“Fee fi fo fum, only plants chow down on air, water, and sun.”
These are the words of that eccentric science teacher we all know and love, Ms. Frizzle. From her supernatural approach to her quirky behavior, she has changed the lives of students and teachers across the globe in the classic television show, The Magic School Bus.
Ms. Frizzle, often known as “The Friz”, teaches topics ranging from the solar system to animal habitats, where she takes her students on epic adventures to teach them about science topics in a fun and exciting way. Specifically in the episode, The Magic School Bus Gets Planted, Ms. Frizzle shrinks the school bus to take her students on an enchanted field trip to the inside of a plant, encouraging elements of imagination and discovery.
Here at High Trails, we also bring magic to our classes through a combination of class discussions, hands-on activities, and engaging experiments. Specifically in our Plant Detectives class, students take on the investigator role as they explore the importance of plants in our world.
During an activity called, “The Carbon Cycle”, students act as their favorite plants and animals, portraying the cycle of how both organisms rely on each other to stay alive. As the animal exhales Carbon Dioxide, the plant eagerly inhales and continues to thrive in its environment. The plant then gives off oxygen for the animal to stay alive, while also making sugar in the fancy process we call photosynthesis. This High Trails activity is just one example of how we encourage students to express their silliness, while also grasping a not-so-simple concept.
In the Plants episode of The Magic School Bus, The Friz presents the question to her students: How do plants eat their food?
As her students contemplate this question, they think about how plants do not have mouths to chew with or hands to pick anything up with and are ultimately stumped.
Through this magical journey, students come to realize that plants take in air through openings in their leaves and water through their roots and up the stem. Because the students have shrunk down to see things from a whole new perspective, they are experiencing this magic in an entirely different way.
At High Trails, we also motivate our students to understand topics from a new perspective. For instance, our students participate in an experiment called “Life as a Tree” in which they begin their lives as a seed and try to fight for life in their search for sunlight and water. By the end of the experiment, they are aware of what it takes for trees to grow and flourish.
Because of their use of imagination as they identify as a tree, the overall meaning is much more clear and way more enjoyable!
Teaching with emphasis on magic and imagination encourages students and teachers to explore science concepts in a way that truly brings them to life. Whether you are an outdoor educator, a classroom teacher, or an eager student craving some exceptional brain food, the magic will enhance your experience and inspire you to appreciate science in a way you could have never imagined.
At High Trails Outdoor Science School, we literally force our instructors to write about elementary outdoor education, teaching outside, learning outside, our dirty classroom (the forest…gosh), environmental science, outdoor science, and all other tree hugging student and kid loving things that keep us engaged, passionate, driven, loving our job, digging our life, and spreading the word to anyone whose attention we can hold for long enough to actually make it through reading this entire sentence. Whew…. www.dirtyclassroom.com
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