Maths in the Bush

PSTs on Fozzies Boardwalk

One of the cool things I get to do is work with Pre-Service Teachers (PSTs) who are studying at La Trobe either in the Bachelor of Education or the Masters of Teaching courses. We run a number of professional development style workshops to give exposure to education in a place-based context.

This session, developed as part of the Maths Methods subject coordinated by Pete Sanders, is called Maths in the Bush. It enables the PSTs to see the mathematical outcomes that can be reinforced by using an outdoor (bush) environment... I run it as a way of encouraging teachers to get out of the classroom and enjoy their broader school or community environment. Connecting kids with nature and getting some great mathematical outcomes in an authentic context.

In conjunction with the Masters research I am undertaking, I took this year's session as an opportunity to revisit the session and develop new lesson content that will provide additional resources for future teachers to use the activities as a base for their planning. It also give us an opportunity to articulate a new experience for schools to come to the sanctuary and engage with our educational expertise.

The activities are as follows:

Catch me if you can

This activity is similar to the dip netting activity previously discussed. Students use a net and bucket to collect a variety of aquatic invertebrates from the Rod Fosters (Fozzies) Wetland. Students use Q Cards to identify the animals and then use their wetland sample to determine: Presence, Absence and Abundance of the animals caught. The data collected from this provides great mathematical outcomes (eg Counting, Shapes, Place Value, Graphs). Much of the mathematical outcomes come from what you can do with the data back at school.

Find that Frog

Find that frog is a simple triangulation game. Students position themselves in three points (rough triangle) around a fairly large area (like a school soccer pitch) and they close there eyes (or are blind folded) and I run and hide an Bluetooth speaker (AKA Frog noise) somewhere (you need several 'dummy frogs'). Students then try and point in the direction of the noise - theoretically the frog is located at the spot where their pointing intersects.

I did this in the sanctuary and hid the frog among some leaf litter. It worked really well and students were able to see a great practical application of triangulation.

Graphically Grubs

This activity is a great activity that extends the 'Rock n Roll' activity we often do in the sanctuary, where students roll over logs and rocks and collect the invertebrates they find. In this activity students get 1 or 2 small petri dishes to catch their 'bugs' and each bug must be kept in a separate petri dish. As students collect the animals, they are encouraged to work in teams of 4 to create categories of animals and then build piles of animals in these categories. Students can then draw their graph of the piles or take a picture with a tablet.

Some examples of categories:

Number of legs - 0, 6, 8, 10, many
Animal Types - Insects, Worms, Arthropods
Animal names - Beetle, Spider, Slater, Ant, Worm

On the first run of this activity I found students really engaged in discussing ways of classifying animals and then creating their physical graphs on the ID chart. It was a really good activity for promoting collaboration and critical thinking skills.

Nesting Box Game

Another of my favourite activities for promoting collaboration, creativity and critical thinking. Student in this activity are provided a box full of wooden parts to a nesting box. They are asked to collect 6 pieces (any pieces) and try to create a box for an animal. A few minutes in, I tend to point out that I 'forgot' to mention that you need to collect 6 bits of wood with the same letters on them - thus forcing students into a process of negotiating for parts from other teams. Once teams have successfully completed a box, we then talk about the different types of habitats for different animals, and why these boxes are so important.

These boxes, called nesting boxes are great habitat for a range of animals and are required to replace the hollows that would have existed in old (150Y+) River Red Gums (eucalyptus camaldulensis)

Tree Heights

A great activity for outdoor maths is estimating and calculating tree heights In this activity we demonstrate 6 different ways of estimating height of a tree, each one being more accurate than the next. Once a quick demonstration of the methods is conducted, students then explore the methods and determine which is the most accurate and then gain a consensus on the height of a particular tree.

Here's a worksheet that explains the methods.