will help them better understand the direction in which they are traveling and how they can navigate using the immediate

Leopard Frog

environment. This will help students further connect their observations to their ability to orient themselves.

Sharing Leadership: You can also play with a structure similar to follow the leader, the group can follow the movement of the person in front, moving together like a flock of birds (this is a Dance Exchange tool called flocking. Learn more about the Dance Exchange tools at www. danceexchange.org/dx-toolbox). It’s not always necessary to copy the exact shape; variation and adaptation are great tools to introduce in this activity.

Encourage your students to make small modifications to the movement according to how they like to move.

For instance, “Can we all borrow Mia’s shape? Mia, travel us to the north; everyone, let’s do what Mia’s doing.

Mia, can you turn to the south and pass leadership to Sam?”

You are now ready for the MOVING phase. danceexchange.org

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FIELD NOTES The importance of arts integration When I first encountered the Moving Field Guide, I was surprised by how enlivened my senses were, how engaged my critical thinking skills were, and how ready I was to learn. Having come from a background in painting and the visual arts, I believe the skills we learn from practicing our art have an immeasurable impact on how we approach problems in our everyday lives. Arts Integration facilitates the growth of confidence and discipline, preparing students to be more competitive and relevant in the 21st Century.

While I’m certainly an advocate for the importance of art in the learning process, I also understand the challenges of finding time in an already tight curriculum. Using the tools and techniques of a Moving Field Guide, however, allows me to teach the science content I need to teach to my first graders while giving my students an opportunity to move their bodies, strengthen their spatial reasoning skills, build their communication skills, and improve their capacity for creative and critical thinking.

And I’ve learned that you don’t have to be a dance expert to use this curriculum in meaningful ways. Depending on the needs of my classroom and my students, I can shape the tools presented in the Moving Field Guide to be a vehicle for any type of content. By bringing the Moving Field Guide into my classroom, I’ve been able to create an environment in which everyone is learning and growing, myself included.

– Melanie Meador, AR TS PAC E CHAR TER

S CHOOL, AS HEV I LLE, NC

Red Clove

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20 M OV I NG FI ELD GUI D E, S CHOOLYARD EDITION

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cut here or photocopy

22 M OV I NG FI ELD GUI D E, S CHOOLYARD EDITION

CHAPTER 2

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moving

FR OM THE FOR ESTER:

ENERGY, GROWTH, & REPRODUCTION In this chapter, we’ll explore the scientific principles of energy, growth, and reproduction by examining plants in the schoolyard. Plants are good organisms to study because they (for the most part) stay in one place, unlike animals who (for the most part) move from one place to another. Focusing on plants’ need for energy helps reinforce for students their own use of energy to participate in the Schoolyard Moving Field Guide.

Growth and reproduction are two of the basic functions that all living things need to be able to accomplish. Energy is necessary to stay alive. All energy in living things comes from the sun. Solar energy is captured by green leaves through photosynthesis and used by plants to grow and reproduce. All other organisms capture energy from green plants either directly or indirectly. To capture solar energy, plants follow different strategies. Some grow tall to keep their leaves in direct sunlight, while others thrive in the shade because their leaves have evolved to use low light conditions efficiently. Some plants find ways to climb trees (vines use tendrils, twining, or clinging roots, for example), so they don’t have to spend as much energy building a tree trunk.

Other plants, like grasses, have adapted to drier conditions where there is not enough water for trees to grow, so they can get full sun without needing to get so tall.

NATIONAL.SCIENCE..

EDUCATION.STANDARDS

Understandings about scientific inquiry Positions and motion of objects Motions and forces Transfer of energy Light, heat, electricity, and magnetism Characteristics of organisms Life cycles of organisms Organisms and environments Structure and function in living systems Reproduction and heredity Objects in the sky Personal health Diversity and adaptations of organisms Structure of the Earth system Types of resources Populations, resources, and environments Regulation and behavior Populations and ecosystems Science as a human endeavor Nature of science History of science Systems, order, and organization Evidence, models, and explanation Evolution and equilibrium Forms and function

Once a plant has grown to maturity, it can put its energy into reproduction, or make copies of itself that can spread to other places.

Most plants spread by seeds, vegetative growth, or both. Seeds are the primary way that plants travel long distances to new territory. They can be spread by the wind (dandelions and milkweed), by birds and animals (berries and nuts), or by water (coconuts). Other plants, such as willow trees, have adapted to life along river banks so that if a branch breaks off in a flood and gets stuck in the mud downstream, it can put down roots and start a new tree there as long as there is enough water and sunlight for it to begin capturing energy again.

Cassie will explain how piecing together a series of movements can illuminate rich subject matter like plant reproduction and, in turn, create a more memorable experience for students.

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— Mark, the Forester M OV I NG FI ELD GUI D E, S CHOOLYARD EDITION

photo by Jori Ketten

Cottonwood Tree

FROM THE CHOREOG RAPHE R:

MOVING TO NOTICE/ NOTICING TO MOVE Cottonwood Leaves NEXT.GENERATION..

SCIENCE.STANDARDS 4th Grade Standards 4-PS3-2 ENERGY • PS3.A: Definitions of Energy • PS3.B: Conservation of Energy and Energy Transfer • Energy and Matter 4-PS3-3 ENERGY • Asking Questions and Defining Problems • PS3.A: Definitions of Energy • PS3.B: Conservation of Energy and Energy Transfer • PS3.C: Relationship Between Energy and Forces 4-LS1-1 FROM MOLECULES TO ORGANISMS: STRUCTURES AND PROCESSES • Engaging in Argument from Evidence • LS1.A: Structure and Function • Systems and System Models

5th Grade Standards 5-PS3-1 ENERGY • Developing and Using Models • PS3.D: Energy in Chemical Processes and Everyday Life • LS1.C: Organization for Matter and Energy Flow in Organisms • Energy and Matter 5-LS2-1 ECOSYSTEMS: INTERACTIONS, ENERGY, AND DYNAMICS • Developing and Using Models • Connections to the Nature of Science • Science Models, Laws, Mechanisms, and Theories Explain Natural Phenomena • LS2.A: Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems • LS2.B: Cycles of Matter and Energy Transfer in Ecosystems See pages 39-41 for full descriptions of standards.

The relationship between our bodies and the ecological systems they depend on can easily be forgotten in the absence of direct experiences in nature. In 2012, I set out to make a series of dances along a 500-mile walk from my home in DC to a mountaintop removal site in West Virginia, physically traveling to the source of the energy that powers my home and city. Covering this distance, I wanted to better understand my own relationship to the resources I use on a daily basis. Over the course of two months, I walked, slept outdoors, and carried what I needed, week-to-week, on my back.

This journey and the time outdoors reminded me of my connection to and dependence on the land.

photo by Jessie

L Scott III

Along my 500-mile journey, I engaged communities to look at their connection to and impact on the places where they live. I worked with Mark to bring MFGs to communities along the way. Each MFG gathered together local knowledge keepers, including naturalists, historians, teachers, and elders from the towns we passed through. We worked with these local leaders and other participants to surface the ecological, historical, and human stories that shape and connect us to the places where we live. Through the making of dances, participants learned to embody these stories, making visible local knowledge and new discoveries about the places where they live. They worked collaboratively to make dances along riversides, parks, and schoolyards, each new dance a record of their collective and personal understanding of these places. MFGs offer everyone involved the opportunity to reconnect and enliven their relationship to the places where they live and learn.

You and your students don’t have to travel a long distance or sleep outside for months to make these kinds of connections. In this chapter, we will explore creative practices for reconnecting with and learning about the environment around us.

In the MOVING section, you’ll be leading your students through activities of discovery, observation and physical/verbal expressions of ecological ideas. Using a Dance Exchange method of creating a dance, called Builda-Phrase (defined on the next page), you’ll arrive at an original dance that everyone helps to build together. Your role will be to elicit and arrange the component material of the dance and to lead regular reviews of the dance as more material is added.

As the dance is remembered, practiced, and shared, it becomes a living record of observations and new discoveries collected in the schoolyard.

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— Cassie, the Choreographer danceexchange.org

LET’S PREPARE SELECT A SI TE

MATERIALS NEEDED: - drinking water - small notebook for observations and idea collecting

ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION TERMS: Energy: The capacity or ability of a physical system, body, or organism to do work or perform an activity.

