Daija's Overview

Teaching second graders? How fun! I was very excited to venture to Booksin and discuss the issue of deforestation. Although I did have my worries and doubts on the way there, the project went so well. The kids were so involved and so smart. As soon as we asked if anyone knew what deforestation was one girl said "Deforestation is people cutting down the trees." Many little hands raised when we asked what some effects were, they told us their ideas and they were spot on mentioning the effects of deforestation. I was taken by surprise at how much they knew but this made engaging in conversations with them so much easier.

The kids really enjoyed the activities. Everyone was cheering on their classmates while playing the first activity, musical trees and during the second activity they were laughing and running around trying not to get tagged. I feel like the activities really helped them make connections with the lesson because they got a visual of what happens with deforestation. I feel like the project was a great success. All of the feedback from the students was great, they answered questions and they summarized what they learned from our lesson.

Timeline

4/3- Made the blog and gave an intro
4/3-4/22- Got all our materials ready
5/5- made an update, explained what activities will be
4/22-5/5- bettered out materials
5/6- went to Booksin to teach
5/17- Gloria did overview of the project, video of eslp was posted
5/22- Gisselle did an overview
5/28- posted our "Project Overview," budget statment, timeline, Daija's overview

Budget Statement

We did not have to pay for anything, but here is our statement:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1aBM5cXtTAq4jUevogukTd2741Qw-vVriUpsGpyouV5g/edit?usp=sharing

Project Overview

This is the final draft of what we planned to do at Booksin:
 https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_TulhcHXaQjo-L_vfG5PGzqcScBjaZb9kHg5zHtxU-k/edit?usp=sharing

Gisselle's overview on the project

Once we were in the classroom I was a bit nervous to teach 2nd graders about deforestation. When we mentioned the words deforestation ,water cycle, and extinction all the students seemed to know what all of them were. That really surprised me. I really enjoyed explaining the effects of deforestation on animals since the students had a lot of interesting comments. I really liked how all students had a connection to make on what we were talking about. For example, some mentioned how we are in a drought and that might affect the trees as well as the animals and humans.

With the activities, the students were able to obtain the information by playing those games. One of the games we played was musical chairs, but instead the chairs were trees and they were in the forest. As the trees (chairs) disappeared, the more competition there was for survival for the animals (students). They were able to capture this dilemma of deforestation  through this game along with the tag game. All of the kids cooperated and were kind. I enjoyed hearing their questions and comments on this topic. Toward the end of the day I asked some kids about what they learned and they all summarized our lesson taught that day.

Video of ESLP

Video of the Kids

Note: Because the kids were so interactive, we only have videos from the activities and closure.

Gloria's Overview on the project

How did I think the project went? I believe it was way more successful than imagined. Walking to the elementary school, I had a doubt in the back of my head wondering how it would go because I didn't think many second graders would know that deforestation was even a thing. To my surprise, after we broke down the word to them, one girl raised her hand and knew what it was. Once she said the definition, majority of the other kids were like "Oh, I know what that!" Them knowing what it means, made it a lot easier and they had much input on why it was bad and how it happens.

While we were discussing the effects on humans and animals, many children raised their hands having comments or connections to what we said. The one thing they enjoyed the most were the activities. When we explained each of the activities to them, they were very happy. While playing, they enjoyed running around or cheering on other class members too. I also feel as though they took out a lot from the lesson. During the closure, practically everyone raised their hand to share the knowledge they acquired from the lesson.

Activity 2: Loggers vs. trees and humans tag

In this activity, the taggers will be loggers and everyone else will be a human or a tree. The loggers can only tag the trees, and the trees can only tag humans. Also, the loggers can tag multiple tree, but the trees can only tag one human because once a tree is tagged then tagged a human, they will sit down together until the last human and tree are standing. If time permits, we, we may play this activity twice. Again, we will ask some reinforcing questions like in Activity 1.

Activity 1: Musical Trees

So this game, is like musical chairs, but with an eco-friendly twist. Each kid will hold two animals, and those will be what they are in the game. The chairs will then act as the trees. So after every round, we will eliminate a chair, which will also eliminate two animals. This will show how much of an impact cutting down trees does to wildlife in the forest. After, we will ask follow up questions like what did this activity show and if they can name some of the effects on animals.

Update

So we had a scheduling conflict and were not able to do it on Earth Day, so we are doing it on Wednesday, May 6. For these past few weeks, Daija, Gisselle, and I have been figuring out the plan for this project, and now it is fully completed. We are going to have an opening which explain what deforestation is, then some basic pre-questions will be asked based on what they will learn that day. Then we will explain the effects on animals and our activity for this will be based off of the game, musical chairs, but eco-friendly. After, we will discuss the effects on humans and this activity will be based off of tag. After each activity, we will have follow up questions that will reinforce what they just learned. Finally, the closure will be asking them some more questions, like what is deforestation in their own words and how can we lessen the effects of it for us and animals. Within the next couple of weeks also, we will have a video of what we taught the children.

Introduction

Hello! Our names are Gloria Santos, Daija Moses-Batson, and Gisselle Munoz. We are  in Mr. Bursch's biology class, and we are freshmen. This semester, we are doing another ecology service learning project. We have chosen to teach an elementary class about how deforestation affects not only us, but animals as well. We plan to teach them about the effects of deforestation on humans and animals and to do two activities. One activity will be focused on the the effects on animals, and the other on humans. We hope to do this project on Wednesday, April 22, on Earth Day.