Jane
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It was fun to create the watercolor palette study, and to try out techniques.
In one place or another, I experimented with all of the watercolor techniques Liz modeled in this unit’s lessons. The one I had never tried was glazing. It surprised me that colors can be layered, to some degree, in the application of watercolor pigments. My prior experiences did not include the glazing technique.
I don’t see watercolor as a “go to” medium in my nature journal. The waterless media are more appealing to me, as is incorporation of photographs. As a nature photographer, I will likely have my “in the field” immersion and “lost in Nature” moments with my camera… followed by the addition of art media exploration to record musings, data, and factual information.
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Making My Own Colors I enjoyed this exercise. Prior to creating a palette based on colors in a photograph, I decided to make test swatches for each of the colors in my watercolor box. I think this step helped me to achieve better accuracy when making my own colors. It also gave a foundation for noting “recipes” for tints, tones, and and shades I can refer to when I actually paint a watercolor of the flower.
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I took off on a new venture with this assignment. The challenge? To apply the drawing techniques to capture the details of a wolf spider I observed, at great length, in my garden. It was uncovered while I was weeding… by hand, no chemicals or mechanical devices. I took a photograph to work from. It seemed overwhelming at first, however, proportional techniques, keeping negative space in mind, and using short sketchy lines, mark-making, value, and breaking my subject down into shapes and relationships helped immensely.
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In my opinion, upside-down drawing was both fun and difficult. I viewed as a collection of shapes, lines, and proportions… as best as I could. The erratic lines were a challenge (perhaps this would have been better as an earlier in the day exercise- I did this one fairly close to bedtime!)
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Getting Started with Gesture Drawing- 03/17/22 Less time = less attention to finer details!
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I had my laughs during this exercise! Poor little Green-tailed Sunbird looks like a frog. I did a better job with the Bird-of-Paradise and Sprinkbok. Trying to imagine where the paper edges were was easier when I folded my paper into fourths.
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Exploring: Form and Function Bird Beaks of three birds that were observed in our wetland!
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Two, majestic heritage conifers grow in my yard. I have enjoyed watching and photographing wildlife fly/climb in and around these trees for the last 30 years. However, I’ve not taken the opportunity to “climb” onto a branch… until today. I selected a lower limb from a Western Red Cedar and a Douglas-fir to compare for this journal entry. I positioned a stool at the base of each tree to sketch en plein-aire. A sample of each was brought inside for this photo.
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The plans for my sit spot changed quickly! My initial plan was to sit at a pile of decaying wood to observe the fungi and wood forms of non-moving subjects. That plan was scrapped as the sounds of Canada Geese arriving at the pond in front of my home grew louder and more hysterical. So much was happening… a n d … very quickly. I’m used to having a camera in hand and shooting rapidly when Nature drama unfolds. This time, all I had was a pencil and my sketchbook. At first, I feared that I would be unable to capture any of the events that were quickly unfolding in front of me. Then little scratch marks started to appear on my sketch page… then more… then more. As the scratch marks were annotated I began to appreciate the story I was capturing.
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I feel most comfortable with depiction texture and dimension, however, placement of shadows on the object and at the base of the object need more practice. Study of light source and effect on subject matter will help with my drawing and my photography skill understanding and application.
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I enjoyed this… it was a good feeling to “jump in.” It helped to format my drawing area to approximate the dimensions of the image on my iPad screen. Then, blocking in the branches provided a foundation for me to have some success with my goal of placing the warbler in relative size with its surroundings. Drawing from a photo is great! Everything is locked in place. Drawing most definitely inspired me to look closely at details and their relationships with each other. I am an amateur photo-naturalist and believe this skill (photo to drawing) will greatly enhance my observation skills and understanding of Nature’s intricacies. It seemed logical to begin labeling and jotting down questions.
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I'm an avid photo-naturalist and hope to add nature journaling to my practice as an extension for deeply seeing and appreciating my natural history interests. I like the idea of using extension tubes, and a daily or monthly page format.
