Homework for "Using the Outdoors to Make Academics Fun"

Activity: (To meet the English/Language Arts 8.12 Standard)

Students will have visited the UW Arboretum's prairie, forest, and pond environments. They would have been divided into three groups, rotating environments after a set period of time. The students would have been asked to write down specific observations of each environment utilizing all the senses in their observations.

Upon returning to school, the student will then be asked to write a fictional story based upon factual information obtained and observed at 1, 2, or a combination of all three environments visited. An example of a story to view (to give students an idea of the project) would be "Bobby Bluestem" which is about a bluestem plant and how "progress" almost ruins the plant (information about this book and others can be obtained from the Arboretum's Earth Focus Day Camp leaders). The story can be a serious one with a message or it can be more fun and lighthearted.

Minimum Achievement This story will be geared toward the level of a peer audience/reader and will be at least 2 "typed" pages.

Moderate Achievement: This story will be geared toward the level of a selected teacher audience/reader and will be at least 4 "typed" pages.