Strategy Share: Environmental Stewardship Through Field-Guide Drawing

While on an expedition in southeast Alaska, I had the privilege of sharing the ship with several young naturalists. These enthusiastic participants in our expedition, ages 6-13, were especially passionate about identifying wildlife. I worked with them to observe, draw, and classify plankton captured with a small trawl net on one of our stops. In my own observations, I was also drawn to our shipboard Sibley’s Guide to Birds, an extraordinary resource for identifying various gulls, puffins, and other birds. Continue reading Strategy Share: Environmental Stewardship Through Field-Guide Drawing

Strategy Share: Conservation Lessons From Galápagos

I have been fascinated with the Galápagos Islands since reading Darwin’s On the Origin of Species as a college student. When I had the opportunity to explore the islands as a Grosvenor Teacher Fellow, I naturally thought I would design a student project focused on evolution. However, observations I made while in Galápagos led me down a different path. Continue reading Strategy Share: Conservation Lessons From Galápagos

Abra Koch points to a hand-drawn map titled "Las Islas Galápagos" and taped to a whiteboard in a classroom

Strategy Share: Employing Map Talks in the Classroom

Maps provide opportunities to look into the experiences of other people and consider what life may be like in other places. They are unique windows onto the rest of the world’s stories. I use Map Talks in my classroom to help my students read the stories that maps offer us and allow them to draw conclusions based on clues from the maps. Continue reading Strategy Share: Employing Map Talks in the Classroom