Drawing Inspiration from our Environment

 Scultupre Title: Wind Waves  

Learning Lens: Environments 

Curriculum Access: Applied Skills, Art, Career and Personal Planning, Drama, English, ESL, Home Economics, Science, Language Arts, Math, Modern Languages, Science, Counselling/Psychology, First Nation Studies, Socials Studies, Physical Education, Social Justice.  

Big Idea: Inspiration 

Guiding Question: How does nature inspire our made environment?

Strategies & Approaches: Socratic Questioning, informal assessment, prompting, experiential learning, critical thinking, written work, information gathering- library research.

Background for Students: There are multi-disciplinary entry points to how one can approach the environment, through an environmental science lens or literary subject. For substantive examples, various forms of “natural” inspiration can be accessed through the library. For example: the story of Newton and the apple, Wordsworth`s poems about seeing nature through different eyes, Yoga poses and their references to nature, myths, fables, and legends about how natural occurrences were created, landscapes influencing Fine Arts, Literature, and Socials Studies, such as The Group of Seven embracing the Canadian landscape, to the preservation of green spaces amidst our urban environments.

Informal Assessment: Through discussion, ensure students have an understanding of their “natural environment.” Encourage them to think about practicing mindful awareness in their observations.

Materials: worksheet and pencil. Worksheet is part of the download lesson plan PDF file,

Curricular Challenge: 

15-20 mins, Open/Reflect: Welcoming Multiple Interpretations 

1. Students are encouraged to disengage from their recent experience and their busy surroundings to practice Mindfulness. 

2. Direct students to “mindfully” (quietly/individually) explore the piece and develop their own interpretation. More information on Mindfulness for the classroom can be found through http://www.thehawnfoundation.org.

3. Direct each student to share their interpretation of the piece without judgement.   

4. Connect students’ individual interpretations to the background information provided above.

Via Socratic Questioning Ask the students to Discuss issues related to the piece that they may be familiar with: Ocean currents transport water temperatures and the dispersal of larvae, waves play a role in the creation of beaches or the erosion of topography, Wind causes water to form waves, there are environmental concerns, and how are things constantly in motion and around us? Lastly, how can we grow comfortable with nature and our man-made environments?

Challenge: As an approach to learning have students answer the following question as a library research assignment: How does nature inspire our made environment? Please see attached worksheet.

Debrief: discuss students varying findings. How were different people inspired by nature differently? Perhaps discuss how being mindful of natural environments may continue to inspire man-made creations.