Growth: The act of increasing

Before leading this movement activity, review the “From the Forester” notes on energy, growth, and reproduction.

Walk around your schoolyard and choose a few locations that demonstrate key points in the notes, or other related nature/science content that you would like to illuminate for your students. Here are some examples from our experience:

• A stand of dandelions in the process of producing and losing their seeds, demonstrating a wind-assisted method for reproduction. Other wind-dispersed seeds available to show will depend on the season, but some good examples include cottonwood trees with very light, fluffy seeds in the spring, maple or ash trees with winged seeds at various times, or milkweeds in the fall.

• A grassy, sunlit area next to a shady spot with sparser vegetation, demonstrating how certain plants thrive with more access to the sun.

The experience you’ll lead can incorporate the nature/science content in two ways: You can cover material in advance in class with your students through assigned readings, group discussions, or visual/hands-on learning. Or you can introduce the new content as you create the dance, or as we at Dance Exchange call it, “Build-a-Phrase.”

• A leafy tree with vines growing on it, demonstrating two adaptations to accessing sunlight: growing tall to rise above the competition or evolving to expend less energy on building a trunk and saving its energy to put into seeds.

in size or number.

Reproduction: The act or process of creating offspring, or additional organisms of the same species.

Photosynthesis: The use of light to convert water and carbon dioxide into sugar; performed only by green plants with chlorophyll.

MOVEMENT TERMS: Build-a-Phrase: A sequence of movements collected through the course of an experience and then combined to create a dance.

Spontaneous Gesture: The often unconscious gesture that a person will make in the acts of selfexpression or describing something.

Observed carefully, these can become the source of movements in the Build-a-Phrase.

Movement Commissions: Direct assignments that the leader gives to inspire movements and shapes.

SpWioldefr

Scale your Moving Field Guide Experience During my first experience facilitating a Moving Field Guide, I led three 5th grade classes through the process of exploring our schoolyard. In each class of approximately 27 students, I was thrilled to see my students making detailed observations, sharing new insights, and engaging with their peers and their surroundings in unique ways.

Just as my students gained meaningful new knowledge during our first Moving Field Guide experience, I gained new insights as a facilitator as well. I began to understand that it takes practice to lead a Moving Field Guide. If it seems overwhelming to facilitate the whole Moving Field Guide, educators might consider starting with small doses of 5-10 minutes and building up from there. I found I had to lead the activities a couple of times and make small adjustments before I found the sequence, pace, and content that worked for both my students and my teaching style.

I also learned that facilitating the Moving Field Guide with large groups can create some really exciting outcomes, but it can also present some challenges. In the future, I’m considering starting as a big group then breaking into smaller groups with perhaps one student leader each. This would allow each student to play an active role in the observation process and in the creation of movement. At the end of the Moving Field Guide, students could then share the dances they’ve created and talk about their experiences and discoveries.

– Wendy Rouget,

LEWISDALE E LEMENTARY SCHOOL, HYATTSVILLE , MD

26 M OV I NG FI ELD GUI D E, S CHOOLYA R D EDITION

Black Wid

ow

LET’S MOVE 1. TRAVEL.TO.LOCATION.1:

Throughout the Schoolyard MFG and especially in this MOVING section, you’ll need to guide your students in moving from location to location in the schoolyard. Start making plans for this as you do your preliminary walk-through. How much time you spend in the traveling transitions will depend on your setting, the locations you’ve planned to visit along your route, and the time you have allotted for the activity as a whole. We’ve found that students are more likely to stay engaged if you give a task to do while they are traveling. For example, have your students: • Take one of the movements we’ve just done and make it travel with you.

• Pair up with a partner and try to notice something no one else would notice.

2. INTRODUCE.NATURE/. .

.....SCIENCE.CONTENT:

Once you’ve arrived at the first site where you’ll begin to make a dance using our “Build-a-Phrase” activity, direct your students’ attention to the aspect of the location that you’ll be focusing on. Introduce the nature/ science content explained in the “Notes from the Forester” section, either through a short talk or by asking for observations and speculations that you can build on with additional information.

Examples: If you are in the shade of a wooded area, ask “What do you notice down here on the ground that might be different if we were sitting on top of the trees?”

“What do you notice about what’s growing in the sun versus what grows in the shady area?” “Are there differences in the size of the leaves on a single tree between the upper and lower branches? Why?” “Why do you think dandelion flowers are usually on a short stalk and the seeds are on a long stalk? What happens to the dandelion seeds?”

Dandelion Seeds

3. COLLECT.MOVEMENTS: At each location you will lead the process of connecting observations and information to physical movements and shapes of the body. You’ll be creating two or three movements at each stop on the journey. There are two primary ways to do this. We suggest that you try both ways:

Spontaneous Gesture: Ask questions and request observations related to the nature/science content.

As your students respond, watch for gestures that have a meaningful relationship to the content as opposed to more generalized or habitual movements. Take note of these, and when you are ready to start creating the dance phrase, point one out and demonstrate it back to the group. For instance: “When Derek talked about the grass growing toward the sun, he held his fingers up in front of his face and wiggled them. Let’s all try that.”

4.

BUILD.THE.DANCE:.

After demonstrating a significant gesture you observed, introduce the idea of translating and collecting ideas into movement: “We’re going to create a record of what we notice and learn by making a dance.” Then give a prompt to inspire a second and third movement. Put the three movements into a sequence and review it all before moving on the next site.

(This action of assembling the dance is where the term Build-a-Phrase comes from).

5.

TRAVEL.TO.LOCATION.2:

Move on to your second location, using suggestions under Travel to Location 1 to keep the group engaged during the transition. Repeat the process above, mixing in the Spontaneous Gesture and Movement Commissions approaches, explained previously.

Movement Commissions:

As you add additional movements to the dance, it’s important to keep reviewing the material already gathered to keep it fresh in your students’ bodies and minds. This encourages active engagement in remembering both the movements and the science content.

There are two options for doing this:

Prompt your class to make movements and shapes based on the nature/ science content. Approaches include:

• Review the accumulated material as soon as you arrive at a new location and continue building on the whole.

Physically mirroring or embodying observations: “Put the shape of the tree’s branches into your body. Make a movement that captures the texture of the tree bark.”

• Create additional movements at the new location. Then ask your students, “Who can remember the first part of the dance?” Add these movements to the material gathered at previous sites, putting the material all together.

Further questions often elicit more detailed movements from the students as they describe what they are observing and learning.

Using action-rich verbs and phrases that arise in the conversation as inspiration: “Imani said the maple seeds float on the wind; everyone, show me what that looks like.”

Focusing on sounds, smells, and details: What sounds do you hear? Can you put the rhythm of that sound in your body?

You can watch these responses and select one that stands out, or look for general themes to synthesize into a movement: “When you were ‘floating on the wind’ some of you spun around while lowering yourselves to the ground. Let’s add that movement to our dance.”

6.

TRAVEL.TO.LOCATION.3:

Repeat again at your final location.

(Time available, attention levels, size of the schoolyard, and your own skill/comfort level will influence how many sites you visit. Schoolyard tours can generally take place in two to four locations.) By the time you’ve completed your tour of the schoolyard, you and your group will have assembled a dance of eight to ten movements. Take a moment to review it all. danceexchange.org

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The Role You Will Play As an environmental educator, I have partnered with Dance Exchange on several Moving Field Guides and recently I’ve been involved in teacher training sessions that are geared towards giving educators the tools to lead a Moving Field Guide in their own classrooms. Many of the teachers that feel less confident coming up with movements are relieved when I remind them that their role in the Moving Field Guide is no different than their role in the classroom. The teacher’s job is to come up with the thoughtprovoking questions that will lead students to investigate and learn. This is something they already do when teaching in the classroom, and now they can take it outside and use the environment to help provide material for the students to investigate. I often suggest teachers assign students the roles of creating, collecting, and sequencing movements so that the students feel ownership, and they - the teachers - remain in their comfort level.

I say ‘Remember, your job is to come up with the questions that will help students learn your chosen content/concepts during the MFG and create the dance together.’

Meagan Leatherbury

—

LET’S REFLECT Once you’ve completed the MOVING section of the Schoolyard MFG, take time to absorb the experience, using questions like the ones below.

