1 Using the local area as a resource

Mrs Gupta describes how, as part of her efforts to make her science lessons more stimulating, she tried using the outside grounds of her school to start her work on plants.

As I teach in a rural area with fields and trees around, I decided to send my students out on a hunt for different plants that grow around the school grounds. I told the Principal what I was doing and he was happy as he had been encouraging all the staff to use more interactive strategies in our lessons.

On the day, first I spoke to my class about what we were going to do, explaining what the task was. Next I gave them some simple rules about how to behave outside, especially as they were a big class. I also explained how to collect the samples of plants so that they did not damage the plants or take too many samples from any one plant or area.

Their task was to hunt out as many different plants as they could but each pair should collect only six plants as a maximum. They needed to talk to each other so that they did not all pick the same six plants, but they needed to keep the noise down as they worked so that they did not disturb other classes working in their rooms. As they walked round looking for the plants, I also went out and watched and listened as they worked. I found it very interesting to hear their talk, as they were able to identify quite a few plants, but they did not know some of the plants by the ditch that had water in it.

After a few minutes I called them together and we sat under a tree and laid out the plants. The students had worked in pairs. I now asked those pairs to form into groups of four to see how many different plants they had and which they could name.

Then I asked them to say how they knew the plants were different from each other. They suggested such things as the shape of the leaves, flower stalk, etc., and used a variety of words to describe these features. I asked each group of four to take their samples into the classroom. I gave them a sheet of newspaper and told them to lay the plants on this, and then we pressed them between the sheets of newspaper until the next lesson.

Next lesson, I told them, we would look more closely at the different features. We would explore how some plants have similar features but their shapes and forms are very different. They worked quietly and carefully sorting their plants, and then we piled lots of old textbooks on top of the sheets to press them flat.

I was very pleased at how sensible they were when outside but also greatly encouraged by how interested and enthusiastic they were at looking for plants. In previous years I have often found that students do not like the sections on plants in the textbooks, so this was very reassuring.