About me
I am Rajmanpreet Kaur, daughter of a farmer and my mother is a home-maker. I am from India, one of the developing Asian countries. My mother tongue is Punjabi, however, I speak English and Hindi fluently. I have done B. Sc. in Non-medical, then followed my path towards teaching and pursued B. Ed. I did a Postgraduate Diploma In Computer Applications to enhance my ICT skills, one of the requisites to be an efficient teacher. Further my interest in teaching, and excel my skills designation to develop led me to M. Ed. I also have a teaching experience of two years as an English and Environmental Education teacher.
My hobbies are cooking and listening to music. I am more into Bollywood classical and some times Jazz too. I like to go on long walks to enjoy mornings and evenings’ live sceneries with music into my ears. When I am stressed, I eat and talk a lot. Moreover, I am an ambivert person. I just take time to make new friends but once I do, I am very talkative. I am a nature lover too.
About my project
Science, a name full of enthusiasm and curiosity where all the mysteries of nature, living beings, and anything in the surrounding are unfolded with pieces of evidence and explanations. However, in the past decades, it has become a subject of books and laboratories. Through this project, I am trying the best of my ability to demonstrate that the aliveness of this subject can be preserved and healed through taking it outside the classroom and laboratories and involving learners into the real world so that they can observe, think, raise questions, build the hypothesis, test those, reflect on those, share it with others to reach the plateau of their best abilities and enjoy learning. I am taking the instance of “Photosynthesis and Celluar Respiration” for “Grade 8” as per British Columbia Curriculum by making it interdisciplinary with “Environmental education” and “ICT” skills.
Thank you for sharing your website with me. When I was in school I too was nervous in science class because of the big words that I always had a hard time pronouncing.
I LOVED how you connected the emotional/personal learning with the padlet exercise in your lesson demonstration. That was an entry point for some meaningful discussion around the student’s own experiences. This really set the tone for your lesson. I would call that a good hook! As well, the use of an elder to show and explain the nature that surrounds them is a positive way to get students thinking from a First People’s perspective was a good entry point to the learning.
“A draft/rubric would be prepared by the teacher to discipline and guide the inquiry approach.” I would suggest that you think about having the students to build a rubric/criteria of what they think the journal should include. This would be a good learning opportunity for the students to build on what they believe is important to the learning of the subject. This would give them autonomy and help them to further their development and thinking about their topics.
My hope would also be that you are continuing your nature walks with the Elders to build on knowledge and gain an appreciation for the outside world.
The project starts with self, grows to knowledge of the world around them, and then builds on their individual interests of the plants. They are looking at how light/photosynthesis connects and supports the plant growth. The students are using the inquiry model to make the subject alive. I see a lot of parallels to my unit plan, only my students are primary and your unit is for highschool. We are both encouraging students to engage in nature and build curiosity about the world around them, so that they can have an agency to react and create change! I hope you get a change to use these lessons one day 🙂
Great job, Rajmanpreet! Thank you for sharing your inquiry website and lessons with me.
All the best, Angelina Thomson
Hi Rajmanpreet,
I really appreciate your commitment to move the study of science from books and classrooms into the real world and bring the discipline alive for your students! In particular, I love the idea of the nature walk as a form of practical research in the inquiry. I think this is an incredibly important element as you have the disciplinary knowledge that you are intentionally connecting with your local knowledge.
I always find it interesting that when I learn the name of a new plant, I suddenly start noticing it everywhere! When we have the language for something, it draws our attention to it (similar to when you get a new car – then you start noticing all the other people with the same model of car as you on the road). I almost wonder if you do multiple trips into the natural space to allow students to use the inquiry mindsets they developed asking questions and hypothesizing about the potted and vascular plants back in the classroom. This might support student curiosity when you invite the Elder to share traditional knowledge of these local plants.
This is such a great project and I can see how I might adapt it for younger students to amplify a unit on gardening. Incorporating the disciplinary knowledge and the freedom to experiment with limiting the ingredients necessary for a plant to grow would certainly make young learners feel like scientists!
Thank you for sharing your project! 🙂
Clint
This also might be a useful resource for you: https://www.fnha.ca/Documents/Traditional_Food_Fact_Sheets.pdf
Near the bottom is traditional uses of roots, berries and plants.
Hey,
Thank you Clint, It has very detailed and practical knowledge of First People’s food resources including history, traditional harvesting, use, nutrient facts etcetera. I will use it well.
Thanking you again.
Regards,
Rajman
Hello Rajmanpreet,
Trust you are doing good.
Star:- Your topic is best suited to be learned in nature and I truly applaud you for using the topic of photosynthesis for inquiry learning. The walking curriculum is blended so well in this inquiry and makes the topic alive. Plants are the treasure we all have been given by the nature and the way you have integrated the topic with environmental education, First Peoples’ knowledge of plants and Science, shall certainly help the students to have a better understanding of the conceptual understanding per se plants.
Wish: I wish we could learn more about the changing colors of the plants and leaves to make it more authentic. Also, wish if we could take the students to an outdoor natural space more often. It shall allow students to observe and learn these concepts by posing questions supporting the inquiry mindset.
Question: How would you invite Elders to share their knowledge of plants and would this be guided as well Or students shall have the liberty to be with the elder to explore and learn the natural environments?
It is a very informative and comprehensive project. Thanks for sharing.
Take care, stay safe and enjoy the summer!!
Deepanjali