Questions to engage your students: You can ask these questions during the activity or as a way of reviewing the experience in the days following: 1. What is your favorite movement in the dance and why?

2. What did you observe or discover about your schoolyard that you didn’t notice or know before? What are you curious about now or wanting to know more about from your experience on the Moving Field Guide?

3. What will you look for next time you are out in the schoolyard?

Questions for teachers: Use these questions to review your own experience of leading the activity: 1. What stood out to you about the experience of leading this section? What did you discover? What might you try differently next time you attempt it?

2. How can you use the dance you’ve built as a point of focus or to reinforce learning once you and your group are back in the classroom?

3. Build-a-Phrase allows students to reflect on experience, translate ideas into a new source of learning, and unify isolated ideas into a meaningful whole. How might you apply this technique to other subjects in the curriculum?

You are now ready for the MAKING phase.

P RO G RA M M A N AG ER AT THE

Maple Le

RO B I NS O N N ATU R E CENTER I N CO LU M B I A , M D.

.

REFI NEMENTS & VARI ATI ONS Dance Values: As you and your students build the dance, try to find ways to make it active and memorable: vary the speed and size of movements, combine highreaching movements with lowto-the-ground movements, and incorporate both isolated gestures and full body movements.

Alternate Structure: The

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photo by Jessie

L Scott III

site-to-site Build-a-Phrase described above can be varied or adapted into a scavenger hunt format. Rather than touring to prearranged sites, students can be divided in groups, and assigned to find evidence of particular natural processes and phenomena. Asking

M OV I NG FI ELD GUI D E, S CHOOLYA R D EDITION

students to “find three kinds of seeds,” can lead to discovery of the locations where further observation takes place.

Other Sources: Build-a-Phrase can be used to consolidate all kinds of content, so consider other topic areas, or be inspired by what can be observed in your particular schoolyard. Possibilities include habitat, water cycle, migration and other seasonal phenomena. Phrases can be built on other sources, as well: you can use reading, audiovisual material, or a visiting naturalist as the point of focus.

af

FIELD NOTES

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CHAPTER 3 31 danceexchange.org

MAKING

photo by Jori Ketten

NATIONAL.SCIENCE. .

EDUCATION.STANDARDS Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry Positions and motion of objects Transfer of energy Life cycles of organisms Reproduction and heredity Structure of the Earth system Earth’s history Properties of earth materials Changes in earth and sky Populations, resources, and environments Natural hazard Abilities to distinguish between natural objects and objects made by humans Types of resources Changes in environment Science as a human endeavor Nature of science History of science Change, constancy, and measurement

NEXT.GENERATION..

SCIENCE.STANDARDS 3rd Grade Standards

3-LS1-1 FROM MOLECULES TO ORGANISMS: STRUCTURES AND PROCESSES • Developing and Using Models • Connections to Nature of Science • Patterns

4TH Grade Standards

4-LS1-1 FROM MOLECULES TO ORGANISMS: STRUCTURES AND PROCESSES • Engaging in Argument from Evidence • LS1.A: Structure and Function • Systems and System Models

5th Grade Standards

5-LS2-1 ECOSYSTEMS: INTERACTIONS, ENERGY, AND DYNAMICS • Developing and Using Models • Connections to the Nature of Science • Science Models, Laws, Mechanisms, and Theories Explain Natural Phenomena • LS2.A: Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems • LS2.B: Cycles of Matter and Energy Transfer in Ecosystems See pages 39-41 for full descriptions of standards.

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FROM THE FORE STER:

CYCLES OF CHANGE The environment around us is always changing. Take the weather, for instance. Today it may be sunny while yesterday it was rainy. Changes usually happen in cycles, though the length of cycles vary, from what happens over the course of a day into the night, to changes that occur throughout the seasons of a year. In the spring, new growth emerges: green leaves fill the branches of trees; flowers return, blossoming for the bees and butterflies to pollinate; farmers and gardeners plant vegetables for harvest in later months. In the fall, leaves drop from the branches of trees, drifting to the ground where they decay, supporting the nutrient cycle and fertility of the soil.

Some changes happen over a very long time period. The Earth’s ice ages and warm periods, for example, can last thousands of years, and may not be felt as cycles by any one of us during our own lifetime, but we can find evidence when we look at tree rings, ocean beds, or rock formations. Unexpected and unfortunate changes can happen too, like the outcomes of a flood, tornado, or other natural disaster. These events can change the land around us in an instant.

We may feel connected to parts of our environment and not want them to change, such as a favorite tree in a park. But we have to remind ourselves that the tree was not always there—it grew from a seed and changed through time, and will continue to change. During the many years it takes for a tree to grow, it can provide habitat and food for different animals. When it is mature or used by humans, it can provide wood for houses and furniture. This can make room for new trees to grow.

We are always changing, too. People grow, mature, and move from place to place. As we interact with each other and with our environment, we cause changes. Sometimes people change the environment by removing trees and mountains to mine coal or by building reservoirs to provide water to people and farms or by building cities for people to live in. Everything from planting vegetables to building cities causes changes in the environment and affects other parts of the system.

Your students can learn the cause and effect of change by examining what has shifted over time in their own outdoor landscape of a schoolyard. Cassie will talk next about how to address these changes, no matter how big or small, with your students by using movement as a method of inquiry.

M OV I NG FI ELD GUI D E, S CHOOLYARD EDITION

— Mark, the Forester

F ROM THE CHOREOG RAPHER:

BUILDING A SENSE OF WONDER

Black Wa Tree Leavelnut s

I have often been inspired to create dances by how the land around me has changed over time. I once made a dance about a plot of land where I was raised in Georgia that was a forest, then a farm, then a grocery store, and now that same store has been re-purposed into a church. Noticing these shifts and how we relate to the land around us can be a source of creative inspiration. We can deepen our understanding of how we shape and are shaped by the places where we live. In one MFG that I led in West Virginia, a local knowledge keeper explained that the dense forest we stood in had once been a sunny field filled with rows of crops. You could see a sense of wonder and possibility come alive in one of the students, as she became curious about other places she’s experienced and what they may have once been or could become. I’ve seen this in cities, too. In Boston, public school students’ curiosity grew as their sense of history and time expanded and they considered the changes that have made their schoolyard or local park what it is today.

te photo by S

ett

ward Pick

Change takes shape in all sizes, and how we perceive change varies according to its scale, speed or suddenness. A small change could be as simple as a dead branch falling from a tree, or a pair of birds building a nest inside a hedge. It could be something that takes more time to notice, like a tree growing. Other changes come in big sweeps that demand notice, as when mining companies shift entire landscapes to extract coal, leaving only rubble where mountains once stood.

In the previous chapter, you learned how to have students use the Dance Exchange tool Build-aPhrase to make and sequence movements from new observations and discoveries in and around the schoolyard. Students learned about their surroundings as they connected ecology in their schoolyard to movements in their bodies.

Moth

Next, in this MAKING section, we’ll share ways to lead your students in making variations to their short collection of movements, using what we learn from the changing environment around us. The sections that follow take you through the process of reviewing, making variations, and setting the dance in the environment.

photo by S te

ward Pick

— Cassie, the Choreographer

ett

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Lady Bu

LET’S PREPARE MATERIALS NEEDED: - drinking water - small notebook for observations and idea collecting

S E L E C T A SITE. To review the dance you created together (your Build-a-Phrase from the previous chapter), you will need an open area where students can stand in a large circle, with plenty of space on both sides to allow them to move freely. You can gather in a courtyard, playground, or field near your schoolyard. We often choose to return to the square marked-off in the GATHERING section for the compass rose activity.

ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION TERMS: Environmental change:

Differences that appear in the environment from previous conditions, due to influences from any source.

Seasonal cycles: The regular, predictable, changes that happen over the course of a year, followed by repetition of similar changes in subsequent years.

Landscape: A large-scale complex of natural communities and their collective processes and interactions.

Natural disturbance: A largescale disturbance such as a flood or earthquake that causes a great deal of change.

Ice ages: Extended periods of thousands of years during in the Earth’s geological history in which the planet was much cooler than now and glaciers covered much more of the its surface.

Cause and effect: The

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relationship between actions in which one is the result of the other(s).

