A month ago, I began organising something both exciting and educational for the younger students in my school. To be honest, it has always been a personal goal of mine to organise something for students, which allows them to experience what they learn rather than only to learn by listening and reading.
After an unforgettably wonderful internship at the Max-Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research in Cologne, I had been invited to visit the institute’s Show-Garden that was on display beautifully during the temperate summer months. During the tour and throughout my working weeks, I felt greatly inspired by plant biology and mother nature. Thus after much consideration and a ceaseless amount of support, I finally decided to plan, organise and initiate my first excursion for Year 3 & 4 classes in my school!
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| Work Experience at Max-Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research in July 2014 |
This whole process and CAS activity is most certainly a purposeful activity as I will have further improved my organisation skills as well as my public relations skills. I shall have learned to be more confident as I contact unfamiliar people and learn to work successfully with them on this project I hope to achieve. Furthermore, I believe it will be very challenging yet rewarding to accomplish such a task and to interact with children of ages 7 to 10, as well as their teachers.
To begin, I met with the primary school principle, Mr Pitzner and was introduced to a science teacher from the corresponding grades, Mrs Hoffzimmer. Following a productive meeting, I attempted to call the Max-Planck Wissenschaftsscheune (WiS), which literally translates to Science Barn in English. Unfortunately, the number provided in the WiS brochure did not function, leading me to contact my supervisor from the institute, as we kept in touch even after my work experience weeks.
The very next day, I managed to reach the person in charge: Mr Hombrecher. As arranged, we met in school and discussed in detail the necessary information required for us to organise a special week for all five Year 3/4 visits to the Show Garden this October, directly after the two week autumn holiday. Despite that I had to sacrifice an hour of Volleyball Club for the meeting In the next week, I was contacting both parties back and forth to update and provide them with further information of the excursions. As a result, I organised little meetings with both Mrs Hoffzimmer and Mr Hombrecher, my supervisors for this CAS activity along with a meet-and-greet for the teachers of the classes visiting. On one occasion, Mr Hombrecher was able to visit one class and introduced them into the world of plant biology.
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| Mr Hombrecher right of Mrs Neuhausen as she introduces the class to him |
Immediately after the mid-autumn holiday (and meanwhile tackling another CAS activity - which I will be reflecting upon super soon!), I returned to the first day of school and Day One of the five class trips with much energy! First up was Ms Hoffzimmer’s and Ms. Neuhausen’s class to visit Max-Planck’s Science Barn and Show Garden. The class was extremely enthusiastic and ready for a Science trip. To begin with, as we were walking about 2.0 km for 25 minutes from our school to the WiS, I asked several children what they expect to see and do today at the institute’s show garden. Many, to my surprise, only expected to see “nature” and had a vague idea of what the trip will be about. They were informed that it had a connection to their upcoming science topic which was Ecology. Nevertheless, they were in high spirits and in order to get them even more interested, I explained to them what I observed the last time I visited and told them about the vast variety of plants and vegetation that the Max-Planck Institute learn and investigate!
After about 3 hours at the Show Garden, it was unfortunately time for us to leave. The entire class had enjoyed the tour with witty Mr Hombrecher and his colleague, a challenging and interesting scavenger hunt for the origins of many common vegetations and also the quick race up the side of a small hill in the garden itself! The children learned about the origins of many crops that even I was unsure where some originated from: e.g. pumpkins originally came from South America and Rapeseed derived from Germany! Additionally they were taught about the important roles insects had in the garden as well as the Lotus effect.
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| One half of the class started with the tour and the other half - already on top of the hill after the race! |
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| Off to a scavenger hunt! |
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| Team work needed during the scavenger hunt activity |
The next four days, of which I accompanied a further two, had similar programs for each class. On day two, I joined Mr Green and Ms Bangert’s class, of whom the children were all very obedient. Therefore I found this class to be the easiest to accompany. This time, the children were granted their wish to harvest some plants of their choice anywhere in the garden. Naturally, all went ecstatic and as a student myself, so did I, and raced with some towards the chilli and paprika plantations.
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| Class 3/4 C debriefing inside the Science Barn before heading out to the Show Garden |
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| Tour begins first at the scent garden part of the whole Show Garden |
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| Class harvesting time! |
On Thursday, I lead Class 3/4 E to the Show Garden and this time we harvested mostly potatoes, carrots and one big pumpkin for the class to cook up and serve. Following the rest of the program for the day, I asked Ms Nowak's and Ms Augustine’s class if they enjoyed the trip: they all agreed joyously that it was a “super fun day” out! In fact, before I was to leave for my lesson back in school and they were about to go for lunch, they all presented me with an applause and thanked me for this trip. I was overjoyed and am very grateful for all the help and support I received to achieve this CAS activity successfully.
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| Ms Augustine's group being introduced to Cotton plant |
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| Discussion at the world map of the origins of many various crops in the Science Barn |
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| Ms Nowak's group working together to investigate the Lotus effect |
Overall, it was very amusing to accompany these three classes. Although I did find at times that some children were slightly harder to control than others, as they would be interested or distracted by something else and not concentrated on the current activity. However to deal with this, I would tell them that something interesting is being said that they are completely missing out on and this revert their interest back to the present.
Learning how to interact with younger pupils of my school was a goal that I certainly achieved. I learned to be more comfortable with these children as they are so open-minded and curious about nearly everything. I think this trip has benefitted them well to introduce them into the world of Plant Biology at an early age and to interest them in our environment that suffers greatly from our developing world.
Of the 8 Learning Outcomes: I have…
- increased my social skills from students from 7-10 years of age to teachers of my school and lecturers of the Max-Planck Institute.
- undertaken the challenge of organising my very first school trip for Grade 3 and Grade 4 students.
- planned, organised and initiated all five class trips successfully in collaboration with responsible adults.
- worked together co-ordinately with teachers, specifically Ms Hoffzimmer and with Mr Hombrecher of the Institute.
- dedicated time and effort into the trip organisation, sacrificing lessons (like SL Psychology, HL Biology, and HL Chemistry etc.) in order to accompany classes as well as accepted a share of responsibility for dealing with little problems during the trips.
- engaged with an aspect of global importance: educating younger students of my school, the next generations, and providing them with an experience relevant to the importance of ecology.
- considered the ethical issues that arise when dealing with students and the conditions of farming that provide consumers globally with organic vegetation.
- acquired a brand new skill to organise school excursions and developing contacts with teachers in my school.
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| One half of the vast Max-Planck Show Garden |
I hope to organise similar trips in the future for other classes of a different age and since I have improved my organisation skills and people skills with this successful CAS activity, I am confident that I shall be able to handle similar organisation tasks in the future.
Evita ☺
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