In early October, my youngest daughter and I took a plane from Boston to Heathrow and spent almost three weeks on a trip postponed from March 2020. It seemed rather last minute, making the decision to go as England eased travel restrictions, but we had planned our homeschool year around the possibility.
We thought we would miss the glory of the New England fall.
As it happened, not only was the trip glorious, so was the unexpected bonus of foliage on our return, peaking unusually late, in November.
So back on American soil, I headed to the research building at the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University on a brilliant November morning to attend a class for science educators. Putting aside my London sketchbook and Roman finds for another post, come with me on a walk through the leaves.
“What is a Seed?”
Ana Maria Caballero is Outdoor Educator for Harvard’s Arnold Arboretum and coordinates these free monthly Saturday morning classes.
I first met Ana Maria at a nature journaling event taught by Clare Walker Leslie in Worcester, Massachusetts a few years before the pandemic. We had both driven the same 35-mile journey west only to sit next to each other for the day and it was a delight to find out more of how the Arboretum in my own backyard provides hands-on nature education.
November’s event, “What is a Seed?” was the first of Ana Maria’s local classes for teachers I have attended.
Inside the Weld Hill Research Building at the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University
It was also my first time in the gorgeous Weld Hill Research Building and I marveled at the carefully laid wood floors and beautiful facilities.
Ready for us attendees in the light-filled lecture room was a large ceramic plate of seeds Ana Maria had collected that week.
An Investigation
The class modeled how to set up an investigation for children and it was tremendous fun to look, feel, shake the various seeds, and ask questions of what was there.
We carefully pried apart, sorted, and, yes, investigated. We rattled nuts, threw seeds to see if they were windborne, and one attendee, for lack of a knife, investigated some small fleshy fruit with his pen to find the seeds within. We wondered at the unfamiliar seeds of the tulip tree and carefully pulled apart their flower-like form to find that each ‘petal’ was a winged seed.
With small plates at our disposal, some of us grouped our findings by their seeming function, others dismembered one specimen per plate.
One question led to another. Ana Maria explained that seeds that travel by sticking to fur grow on plants of mammal height, so we wondered if winged seeds typically appear on plants of great height. An educational setting where no question is a dumb question is a refreshing place to learn.
Ana Maria didn’t necessarily answer but helped us ask more questions.
“My main goal is to help teachers become more aware of and comfortable with using nature and the outdoors in their science teaching, with connections to art and the language arts. I try to model curiosity and questioning and throughout the year bring in other practices of science. ”
With the specimens thoroughly explored and grouped, we took to the woods for a walk and saw with new eyes the stand of tulip trees, the unusual hairy helicopters of the three-flowered maple, and other previously unfamiliar wonders. Each educator gathered as much as they liked of seeds from the ground to take back to their various-sized classrooms. One teacher needed material for one-hundred students and we each handed him our surplus specimens.
We returned to the classroom for one more example of a seed investigation and looked more closely at the properties of different winged seeds.
The two-and-a-half-hour class felt like a vacation of wonder.
[click on any image to full screen]
Begin With Wonder
I wandered the short walk home and by the time I reached there, found I’d spent another two hours in the absolute glory of the height of fall, collecting, looking, photographing.
Later, I laid out the gleaned treasures on the table in my studio and, through many online meetings that week, quietly sketched the findings.
Materials used: Moleskine journal; Sharpie Fine Point Marker for drawing; Pentel Fude Touch Sign Pen for page title; Faber-Castell Polychromos Colored Pencils (affiliate links)
Answers to the class prompt: What is a Seed? Faber-Castell Pitt Brush Pen (affiliate link)
For nature journaling advice: Two Encouraging Free Resources to Start You Nature Journaling
Investigate Further
Our recently acquired stereoscope quickly proved its worth and provided another avenue for wonder that week. From the collected seeds, my daughter and I marveled at a common weed’s glistening filaments designed to catch the breeze and looked closer at the helicopter of the three-flowered maple.
Thick hairs surround the seed end of the three-flowered maple’s helicopter to repel water and certain insects, while the papery flight wing seems hairless (pictured in the drawing above).
We found that there are actually hairs on the wing as well but not enough to see with our regular vision. To our surprise, one helicopter also came with a minuscule grub, rolling around in the hairs and not able to get to the seed!
Indeed, the class had sparked an ongoing investigation.
From Wonder to Mastery
Author John D. Mays proposes that what is missing from science education is a foundation of wonder with a journey towards mastery.
There is a long journey between the two. But wonder and mastery connect in a way that multiple-choice quizzes and ‘fill in the blanks and forget’ learning do not easily touch.
“Begin with wonder,” my daughter murmured as she gazed through the stereoscope. “I could do this all day.”
When you set up such investigations as those Ana Maria Caballero’s class modeled, when you ask questions and engage in the practice of nature journaling, you are surely on a path of wonder for adult and child, alike.
The Height of the Glory of Fall
A walk around Peters Hill at the Arnold Arboretum, Boston.
Nature Journaling
In England in October, I completed an entire travel sketchbook. Compared to that excitement, a spread of seeds and a few leaves drawn over a week in a nature journal is a quiet endeavor.
While travel sketching captures fleeting moments on a trip, nature journaling to me is about noting minute detail and asking slow questions.
Both are deeply satisfying and can have their place in the busyness of life.
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Up Next
Ana Maria Caballero’s class for educators next month
Now that the leaves have fallen, the next class at the Arboretum is about the structure beneath.
Free to Boston area primary and middle school teachers, private, public, and homeschool. Registration required. Details and the latest class offering are at the link.
Upcoming at Paperblogging
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