Nutrient cycle: Biological or chemical processes involving exchange of material from living organisms through the physical environment and back.

MOVEMENT TERMS: Build-a-Phrase: As introduced in MOVING, a sequence of movements collected through the course of an encounter and combined together as a dance.

Variation: A change that alters one or more element of a movement or phrase, such as speed, size or level. In this section, multiple variations will alter the entire dance.

Dance components: Employing the dimensions of movement, shape, level, and speed established in the GATHERING section (see page 16), you’ll add several others: • Scale – size and range; shapes and movements can be made larger or smaller, often by moving them to other parts of the body: a circle made with the arms will be bigger than one made with the fingers.

• Repetition – performing a movement more than once, either in succession or reoccurring at different points throughout a movement phrase.

• Dynamics – the “loud and soft” of movement, as when transitions are sharp and rhythmic, or smooth and gently changing.

Before you begin the MAKING activities, review the “From the Forester” notes on cycles of change (see page 32). The experience you’ll lead can incorporate the nature/science content in two ways: by covering this material in advance with your class through reading assignments, research and discussion, and visual/hands-on learning; or by introducing the new content and concepts as you lead variations on the Build-aPhrase activity.

g

Integrating Technology In– and Out of–Your Classroom I’ve learned that the key to successful use of the new Common Core and Next Generation standards is integration. As an educator, I have a desire to see more writing skills within the science curriculum, more reading skills within the math content, and so on.

These days, it’s also crucial that we also consider the integration of technology into a wider range of subject areas, allowing teachers and students alike to learn together and use technological advancements to their advantage in the classroom.

As the Elementary Technology Integration Teacher and Technology Liaison for Baltimore County Public Schools, I’m particularly passionate about giving students the technology-based skills they need to succeed. With the right technology in their hands, students are building their ability to gather and synthesize information, solve complex problems, and communicate their newfound knowledge.

Fortunately, there are a number of opportunities within the Moving Field Guide for students to incorporate technology. In working with a second grade class at Westowne Elementary, we used Moving Field Guide tools to explore the wildflowers we found in our schoolyard.

After we created and shared our dance, I helped the students take pictures of the wildflowers they found. Then, using basic software, they turned those pictures into greeting cards for someone special in their school community.

Even if technology is not fully integrated into your classroom, there are still plenty of ways to use it during your Moving Field Guide. You and your students could expand on the Compass Rose activity by using Google Maps to locate your school and learn more about your surrounding geography. Digital cameras or camcorders can be used to document the dance you create. Those photos and videos could even be posted on a classroom blog so students share their Moving Field Guide adventures with their family and friends.

–Elizabeth Getsinger,

WESTOWNE E LEMENTA RY SCHOOL, CATONSVILL E , MD

M OV I NG FI ELD GUI D E, S CHOOLYA R D EDITION

LET’S MOVE 1. REHEARSE.THE.DANCE

3. VARY.AND.EXPAND.THE.DANCE

Review the dance that the students have created by repeating the movement sequence several times together as group. Use this an opportunity to review the science/ nature content that inspired each movement. You can experiment with different ways of having the students remember the dance: try having them name the source of each movement as they do the dance (i.e. trees swaying to the south of the school, flowerbed blooming near the front doors, wind and leaves swishing from passing cars).

You can also practice the sequence without language, watching each other across the circle as a way to remember the dance and stay together.

Now that you’ve had the students reflect on their personal observations of change, use one or both of the following options to expand the content of the dance.

2. OBSERVE.AND.. .....REFLECT.ON.CHANGES Now that you’ve reviewed, let’s prepare to make changes to the dance by observing and reflecting on changes in and around the schoolyard. First, prepare students by asking questions, encouraging them to think about changes they have noticed in their environment, what those changes were, and when or why they noticed (or did not notice).

Some questions might include: What’s a change that happens everyday in the schoolyard?

What’s a change that we as students and teachers have made to the schoolyard? Did we plant a tree? Build a playground?

What’s a change that you see in the springtime that you don’t see in the fall or winter?

How long has the school been on these grounds and what came before that?

How have you changed during your time here at school? What’s a change that you would like to see happen while you go to school here?

OPTION A: Using action words, change the dance to learn about cycles of change Reflect on cycles of seasonal change.

• Have students name the kinds of changes they observe as the seasons change. Draw ideas from your conversation based on the questions above, from earlier classroom study, or from immediate observation.

• Identify the actions connected to these changes. Listen for the verbs in the conversation. As action words, verbs offer a solid starting point for making variations to the movement material. Work with students to make a list of these action words, some might include: falling, growing, climbing. You might even pair these actions with directions they might travel, drifting down or sprouting upwards.

• Now that the students have named these actions, let’s use these action words to change the dance. Select a movement from the Build-a-Phrase activity and model how the named action can be used to vary the dance.

For instance, using the example of “twisting,” a movement that took place with the hands clasped in front of the body may now incorporate the clasped hands twisting on a path away from and towards the body. Have students mirror this demonstration, then think of their own ways to vary the movement based the chosen action word. Call attention to some the variations the students are making, for example: “look at how Ella’s twisting movement sends her around in circle, let’s all try to twist like Ella. Now, look at Lucas, his twisting stays small and close the body, let’s all try this tiny twist in place.”

Black Walnut

Make further variations using other movements from the Build-a-Phrase and other action words the group has identified. You may assign a particular movement to vary or have students select their favorite. Another option is to have a leader call out different actions from the list, and have students respond to the action by making variations to their selected movement.

OPTION B: Change the size of movement to learn about scale of change Thinking about the scale of change and how it can inform the ways you make variations to the dance.

• Ask your students to name some small changes that they have noticed in their schoolyard or community, and then ask them to name some big changes. You can offer suggestions to get them started. For instance, small changes might include buds sprouting in springtime or twigs falling after a storm; larger changes might include trees being cut down to clear a construction site.

• Now, ask your students to close their eyes and imagine that small change or big change. What do those changes look like? What do they feel like in the body? Are they changes to part of something, or do they change the whole thing? Does this make the movement smaller or larger?

• Use these ideas to make a change in the dance. Ask the students to take these ideas about size and scale, and have them each come up with one change, smaller or bigger, that they would like to make in their dance.

Here are a few examples: Can you choose a movement to make bigger by using your whole body, or make smaller by isolating the movement to only a part of your body?

Can you make a movement using only the tip of your nose or the top of your head? Can you make the movement bigger by traveling it through space?

Working in one large group, take a couple of these suggestions to vary the scale of movements in the dance.

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4. MAKE,.REHEARSE,..

AND.SET.THE.DANCE..

IN.THE.SCHOOLYARD After you’ve experimented with different ways of changing the dance as a group, you’re now ready to have the students work together to make, rehearse, and share their dances.

Having tried variations as a group, we will now work collaboratively to put some of these changes in the dance.

You can also pair students or have them work in small groups to make changes to the dance based on the variations they’ve practiced. Have them think back to the way you worked together to change the dance, using action words and scale. Ask students to work together as a group to make one to three changes to the dance based on these explorations. After students have made their dance, have students spend

a few minutes rehearsing through repetition, as they prepare to perform their dances for each other.

Perform The Dance Now that students have made and rehearsed their new dance, it’s now time to share the dance.

Option 1: If you have a limited amount of time, split the group in half so that each group has a chance to perform the dance and to be an audience for the dance. After each group performs, encourage students watching the dance to applaud and share a few responses of what stood out as meaningful and memorable moments in the dance.

Option 2: With additional time, you can add value and meaning to the entire activity by setting the dance in the environment. In this way, the learning drawn from observation and interaction can be amplified by

consciously choosing where the dance will happen. In conversation with students, choose one or more of the a locations that you have explored during the Schoolyard MFG. Collaborate to make additional variations to the dance as you let the site you are working in shift the dance. A dance that first took place standing in a circle could now stretch out to extend along a linear path, become more contained under a shady tree, or spread out to cover the distance of an open sunny patch in the schoolyard. You may even want to explore traveling the dance to more than one location.

After the dances have been shared in one of these ways, ask students to reflect back on what they see in their schoolyard and what they see in the larger environment. Has this changed through the experience of the Schoolyard MFG?

