Thank you for your video! I love how this lesson brings students outside and thinking about nature.  I will definitely be looking into reading this book.  Thank you. 

Wow - I loved your video and your success with the second graders. We have all been inspired by this discovery and the wonderful books about trees and the mycorrhizal network.  I listened to Merlin Sheldrake narrating his own book and recommend it.  In today's NY Times (Nov 7, 2022), there was an article regarding a disagreement regarding the wood wide web.  It would be good to introduce this to students - are the fungi and trees being cooperative OR are they both being selfish but benefitting one another?  How do we investigate that?

It was joyful to watch your video! In addition to the two books mentioned, were grade level texts used as well? If so, it would be fantastic to know the titles.

The foundation of all learning is community. Thank you for building community with our 2nd graders and helping them to connect STEM concepts to nature!

I love this activity for students. It is so important for them to know everything is connected and how humans disturb those connections in nature. Trees are one of my very favorite trees and I have always felt very connected to them. 

Really enjoyed your video! Was wondering if you have had success spreading this activity (and the general ideas connected to it) to other teachers in your school or district? As I am interested in STEM teacher leadership, I'm interested to hear what were your successes and challenges? Thanks for the video! 

Hi there!

I cannot WAIT to try this activity with my multi-age, neurodiverse Girl Scout troop! Thank you so much for sharing this lesson, and for helping teachers find the space and time to teach STEM in ways that are community-focused and nurturing. Our youngest learners need examples of cooperation in the natural world!

I have heard good things about Melvin Sheldrake's book, and I'm excited to read the article that Arthur posted.

Thanks for this snapshot of your practice!

:) Kirstin, who also has a video in this showcase

Hug a tree !!!  What a fantastic lesson and how students were able to differentiate by creating their own unique Lego solution - love it. I wonder if this could be used as an NGSS phenomenon for 3D learning ??

Doug

So much vocabulary and advanced organization, along with the inter-relations between organisms was brought up during this lesson!  I can only imagine the kids NEEDING words to describe what they were observing.  

Phenomenon should natural.  Explaining how things really work.  Problems lead solutions.  The forest is a great place to show how the problems of "survival" are over come with the "mother tree" solution. 

The inter-connectivity is the gem of this lesson.  All of nature, science, is inter-connected.

This is so cool… I’m so impressed at how you thought outside of the box and connected nature with science and learning. I’m sure your students felt the same way. I love it!! 

Thank you for sharing your video! I also love the fact that you encourage recycling or reusing materials to make crafts to teach lessons. This really encourages students to be creative and use their critical thinking.  I also use the same approach. :) Diana

This is an amazing experience for students to connect with nature, rather than learning about nature. I also love how a student took the experience further with Legos. I'll have to check out all of the resources you provided - thank you!

The connectedness that this represents is so timely for right now, and exciting for me to think about for our NH school-- we have woods all around us!  Thank you for bringing this to our attention, and investigating with such young learners.  What a beautiful idea and question-- what happens below the surface of things?

Kathleen,

I loved your video! It really portrays vividly how much you value each student and the many creative ways they use to showcase to us their learning process.

Yes, I live and work in the bay area and I would love to connect with you.

Let's find a way!

Thanks again,

~Cassia 

I love that you lesson took something that we don't give a second thought and made it so full of wonder and so full of learning. This is what we need to show students (and society)! We are only limited by ourselves! This lesson is so exemplary of what science in school should be!

Kathy is a brilliant educator who has been putting together fantastic lessons like this for years!  Her work is always amazing and she should be proud of what she has created here with her students. I hope she advances further in this contest and look forward to seeing the outcome of many of her future lessons which will be equally amazing I’m sure!