A
Close-Up View of Children Learning
For most, it was their first time viewing objects through
a microscope. But for a couple savvy Smith College Campus
School kindergarteners, looking through a microscope at the
Botanic Garden was familiar territory.
More than two dozen kindergarteners
partnered with Smith students recently to view leaves at
amplified distance through the Botanic Garden’s classroom
microscopes as a joint unit between the elementary school
and a course, EDC 231, Foundations and Issues in Early
Childhood Education, taught by Susan Etheredge, associate
professor of education and child study and director of
first-year seminars.
The youngsters, who have been studying leaves and fauna
in the classroom, observed the up-close contours of assorted
leaves from Botanic Garden plants with guidance from their
Smith partners.
As half the kindergarten
class peered through microscopes in one classroom, the
other half smelled, touched and discussed flowers left
over from the Botanic Garden’s Bulb Show
in another.
In the lab, Gabrielle
Immerman, a laboratory instructor in biological sciences
at the Lyman Conservatory, instructed the kids to look
for leaf colors and patterns through the microscopes, and
to observe the leaves’ scent glands
and describe the hairs on pubescent leaves.
“This one looks like half of an octopus,” remarked
one kindergartener while viewing the scent glands on a broad
red leaf. “It looks like it has thousands of mini-clams
on it.” He shared his observations with Anna Whistler ’11.
Whistler, as others in Etheredge’s class, recorded
her younger partner’s comments to discuss later in
the classroom.
“This one looks like it’s made out of pollen,” said
another kindergartener, peering wide-eyed through the microscope
lenses. “I think it’s like wet fur. There’s
a lot of little things that make up the leaves.”
Rebekah Duperry ’12, a student in Etheredge’s
course, was impressed with her charges’ absorption
of information. “They’re just like sponges,” she
said. “It’s amazing watching them learn.”
Duperry, a neuroscience
major with particular interest in children’s brain
development, said she gained insight through the Botanic
Garden event about how children gather information and
process it.
“We give the children ideas to work with, but we’re
not just giving them information,” she said. “We
allow them to self-guide their discovery.”
Etheredge incorporated
the unit in her course for the first time this year with
the support of a Botanic Garden Curricular Enhancement
grant. “I always like to have a lab component
in this course, especially something focusing on the natural
world,” she said. “This activity is not just
about the children, but it’s also a chance for Smith
students to learn about the Botanic Garden.”
Pairing her students with the kindergarteners in the lab
provides an opportunity to see in practice the theories she
discusses in the classroom, Etheredge said, about how children
think and make sense of the world.
“This gives my students a chance to follow closely,
observe closely, the children’s thinking during the
lab experience,” she said. “What better way for
my students to learn than by being partners with children
in the learning process?”
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