LET’S REFLECT Once you’ve completed the MAKING section of the Moving Field Guide, take time to reflect on the experience of this section and your overall Schoolyard MFG experience, using questions like the ones below:

Questions for students.

You can ask these questions during the activity or as a way of reviewing the experience in the days following: 1. What is a favorite change you and your group made to the dance and why? What changes were most surprising or unexpected in the dances your classmates made?

2. What did you discover during the Schoolyard MFG? What did you learn about the environment? What did you learn about dance? What do you want to learn more about following the Schoolyard MFG? 3. What will you remember most about the Schoolyard MFG? What will you look forward to on the next Schoolyard MFG?

Questions for teachers Use these questions to review your own experience of leading the activity: 1. What stood out to you about the experience of leading this section? What did you discover? What might you try differently next time?

2. What, if any, new content or knowledge did you learn during the Schoolyard MFG? Is there any tool or method that you gained from the Schoolyard MFG that you can imagine applying in your current or future work?

3. What aspect of your experience during the Schoolyard MFG was most surprising or unexpected?

REFI NEMENTS & VARI ATI ONS Other Sites: Once you have the dance, it can continue to be a source of insight and learning. Recreate it in the classroom as a way of reviewing the science/nature content.

Students can perform it at home for parents/caregivers, explaining the source of each movement. Ask the students to reflect on how the dance changes in these different indoor environments.

Sharing Leadership: Finding ways to collaborate with students can be an exciting and fun way to encourage multiple types of learning to occur. Having them move in and out of leadership positions within these activities is one way to foster collaboration and keeps them engaged throughout the lesson. What are some ways that you can encourage your students to step into leadership roles and support other leaders in the class?

Further Discovery: The Schoolyard MFG can take place over one class session. It can also be built upon, recurring during other seasons in the schoolyard or in other locations if you have the opportunity to take students on a field trip.

Recently an elementary school teacher in Asheville, NC, took her class to the local botanical gardens to conduct her own Moving Field Guide. We’ve also heard back from students who have gone on to share a MFG experience with family and friends in their backyard or neighborhood. Returning to the methods and tools in other contexts can lead to further discovery.

36 M OV I NG FI ELD GUI D E, S C HOOLYAR D EDITION

FIELD NOTES

Forester-turned-Dancer As a forester and ecological researcher, I had not considered dance as a typical part of my profession. However, by working with Dance Exchange on these Moving Field Guides, I have become more aware of my own movement patterns and the movement patterns of the things in the environment that I study. That conscious attention to movement, balance, and physical interactions can be interpreted as the basis for dance.

Experiences that involve learning and repeating dance movements can connect with what we are studying and reinforce learning concepts. For example, watching a maple seed spin through the air and land on the ground can teach us about how plants travel; interpreting that concept into a dance movement in one’s own body can make the lesson of how and why the seeds travel more memorable. The next time you see a seed travel by in the breeze, you’ll be reminded of the dance experience and the ecological lesson as well.

In this way, practicing conscious attention to movement opens new paths to observing and understanding the world around us.

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— Mark Twery danceexchange.org

RESOURCES

GLOSSARY

ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION TERMS Cardinal directions: North, South, East, and West: the basic four directions on a compass or map; used to standardize navigation.

Cause and effect: The relationship between actions in which one is the result of the other(s).

Compass, compass rose: A compass is an instrument used for navigation by determining direction with a floating, magnetic component that orients to north. A compass rose is an image or diagram found on a map to show directions graphically; it includes at least a north arrow but often also includes cardinal and intermediate directions.

Energy: The capacity or ability of a physical system, body, or organism to do work or perform an activity.

Environmental change: Differences that appear in the environment from previous conditions, due to influences from any source.

Growth: The act of increasing in size or number.

Ice ages: Extended periods of thousands of years during in the Earth’s geological history in which the planet was

much cooler than now and glaciers covered much more of the its surface.

Intermediate cardinal directions: Northeast, Northwest, Southeast, Southwest: the points on a compass that indicate directions halfway between each of the cardinal directions; used to enable more precise navigation than just using the cardinal directions.

Landmark: An easily recognizable feature or object that can be used to identify a location and to help find a known path or direction.

Landscape: A largescale complex of natural communities and their collective processes and interactions.

Navigation: The charting of a path or route to get from one point to another; includes locating one’s current position.

Natural disturbance: A large-scale disturbance such as a flood or earthquake that causes a great deal of change.

Nutrient cycle: Biological or chemical processes involving exchange of material from living organisms through the physical environment and back.

Orientation: One’s position relative to one’s surroundings, such as knowing which way is up, which way is north, or which way is home.

Movement Commissions: Direct

Photosynthesis: The use of light to convert water and carbon dioxide into sugar; performed only by green plants with chlorophyll.

Spontaneous Gesture:

Reproduction: The act or process of creating offspring, or additional organisms of the same species.

Seasonal cycles: The regular, predictable, changes that happen over the course of a year, followed by repetition of similar changes in subsequent years.

MOVEMENT TERMS Build-a-Phrase: A sequence of movements collected through the course of an experience and then combined to create a dance.

Dance phrase: A series of shapes and movements in a finite, repeatable sequence.

Facilitator: Activity leader who guides the group experience and helps to shape an outcome from contributions made by the participants.

assignments that that the leader gives to inspire movements and shapes.

The often unconscious gesture that a person will make in the acts of self-expression or describing something.

Observed carefully, these can become the source of movements in the Build-a-Phrase.

Variation: A change that alters one or more element of a movement or phrase, such as speed, size or level.

Warm-up: Preliminary activity that prepares the body to safely engage in a bigger task. Some examples include: movement that contracts and expands, moving towards and away from the body to prepare the body to move in small and large ways, movement that reaches across the body to prepare for cross lateral and directional changes, movement that mobilizes major joints to prepare the body to move at different levels, and movement that accelerates heart rate and blood flow to prepare the body to move at varying tempos.

DANCE COMPONENTS: Actions that come • Level – Position of a shape or movement relative to the together to engage the body in expressing emotions, ideas and observations, including: • Dynamics – The “loud and soft” of movement, as when transitions are sharp and rhythmic, or smooth and gently changing.

• Movement – Motion in any or all parts of the body; examples: raising eyebrows, arm and hand movements, swaying the torso, galloping with feet.

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• Shape – A fixed configuration of some or all parts of the body; examples: making a circle with the arms, spider shapes with our fingers, leaf-shapes with the entire body.

ground; example: crouching to make a low movement, rising on tiptoe with the arms reaching upward

• Scale – Size and range; shapes and movements can be made larger or smaller, often by moving them to other parts of the body: a circle made with the arms will be bigger than one made with the fingers.

• Repetition – Performing a movement more than once, either in succession or reoccurring at different points throughout a movement phrase.

• Tempo – Speed of movement, slow, moderate or fast.

• Traveling – Transitioning a shape or movement from one location to another.

M OV I NG FI ELD GUI D E, S C HOOLYAR D EDITION

NEXT GENERATION SCIENCE STANDARDS Prepared by Samantha Dean with Jessica Nickelsen

3RD GRADE 3-LS1-1

FROM MOLECULES TO

ORGANISMS: STRUCTURES AND PROCESSES

Developing and Using Models • Modeling in 3–5 builds on K–2 experiences and progresses to building and revising simple models and using models to represent events and design solutions.

• Develop models to describe phenomena.

Connections to Nature of Science • Scientific Knowledge is Based on Empirical Evidence • Science findings are based on recognizing patterns.

Patterns • Patterns of change can be used to make predictions.

WHERE ARE THESE STANDARDS IN MFG CHAPTERS?

Gathering phase: Students model through movement and dance, students notice patterns.

Making Phase: Students model cycles and recognize patterns.

4TH GRADE 4-PS3-2

ENERGY

PS3.A: Definitions of Energy Energy can be moved from place to place by moving objects or through sound, light, or electric currents.

PS3.B: Conservation of Energy and Energy Transfer Energy is present whenever there are moving objects, sound, light, or heat. When objects collide, energy can be transferred from one object to another, thereby changing their motion. In such collisions, some energy is typically also transferred to the surrounding air; as a result, the air gets heated and sound is produced.

• Light also transfers energy from place to place.

Energy and Matter Energy can be transferred in various ways and between objects.