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I think the use of rubrics is very appropriate for project based learning. Peer feedback would also assist with evaluation of the project. Constructive feedback could be used by the student to improve the project prior to final evaluation used for final grade. An aside on rubrics- The quality of the rubric influences the quality and helpfulness it has as an evaluation tool. I think the rubric format used as the Assessment Rubric for 4th Grade Reports was the best. Criteria were clear. The scale was specific. The format of the rubric was easy to use. The teacher project rubric was the most difficult to use. It lead me to use more subjective, rather than objective decisions about overall scoring.
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The most challenging aspect I had with leading and assessing inquiry-based activities was- time. Content area units were taught in rotation with two other fourth grade classes. It was frustrating to be tightly bound by the clock. There were many times I longed to be back to the days of self-contained elementary school classrooms. If students were deeply engaged, I could monitor and adjust the time to allow extending science. It was also much easier to integrate units of study.
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I selected Project Budburst. This background was provided on the website: "Budburst citizen scientists work together with research scientists, educators, and horticulturists to answer specific, timely, and critical ecological research questions by making careful observations of the timing of plant life cycle events, also called phenophases. These life events differ depending upon the type of plant, but usually include leafing, flowering, and fruiting phases of plants as well as leaf color and senescence." (09/19/20; cut from: https://budburst.org/aboutus) the data base is available to anyone, including those who have not participated in the project. My students adopted a Bigleaf Maple tress located on the school grounds to observe for the school year. The question they sought to answer was: How do trees respond to seasonal and climatic changes in their environment: temperature, length of day, and amount of moisture. Log books were kept to record observations.
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In the context of a topic of study, supply students with artifacts that are unfamiliar to them, but that you know relate to that topic somehow. Do this just after they have had a basic overview to the topic. Then put them in the shoes of a scientist in that field to role play and venture guesses about the significance of the artifacts and to suggest ways to test those guesses.
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I am participating in eBird. I wonder how will my entries reveal trends or patterns in species sightings over time? With a new data collection tool on eBird, I am able to enter photos of birds I've taken in our wetland system from the past. The entries log in by the date the photos were taken. This may be a key in helping me to answer a question that has captured my curiosity over the time I have lived on a wetland.
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Practicing and becoming an expert in automatically having the ability to ask open-ended questions is a trait all people who interact with children should possess. In my opinion, there is a crucial element to this goal that has been overlooked (at least in this point of the course). Asking the open-ended question is only half of the scenario in being catalysts for students to observe and wonder, the other half is to allow "wait time" or "think time." The power of silence, at least 10 seconds, when using wait time increases student thinking and the depth of their answers to questions. This link gives a helpful look at incorporating wait time in the classroom as a teacher shares his experiences and reflective thinking: Use Wait Time to Increase Student Thinking
In one place or another, I experimented with all of the watercolor techniques Liz modeled in this unit’s lessons. The one I had never tried was glazing. It surprised me that colors can be layered, to some degree, in the application of watercolor pigments. My prior experiences did not include the glazing technique.
I don’t see watercolor as a “go to” medium in my nature journal. The waterless media are more appealing to me, as is incorporation of photographs. As a nature photographer, I will likely have my “in the field” immersion and “lost in Nature” moments with my camera… followed by the addition of art media exploration to record musings, data, and factual information.
I enjoyed this… it was a good feeling to “jump in.” It helped to format my drawing area to approximate the dimensions of the image on my iPad screen. Then, blocking in the branches provided a foundation for me to have some success with my goal of placing the warbler in relative size with its surroundings. Drawing from a photo is great! Everything is locked in place. Drawing most definitely inspired me to look closely at details and their relationships with each other. I am an amateur photo-naturalist and believe this skill (photo to drawing) will greatly enhance my observation skills and understanding of Nature’s intricacies. It seemed logical to begin labeling and jotting down questions.