Last updated: January 17, 2024
Lesson Plan
The Art of Field Guiding
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- Grade Level:
- Middle School: Sixth Grade through Eighth Grade
- Subject:
- Science
- Lesson Duration:
- 30 Minutes
- State Standards:
- K-LS1-1, K-ESS3-1, K-ETS1-2, H.13.K.3, 1-ETS1-2, W.2.7, 2-PS1-1, 2-LS4-1, 2-ETS1-2, 3-LS3-2, 4-LS1-1, H.12.4.5, 5-ESS3-1, 6-ESS3-4
- Thinking Skills:
- Remembering: Recalling or recognizing information ideas, and principles. Understanding: Understand the main idea of material heard, viewed, or read. Interpret or summarize the ideas in own words. Applying: Apply an abstract idea in a concrete situation to solve a problem or relate it to a prior experience. Creating: Bring together parts (elements, compounds) of knowledge to form a whole and build relationships for NEW situations.
Essential Question
Why do we document things we learn?
Why is it important to track and identify wildlife?
Objective
Students will understand the purpose of using field guide and the basics of how to effectively implement this strategy.
Background
Field guides are popular today in many forms, from basic pocket guides, to dense textbooks, to cell phone apps. Choosing a field guide can be overwhelming, but this program seeks to ease that feeling by introducing participants to using art and their senses to aid them in field identification. As participants are asked to draw wildflowers, they will begin to take note of the important features to focus on when trying to identify plant life.
Preparation
Ensure the following materials are available prior to giving lesson. Materials include:
- Field guidebooks
- Historic field guides or botanical/wildlife photos
- Pencils
- Leaf chart
- Ruler
- Field guide sheets (provided in lesson plan)
- Clipboards
Lesson Hook/Preview
Introducing field guides:
- Review the structure of the lesson plan for the day. The history of field guides, searching for plants to draw and then identifying them using a field guide we make.
- How many of us have used field guides before? For what purpose?
- What is the purpose of a field guide? What sort of things would you expect to find in one?
Procedure
Step 1: Cover the history of field guides. Several bullet points exist and are available in the lesson plan to jump off from.
Step 2: Cover the use of illustrations and photographs in field guides to help identify species from each other, the importance to detail, and more.
Step 3: Provide students with a clipboard, pencil, leaf chart, ruler, and blank field guide sheet. Have them find a plant in a given area and sketch/define their plant.
Step 4: After drawing and defining their plant, have students switch drawings with another student. See if the students can find each other's plants.
Step 5: Show examples of various field guides including variations in size, subject, area covered (regional vs local).
Step 6: Have students search through field guides to identify their chosen plant.