4-PS3-3

ENERGY Asking Questions and

Defining Problems Asking questions and defining problems in grades 3–5 builds on grades K–2 experiences and progresses to specifying qualitative relationships.

• Ask questions that can be investigated and predict reasonable outcomes based on patterns such as cause and effect relationships.

PS3.A: Definitions of Energy

Energy can be moved from place to place by moving objects or through sound, light, or electric currents.

PS3.B: Conservation of Energy and Energy Transfer Energy is present whenever there are moving objects, sound, light, or heat. When objects collide, energy can be transferred from one object to another, thereby changing their motion. In such collisions, some energy is typically also transferred to the surrounding air; as a result, the air gets heated and sound is produced.

matter (from air and water).

RESOURCES

LS1.C: Organization for Matter and Energy Flow in Organisms Food provides animals with the materials they need for body repair and growth and the energy they need to maintain body warmth and for motion. (secondary) Energy and Matter Energy can be transferred in various ways and between objects.

WHERE ARE THESE STANDARDS IN MFG CHAPTERS?

PS3.C: Relationship Between Energy and Forces When objects collide, the contact forces transfer energy so as to change the objects’ motions.

Moving Phase: All of the energy correlations can be tied to the Moving Phase.

Energy and Matter Energy can be transferred in various ways and between objects.

Developing and Using Models Modeling in 3–5 builds on K–2 models and progresses to building and revising simple models and using models to represent events and design solutions.

WHERE ARE THESE STANDARDS IN MFG CHAPTERS?

Moving Phase: All of the energy correlations can be tied to the Moving Phase 4-LS1-1

FROM MOLECULES TO

ORGANISMS: STRUCTURES AND PROCESSES

Engaging in Argument from Evidence Engaging in argument from evidence in 3–5 builds on K–2 experiences and progresses to critiquing the scientific explanations or solutions proposed by peers by citing relevant evidence about the natural and designed world(s).

• Construct an argument with evidence, data, and/or a model.

LS1.A: Structure and Function • Plants and animals have both internal and external structures that serve various functions in growth, survival, behavior, and reproduction.

Systems and System Models • A system can be described in terms of its components and their interactions.

WHERE ARE THESE STANDARDS IN MFG CHAPTERS?

Making Phase and Moving Phase: Students model various methods of plant growth.

Moving Phase: students learn about nutrient cycles and scales of change.

5TH GRADE 5-PS3-1

ENERGY

Developing and Using Models • Modeling in 3–5 builds on K–2 experiences and progresses to building and revising simple models and using models to represent events and design solutions.

• Use models to describe phenomena.

PS3.D: Energy in Chemical Processes and Everyday Life The energy released from food was once energy from the sun that was captured by plants in the chemical process that forms plant

5-LS2-1

ECOSYSTEMS: INTERACTIONS,

ENERGY, AND DYNAMICS

Develop a model to describe phenomena.

Connections to the Nature of Science • Science Models, Laws, Mechanisms, and Theories Explain Natural Phenomena • Science explanations describe the mechanisms for natural events.

LS2.A: Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems The food of almost any kind of animal can be traced back to plants. Organisms are related in food webs in which some animals eat plants for food and other animals eat the animals that eat plants. Some organisms, such as fungi and bacteria, break down dead organisms (both plants or plants parts and animals) and therefore operate as “decomposers.”

Decomposition eventually restores (recycles) some materials back to the soil. Organisms can survive only in environments in which their particular needs are met. A healthy ecosystem is one in which multiple species of different types are each able to meet their needs in a relatively stable web of life. Newly introduced species can damage the balance of an ecosystem.

LS2.B: Cycles of Matter and Energy Transfer in Ecosystems Matter cycles between the air and soil and among plants, animals, and microbes as these organisms live and die. Organisms obtain gases, and water, from the environment, and release waste matter (gas, liquid, or solid) back into the environment.

Systems and System Models A system can be described in terms of its components and their interactions.

WHERE ARE THESE STANDARDS IN MFG CHAPTERS?

Moving Phase: Students think about what organisms need to survive and model how organisms adapt to environments.

Making Phase: Students create a model through dance and movement of nutrient cycles and growth and change in plants.

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RESOURCES

NATIONAL SCIENCE EDUCATION STANDARDS:

CHARACTERISTICS OF ORGANISMS

3RD & 4TH GRADE

Describe the two methods plants use to grow.

Note the different ways seeds can be dispersed.

Making: Review the notes on cycles of change and give several examples of these cycles.

Making: Let’s Prepare: Define the 6 environmental education terms in this section. Making: Let’s Move: Describe changes that occur seasonally in the schoolyard.

ABILITIES NECESSARY TO DO SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY Gathering: Understand the value

of using multiple facilitators. Let’s Prepare: Understand the concept of variation and its importance to this MFG. Gathering: Let’s Move: Have students talk to their partner about the changes they observe moving from indoors to outdoors. Making: Let’s Move: Allow the students a chance at performing the dance and also being an audience for the dance.

UNDERSTANDINGS ABOUT SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY Gathering: Let’s Prepare: Note the importance of arts integration. Let’s Move: Understand the importance of variation. Moving: Let’s Reflect: Think about what you discovered while leading this section and what you could try differently next time. Refinements and Variations: Explore an alternate structure to build the dance.

Incorporate other content into the build-a-phrase structure.

POSITION AND MOTION OF OBJECTS

Gathering: Let’s Prepare: Define the 5 environmental education terms related to the cardinal directions. Define the five dance components used in this MFG. Gathering: Let’s move: Invite each student to make a shape to create a physical representation of an observation.

Collect shapes as a group to create a warm-up phrase. Use movements that mobilize major joints, reach across the body, and expand and contract.

On the final repetition, have the students move to a new place in the circle. Have the students describe how they got there. Gathering: Let’s Reflect: Describe something you noticed about the schoolyard that you hadn’t before. Describe changes in your observations when you got closer to or further from the ground. Name some differences you observed while facing different directions. Describe how you determined which direction you were facing without a compass.

Moving: Let’s Move: Give the students a task to do while they are traveling between locations. Moving: Let’s Prepare: Define the 3 movement ideas in this section. Moving: Let’s Move: Experiment with the two primary techniques of build-a-phrase. Making: Let’s Prepare: Define the 3 movement ideas in this section.

LIGHT, HEAT, ELECTRICITY, AND MAGNETISM Gathering: Describe how

magnetic compasses are used for navigation.

Moving: Review the notes on energy, growth, and reproduction. Describe how all living things receive their energy from the sun. Moving: Let’s Prepare: Define the 4 environmental education terms in this section.

Moving: Let’s Move: Note the differences among the plants observed at the three different sites and what characteristics help them thrive in each location.

LIFE CYCLES OF ORGANISMS Moving:

ORGANISMS AND ENVIRONMENTS

Gathering: Let’s Move: Have the students use all 5 senses to make observations in the cardinal directions. Have the students build on their observations by moving into and out of shapes; changing speed, level, and shape. Moving: Let’s Move: Note the differences among the plants observed at the three different sites and what characteristics help them thrive in each location.

PROPERTIES OF EARTH MATERIALS

Making: Review the notes on cycles of change.

Describe how these cycles of change differ based on scale. Making: Let’s Prepare: Define the 6 environmental education terms in this section.

OBJECTS IN THE SKY Gathering: Describe

how the sun can be used for navigation. Moving: Explain how all living things receive their energy from the sun distinguishing between direct and indirect.

CHANGES IN EARTH AND SKY Gathering: Understanding cardinal directions through physical orientation. Describe how observations of changes in the earth can influence cardinal directions. Let’s Reflect: Name some differences you observed while facing different directions. Describe how you determined which direction you were facing without a compass. Making: Let’s Prepare: Define the 6 environmental education terms in this section. Making: Let’s Move: Describe changes that occur every day in the schoolyard. Describe changes that occur seasonally in the schoolyard.

ABILITIES TO DISTINGUISH BETWEEN NATURAL OBJECTS AND OBJECTS MADE BY HUMANS Gathering: Describe how

navigation can be done using both observations from the earth and man-made instruments such as compass and GPS. Let’s Reflect: Name some differences you observed while facing different directions. Describe how you determined which direction you were facing without a compass.

