Taking Students into the Forest Right-brain activities make left-brain progress. By Christine Heinrichs
Being in the forest enlivens students on many fronts. They return from the experience with vivid, tactile, visual, aural, and personal memories as well as ecological understanding of the forest system. In Cambria, California, the organization Greenspace -
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The Cambria Land Trust, partners with the Harold J. Miossi Charitable Trust, to connect students with nature by inviting sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade students out into the forest to be learners and researchers. The Greenspace Environmen- tal Education Field Program uses nature as a means of teach- ing students about the relationships within the forest, namely those concerning its animals and plants. It is led by Green- space board member Ann Cichowski and her husband Rob- ert Cichowski, Greenspace Education Program Coordinator and retired California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) professor of chemistry. What follows is the story of Santa Lucia Middle School
students’ experiences with the Greenspace program as part of an elective Environmental Education class taught by Danielle Narzisi.
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ETTING STUDENTS OUT of the classroom and into the forest activates their creative spark and engages them in acquiring solid scientific knowledge.
Engaging students’ brains
The brain has two hemispheres that correspond to the right and left sides of the body. Each hemisphere controls the opposite side of the physical body — the left hemisphere con- trols the right side; the right hemisphere, the left side. The two hemispheres are well-connected by the thick
fibers of the corpus callosum. They operate together, but are not identical in function. The left hemisphere dominates in tasks related to logic — specifically, those that are analytical, reality-based, linear and logical, sequential and symbolic, and objective and verbal. The right hemisphere dominates in tasks related to creativity and the arts, so it processes fan- tasies, holistic experiences, intuition, visuals, subjectivity, and non-verbal communication. It is misleading to consider individuals as being driven by one hemisphere over the other; neuroimaging research suggests that people use both cere- bral hemispheres to perform most activities. The Greenspace program allows students to absorb left-brain factual material, while immersed in right-brain activities. The forest experi- ence, in particular, is an ideal context for maximizing left- and right-brain functions to help every student learn.
Preparation
The purpose of the forest visit is to allow young people to learn about the species the Monterey Pine forest harbors as well as some science about this unique habitat, while
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Photo credit: Robert Cichowski
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