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Dig This

Friday, February 25, 2000

By Stephanie Kendrick

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By Kathryn Bender, Star-Bulletin
Jill Laughlin is surrounded by some of the materials
educators can use to teach their students about plants.

Cultivating plant-
centered learning

For young children, destroying things seems to be one of the more appealing ways to learn about growth.

Marion Yasui, a first grade teacher at Noelani School, recently led an experiment in which her class got to pound fresh leaves with a hammer after laying them on linen squares. "It's almost like tie-dye," she said. The idea is to teach the students about chlorophyll, which paints the linen with a shadow of the leaf. But the pounding part is fun.

Another popular leaf destroying experiment has students take tools representing the mouth types of different insects -- drill, syringe, pliers, etc. -- and use them to "inflict as much damage to a leaf as they possible can," said Jill Laughlin, children's education coordinator at Lyon Arboretum.

Yasui got the idea for the leaf-pounding activity from a workshop Laughlin offers to local school teachers.

TEACHING THE TEACHERS What: "Plant Reproduction: Endangered Species," a workshop for teachers Where: Lyon Arboretum When: 12:30-2:30 p.m. tomorrow Cost: $10 Call: Jill Laughlin at 988-0461

The workshops, which first became available last month, are based on a 12-unit program developed in the Midwest. So far, Laughlin has adapted three of those units to reflect Hawaii's ecosystems. She also offers training in a locally developed unit called Art in Nature's Garden.

According to Yasui, the classes are a boon for teachers.

Laughlin prepares boxes of curriculum materials -- video tapes, picture books, tools, plant samples, etc. -- for each unit that teachers can borrow. The convenience of not having to collect those resources independently is wonderful, said Yasui.

The unit Yasui studied is called "Discover Plants from Top to Bottom." One of the activities involved rooting seeds in a plastic bag and measuring the progress of roots and shoots. Her class had used styrofoam cups to sprout seeds in the past, but Yasui said the new technique is better. "That was wonderful. They got to see the roots and the leaves growing," she said. "That was fascinating for them.

Yasui's class has a field trip scheduled for Tuesday. "I'm very excited because I think the children will have a real hands-on experience of what they've learned about plants," she said.

Art in Nature's Garden: This locally developed workshop is designed for second-grade teachers. It exposes students to new ways to appreciate their tropical environment. On a field trip to the arboretum, students use haiku, photography and watercolors to reflect their observations of nature.

The unit was designed by second-grade teachers Janice Nishiki of Noelani School and Lori Chun of Manoa School, who wanted a unit that combined art and science. The results of the premier outing last year amazed Laughlin and the two teachers.

"We were astounded. So we did a little art show up here," said Laughlin. "The level of awareness the students exhibited in their art was just awesome."

Chun said many of the students involved have continued to show increased interest in the natural world. They now want to work in the family garden, for example, because they understand a little about what's going on, she said. "We got letters from the parents saying how much of an effect it had on the students," said Chun.

Discover Plants from Top to Bottom: The workshop Yasui shared with her class is designed for grades K-1. It uses literature, classroom activities and field work to emphasize the parts of plants and their functions.

The sprout-a-seed-in-a-bag activity, which she uses in other programs, fascinates children, said Laughlin. Every morning they rush into class to check their seeds, she said. One year, a student went so far as to do a sort of time-lapse record of the experiment, taking a photo of her seed each morning and afternoon.

"They really love to see something grow. They can relate to that. They relate to something small becoming big," said Laughlin.

Interdependence: Plants and Animals: This workshop gives students in grades 2 through 4 the opportunity to explore Hawaiian rain forest plants and animals through field and class work.

Plant Reproduction: Endangered Species: Fifth and sixth graders are exposed to strategies scientists use to protect and propagate endangered species in this unit, built around the question: "What happens when a pollinator has gone extinct?". Using mustard seeds, students take a plant from seed to seed, later comparing results produced by pollinated and unpollinated flowers.

Classes cost $10 and are limited to 15 participants. Laughlin expects to rotate through the units every couple of months, possibly offering more classes in the summer. All units combine the disciplines of art, science and literature. They meet national science standards and are coordinated to state science and writing standards.

It was Laughlin's goal to find a way to share arboretum resources with the broader community. "To be able to get the teachers up here is really helpful, really powerful," she said. Mainland botanical gardens must keep tropical plants in expensive greenhouses and spend a fortune making and importing plaster casts of endangered tree trunks, said Laughlin. At Lyon, those sorts of specimens are available all over the park. "It's just criminal to me not to utilize those resources," she said.

Gardening Calendar in Do It Electric!

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Stephanie Kendrick's gardening column runs Fridays in Today.
You can write her at the Star-Bulletin, P.O. Box 3080, Honolulu 96802
or email skendrick@starbulletin.com