Oklahoma Nature Journaling

Take a look at this nature journal by Daisy! 🍃🌿🌱 She created a comparison & curiosity chain. Daisy compared 2 leaves from the same plant and made a list of similarities and differences. The attention to detail especially to the size of the leaves are described with measurements.

Monday’s nature journal was designed by Leah Thompson. 🔊📓🔍This journal is representative of sound mapping. Sound mapping requires the student to start the journal page with metadata (also including the date, location, weather, etc). Leah was highly detailed in her description by including examples of biophony, geophony, and anthrophomy.

Today’s nature journal features the life stages of a sunflower. 🌻 This student presents an example of “mapping”. Mapping allows one to study patterns in the landscape, including vegetation patterns, wildlife evidence, landscape features, and other characteristics. This journal includes measurements of the sunflower which is helpful in understanding the change in the development of the plant.

Wednesday’s NJ was created by Lawren Kerr! 🪴🟣🔍🌿
Lawren made a detailed comparison of a Tradescantia Zebrina. Around the drawn and written (text and numerical) comparison, the student began a curiosity chain recording questions about the subjects. These question stems contained the words “who, what, where, when , how and why”. Notice how Lawren compared the two versions of the same plant - one growing inside and the other which was growing outside. Using question stems are a proven way to ignite curiosity and fuel the desire to explore those questions.

Take a look at this nature journal by Megan Rhomer! 🌸🌸🏝🌊To conduct the observation, Megan chose a quiet spot outdoors that she returned to throughout the semester. The observations made include answers to the following questions: I notice, I wonder, It reminds me of... Megan does a fine job using prior knowledge to help describe what she already knows about plant life during the summer time.

Friday's featured nature journal consists of an infographic representation of a deciduous tree. 🏡🌳🤔💡An infographic richly describes a phenomenon that is interesting to the student. This student has included question stems containing the phrases "I notice..., I wonder...". Pictures, words and numbers are used here to represent their findings in a clear and memorable way. This journal clearly shows that authentic learning is occurring!

Wednesday's featured nature journal is a soundscape map by Cooper Clark! 🔊👂🍃Students find a spot outside and sit still to listen for any sounds. The process generally takes 10 minutes. Notice how Cooper illustrates distant sounds at the edges of the paper with closer sounds drawn in the middle of the map. I especially like that this student included information regarding the direction of the wind and the effect it had on the fallen leaves.

Today’s Infographic nature journal was created by Melanie Peterson!💡📓Infographics combine writing, drawing, and other visuals to explain an idea or synthesize information. Melanie recorded observations of a chosen sit spot using prompts regarding a dragonfly. Notice that Melanie’s questions and active exploration lead to discoveries relating to the dragonfly’s diet and migration.

Wild Wonder 2021 is here! What did you draw for your Day 1 Challenge of finding the extraordinary in the ordinary?

Who else is attending Wild Wonder Nature Journaling workshop this week?

This comparison nature journal is brought to you by Connor, an elementary education student at OU!

Check out his reply to our questions regarding comparisons about the bird’s features below!

This comparison nature journal is brought to you by OU elementary education student, Gabrielle! Check out the comments on her work below!

Questions asked for discussion:

a) What are some patterns you noticed as you made your comparisons? What features were similar in each subject? What was different?

b) Why might those features be similar or different?

c) What did you notice about the types of questions you asked?