Making: Let’s Move: Describe changes that humans make to the schoolyard.

UNDERSTANDINGS ABOUT SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY Gathering: Describe how navigation can be done using both observations from the earth and man-made instruments such as compass and GPS. PERSONAL HEALTH Gathering: Let’s Move:

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Collect shapes as a group to create a warm-up phrase. Use movements that mobilize major joints, reach across the body, and expand and contract.

Moving: Let’s Move: Observe the students’

M OV ING FI ELD GUI D E, S CHOOLYA R D EDITION

gestures as they respond and look for movements that have a meaningful relationship to the content.

CHARACTERISTICS AND CHANGES IN POPULATIONS Gathering: Let’s Prepare:

Understand the concept of variation and its importance to this MFG. Let’s Move: Understand the importance of variation.

TYPES OF RESOURCES Moving: Refinements and Variations: Experiment with the build-a-phrase structure with different content. Making: Review the notes on cycles of change and give an example of an area that has changed over time and served multiple purposes.

CHANGES IN ENVIRONMENTS Gathering: Explain why moss is present on one side of a tree and how this relates to cardinal directions.

Gathering: Let’s Move: Name 3 things you find interesting on your journey. Describe the changes you notice going from indoors to outdoors. Find something you think no one else will notice along the way. Making: Let’s Move: Describe changes that occur in the schoolyard both seasonally and every day. Alter the dance in both scale and action to learn about cycles of change.

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY IN LOCAL CHALLENGES Gathering: Let’s Reflect: Note the ways to encourage students to use their knowledge of cardinal directions in other areas of their lives.

SCIENCE AS A HUMAN ENDEAVOR

Gathering: Refinements and Variations: Have students borrow or copy the shape of the person in front as a way to share leadership. Moving: Let’s Reflect: Note things in your schoolyard that you did not notice or know before. Describe your favorite part of the dance and why. Making: Let’s Move: Allow the students a chance at performing the dance and also being an audience for the dance.

SYSTEMS, ORDER, AND ORGANIZATION

Gathering: Let’s Move: Invite each student to make a shape to create a physical representation of an observation. Moving: Let’s Move: As you add additional movements to the dance, be sure to review previous movements.

EVIDENCE, MODELS, AND EXPLANATION

Gathering: Let’s Move: Collect shapes as a group to create a warm-up phrase. Use movements that mobilize major joints, reach across the body, and expand and contract. Moving: Let’s Move: Observe the students’ gestures as they respond and look for movements that have a meaningful relationship to the content.

CHANGE, CONSTANCY, AND ME ASU REMENT Gathering: Let’s Prepare: Provide a compass to the class and explain how it can be used to aid navigation. Making: Describe different cycles of change.

EVOLU TION AND EQU ILIBRIUM

Moving: Describe how vines evolved to expend less energy on building a trunk.

FORM AND FUNCTION Moving: Describe how vines evolved to expend less energy on building a trunk.

5TH GRADE A B I L I T I E S NEC E SSA RY TO D O S C I E NTI F I C I NQUI RY: Understand

the value of using multiple facilitators.

Let’s Prepare: Understand the concept of variation and its importance to this MFG. Gathering: Let’s Move: Have students talk to their partner about the changes they observe moving from indoors to outdoors.

Making: Let’s Move: Allow the students a chance at performing the dance and also being an audience for the dance.

UND E R STA ND I NGS A B OUT S C I E NTI F I C I NQUI RY Gathering: Let’s

Prepare: Note the importance of arts integration. Let’s Move: Understand the importance of variation. Moving: Let’s Reflect: Think about what you discovered while leading this section and what you could try differently next time. Refinements and Variations: Explore an alternate structure to build the dance. Incorporate other content into the build-a-phrase structure M OTI ONS A N D F OR CES : Gathering:

Let’s Prepare: Define the 5 environmental education terms related to the cardinal directions. Define the five dance components used in this MFG. Gathering: Let’s move: Invite each student to make a shape to create a physical representation of an observation. Collect shapes as a group to create a warm-up phrase. Use movements that mobilize major joints, reach across the body, and expand and contract. On the final repetition, have the students move to a new place in the circle. Have the students describe how they got there. Gathering: Let’s Reflect: Describe something you noticed about the schoolyard that you hadn’t before.

Describe changes in your observations when you got closer to or further from the ground.

Name some differences you observed while facing different directions. Describe how you determined which direction you were facing without a compass. Moving: Let’s Move: Give the students a task to do while they are traveling between locations. Moving: Let’s Prepare: Define the 3 movement ideas in this section. Moving: Let’s Move: Experiment with the two primary techniques of build-aphrase. Making: Let’s Prepare: Define the 3 movement ideas in this section.

T RA N S F E R O F E N ER GY Gathering:

Describe how magnetic compasses are used for navigation. Moving: Review the notes on energy, growth, and reproduction. Describe how all living things receive their energy from the sun. Moving: Let’s Prepare: Define the 4 environmental education terms in this section. Making: Review the notes on cycles of change and give examples of these cycles on different scales.

T RA N S F E R O F E N ER GY Gathering:

Describe how magnetic compasses are used for navigation. Moving: Review the notes on energy, growth, and reproduction. Des

ST R U C TU R E A ND FUNCTI ON I N L I V I N G SYST E M S Moving: Describe how

vines evolved to expend less energy on building a trunk. Moving: Let’s Move: Note

the differences among the plants in the 3 different locations and the characteristics that allow them to thrive there.

R EPR ODU CTION AND HE REDITY

Moving: Describe the two methods plants use to grow. Note the different ways seeds can be dispersed. Making: Review the notes on cycles of change and give several examples of these cycles. Making: Let’s Prepare: Define the 6 environmental education terms in this section. Making: Let’s Move: Describe changes that occur seasonally in the schoolyard.

R EGULATION AND BEHAVIOR Moving: Describe the two ways that plants grow.

Describe the different methods of seed dispersal.

POPULATIONS AND ECOSYSTEMS

Gathering: Let’s Move: Have the students use all 5 senses to make observations in the cardinal directions. Have the students build on their observations by moving into and out of shapes; changing speed, level, and shape. Moving: Let’s Move: Note the differences among the plants observed at the three different sites and what characteristics help them thrive in each location.

D I V ER S ITY AND ADAPTATIONS OF OR GANISMS Moving: Describe how vines

evolved to expend less energy on building a trunk. Describe the two methods plants use to grow. Note the different ways seeds can be dispersed. Moving: Let’s Move: Note the differences among the plants observed at the three different sites and what characteristics help them thrive in each location.

STR UCTU RE OF THE E ARTH SYSTEM

Moving: Describe how all living things receive their energy from the sun. Making: Review the notes on cycles of change.

EAR TH’S HISTORY Making: Review the notes on cycles of change.

UND ER STANDING S ABOU T SCIENCE A ND TECHNOLOGY Gathering: Describe

how navigation can be done using both observations from the earth and man-made instruments such as compass and GPS.

PER S ONAL HE ALTH Gathering: Let’s

Move: Collect shapes as a group to create a warm-up phrase. Use movements that mobilize major joints, reach across the body, and expand and contract. Moving: Let’s Move: Observe the students’ gestures as they respond and look for movements that have a meaningful relationship to the content.

POPULATIONS, RESOU RCE S, AND ENV I R ONMENTS Gathering: Let’s Prepare:

Understand the concept of variation and its importance to this MFG. Moving: Refinements and Variations: Experiment with the builda-phrase structure with different content.

Making: Review the notes on cycles of change and give an example of an area that has changed over time and served multiple purposes.

RESOURCES

SCIE NCE AND TECHNOLOGY I N SOCIETY Gathering: Describe how

navigation can be done using both observations from the earth and man-made instruments such as compass and GPS.

SCIE NCE AS A HUMAN E NDE AVO R

Gathering: Refinements and Variations: Have students borrow or copy the shape of the person in front as a way to share leadership.

Moving: Let’s Reflect: Note things in your schoolyard that you did not notice or know before. Describe your favorite part of the dance and why. Making: Let’s Move: Allow the students a chance at performing the dance and also being an audience for the dance.

NATU RE OF SCIENCE Moving: Let’s

Move: As you add additional movements to the dance, be sure to review previous movements. Making: Let’s Move: Review the dance that students have created. Revisit science/nature content to ensure mastery of the concepts.

