Want some more?
Wild by Nature is a student driven class, and you will get out of it what you put into it. We have assigned a baseline of homework that we feel is appropriate for the level of this class while allowing for a great deal of flexibility and personal adaptation. With this, we hope you will customize your experience to fit your individual interests. We realize you have other obligations and responsibilities outside of our class. However, we also know that in our two semesters together, we will only barely skim the surface of the topics of botany and ecology. For those students who WANT to dive deeper, we are offering fun rewards. However, please do not feel pressured to do more than the baseline requirements.
In keeping with the nature of the flexibility of this class, you get to create any and all enrichment activities you choose to do. Please counsel with your parent(s) in deciding what an appropriate amount of work is for each of the two levels of extra achievement. Ideas for enrichment activities are on the back of this paper, but you are not limited to those ideas. You are welcome to change your projects and goals at any time and for whatever reason (the original goals were too hard/too easy, you found something ELSE you are interested in, etc.) Just give us an updated Personal Enrichment Projects paper for our records if you do decide to change/add/delete anything. These goals should be appropriate for YOUR personal workload and YOUR academic level. You do not need to share your goals with anyone else. These goals should challenge and stretch you, but not overwhelm you. A little stress can be motivating, but too much will ruin the experience, and you won’t learn anything from it in the end. Counsel with your parents about the right path for you to take.
Rewards for these achievements will be given out at the end of the year during the ASA awards and graduation ceremony in May. You have the entire school year to work on your projects/goals. If your project has a visual component, you are welcome to display it at the awards and graduation ceremony.
Please ask us if you have ANY questions,
Anna Mock and John Williams
Ideas for Personal Enrichment Projects:
- Read X amount of extra books/write reaction papers
- Watch X amount of extra documentaries/write reaction papers
- Complete X amount of extra nature journal pages
- Go on X amount of extra field trips by yourself/with family/friends
- Attend natural history museums, botanical gardens, etc./write reaction papers
- Create a “sit spot” and visit it for X amount of minutes X amount of times
- Create music/art/poetry that encompasses what you are learning
- Teach others what you are learning in class
- Participate in the WHEN science fair in March with a botany/ecology themed project
- Interview a botanist/ecologist/naturalist, etc.
- Write a report on any topic botany/ecology related to turn in to your mentors
- Clip newspaper articles about botany/ecology related topics/write reaction papers
- Do a plot study, visit and journal your plot X amount of times during the year
- Create a Monarch waystation at your home
- Reclaim a piece of land on your property and cultivate it
- Reclaim a piece of land on your property and rewild it – native plants
- Create a garden and document your work/progress (nature journal it)
- Lead/Participate in a environmentally friendly service project
- Create an “ecosystem in a jar” and keep it alive!!
- Keep worms/compost – but like, for real. Not just a pile of kitchen scraps in a bucket
- Make a science video (Bill Nye style) explaining a related topic
- Watch the John Muir Laws Nature Journaling tutorials
If you would like help brainstorming extra ideas, please don’t hesitate to come to us and ask for help.
You can print off extra copies of the Personal Enrichment Project Form HERE.