HISTORY OF SCIE NCE Moving: Let’s Prepare: Describe the importance of variation. Making: Review the notes on cycles of change and give an example of an area that has changed over time and served multiple purposes. Making: Let’s Move: Discuss the importance of being open to changes and observing changes in the local environment.

SYSTEMS, ORDE R, AND ORG ANIZATION Gathering: Let’s Move:

Invite each student to make a shape to create a physical representation of an observation. Moving: Let’s Move: As you add additional movements to the dance, be sure to review previous movements.

EVIDE NCE , MODELS, AND EXPLANATION Gathering: Let’s Move:

Collect shapes as a group to create a warmup phrase. Use movements that mobilize major joints, reach across the body, and expand and contract. Moving: Let’s Move: Observe the students’ gestures as they respond and look for movements that have a meaningful relationship to the content.

CHANG E, CONSTANCY, AND ME ASU REMENT Gathering: Let’s Prepare:

Provide a compass to the class and explain how it can be used to aid navigation. Making: Describe different cycles of change. Making: Let’s Move: Describe changes that occur seasonally and every day in the schoolyard.

E VOLU TION AND EQU ILIBRIUM

Moving: Describe how vines evolved to expend less energy on building a trunk.

Making: Review the notes on cycles of change and give an example of an area that has changed over time and served multiple purposes.

FORM AND FU NCTION Moving: Describe how vines evolved to expend less energy on building a trunk. Making: Review the notes on cycles of change and give an example of an area that has changed over time and served multiple purposes.

NATURAL HAZARDS Making: Review the

notes on cycles of change.

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ABOUT THE AUTHORS CASSIE MEADOR Cassie Meador is a choreographer, performer, educator, writer and Artistic Director of the Dance Exchange.

Her works have tackled numerous social and environmental issues such as How To Lose a Mountain, which reflects on a 500-mile walk Meador took from Washington, DC to a mountaintop removal mining site in West Virginia to trace the impacts of the energy that fuel her home. Meador’s Moving Field Guides, an interactive experience led by artists, naturalists and regional experts in ecology, is being implemented nationwide in partnership with the USDA Forest Service. Meador has taught and created dances in communities throughout the U.S. and internationally. She has worked with the Girl Scouts to enhance environmental curricula through the arts. Her work with Wesleyan University’s College of the Environment has influenced educators and students to embrace a cross-disciplinary approach to conservation and environmental education. Born in Charleston, SC, and raised Augusta, GA, she received her B.F.A. in dance from The Ohio State University.

Meador joined Dance Exchange in 2002 and assumed the role of Artistic Director in 2011.

DANCE EXCHANGE Dance Exchange is a Takoma Park, MD-based non-profit arts organization committed to dance making and creative practices that engage individuals and communities of all ages to cultivate a deeper understanding of themselves and their world, and to open up the questions at the heart of their lives. Founded in 1976

by Liz Lerman and under the artistic direction of Cassie Meador since 2011, Dance Exchange creates dances by asking four questions: Who gets to dance?

Where is the dance happening? What is it about?

Why does it matter?

Dance Exchange breaks boundaries between stage and audience, theater and community, movement and language, tradition and the unexplored. DX collaborates across generations, disciplines, and communities to channel the power of performance as a convener for dialogue, a source of critical reflection, and a creative engine for thought and action. Recent and current projects include explorations of human rights, nuclear physics, ecology, human-environmental interactions, and the advancement of racial equity. For more information, visit danceexchange.org.

MARK TWERY Dr. Mark J. Twery is a Research Forester Emeritus with the USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station, located in Burlington, VT, where he continues to collaborate with a unit entitled “Sustaining Forests in a Changing Environment”. His primary focus is to develop and deliver tools that make the Station’s scientific research results accessible and useful to managers, policymakers, and the general public.

He has worked in Forest Service Research since 1988, first in Morgantown, WV, and in Burlington from 1994 until his retirement in 2014. Dr. Twery has also put a special focus on environmental literacy and conservation education, exploring a variety of creative ways to help schoolchildren and the general public gain greater awareness of the natural world around them. Other research interests include hardwood silviculture, biotic disturbances, and restoration of native wildflowers. He has a B.A. in Theater Arts from Oberlin College, an M.S. in Forest Ecology from the University of Massachusetts, and a Ph.D. in Silviculture from Yale University.

U.S. FOREST SERVICE The U.S. Forest Service (FS) is a multi-faceted agency that manages and protects 154 national forests and 20 grasslands in 44 states and Puerto Rico. The agency’s mission is to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of the nation’s forests and grasslands to meet the needs of present and future generations. The U.S. Forest Service has an elite wildland firefighting team and the world’s largest forestry research organization. Experts provide technical and financial help to state and local government agencies, businesses, private landowners and work government-to-government with tribes to help protect and manage non-federal forest and associated range and watershed lands.

The FS augments work through partnerships with public and private agencies that help us plant trees, improve trails, educate the public, and improve conditions in wildland/urban interfaces and rural areas, just to name a few. The FS team also promotes sustainable forest management and biodiversity conservation internationally. For more information, visit www.fs.fed.us.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Writing a book, like making a dance, takes many. A new community is built through such collaborations and should not come to end without giving thanks.

I thank my family for a home that was filled with art making, science experiments in our kitchen and backyard, and long hours exploring outdoors.

I couldn’t imagine the work I do now without this foundation and the love and influence you continue to offer.

I thank Dance Exchange, for the 14 years it has offered me a creative home that continues to reveal the power of what art can mean. DX has cultivated a body of practice that has lead so many artists to create meaningful changes in the lives of individuals and communities.

I thank my editor, Emily Macel Theys, who was there with encouragement and insight from the beginning. I gratefully acknowledge my colleagues at Dance Exchange that have contributed in so many ways to the development of this book and the Moving Filed Guide Program.

I thank Mark Twery for the ways his generous attention and feedback continue to shape the evolution and reach of this work.

I thank Jenny Greer Fares for making the vision of this book even more beautiful than I could have imagined.

I thank the many partners who have taken time to support the development of this guidebook and to bring the Moving Field Guide to their communities; especially the Robinson Nature Center in Columbia, MD and ArtSpace Charter School in Asheville, NC for testing this guidebook during MFG teacher trainings; the Forest Service and Natural Inquirer staff for editorial reviews and National Science Standard correlation assistance.

— Cassie, the Choreographer

WANT TO BRING A MOVING FIELD GUIDE OR MFG TEACHER TRAINING TO YOUR SCHOOL OR COMMUNITY? Dance Exchange has led Moving Field Guides all over the world and we want to work with you, too!

Visit Dance Exchange online at danceexchange.org, or contact Cassie Meador at MeadorC@danceexchange.org for more details.

Additional Resources Dance Exchange website: www.danceexchange.org Dance Exchange Toolbox: www.danceexchange.org/dx-toolbox Promotional Moving Field Guide video: vimeo.com/63350211 Cassie Meador’s 500 Miles/500 Stories project: www.500miles500stories.com USDA Forest Service: www.fs.fed.us

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Cassie Meador’s Moving Field Guides use dance to make new discoveries and connections between our bodies and the environment. During this immersive experience students activate their senses and observation skills through a series of outdoor movement activities.

Combining an artistic and ecological approach to learning, students have an opportunity to get outside, to learn about their local ecosystems through art and science, and to move along a path from appreciation to knowledge to active stewardship of the environment. ori Ketten

photo by J

Cassie Meador, a choreographer and environmental enthusiast, takes you through the exciting process of how to bring the experience of a Moving Field Guide to your students and schoolyard. With a team of Dance Exchange artists, environmental educators, and the U.S. Forest Service, Cassie leads you through step-by-step how to use movement practices to experience and remember science content in the body, how to enliven our senses to experience and respond to the environment around us. Cassie is artistic director of Dance Exchange in Takoma Park, MD, and finds inspiration in supporting educators and artists to discover new paths to embodied learning.

A toolkit for teachers of grades 3-5, this guidebook is adaptable and customizable for your schoolyard, whether it’s in an urban, suburban, or rural setting and for your students, whether it’s a small group of 5 students, or a large group of 40 or more!

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