"HOW DO I FIT IT?": CONSTRUCTIVIST BIOLOGY

Previously weeks we focused on constructivist physics and chemistry and that week we learned "how do I fit it", that is, constructivist biology and ecology. In other words, it is about how the animals and plants -living things- and their adaptation to the environment. In my opinion, learning biology and ecology can occur every time, because children live in a world that is covered living things; plants, animals, human beings. Therefore, I think that it is enjoyable to engage in animals and plants, because we know that children born with a sense of curiosity about their world and they can simply observe the environment. By that way, they recognize how the ecology works on, what kind of plants present in their home and which animals live between the grass. I think that there is no need lots of extra information to teach children. As I said before, they can learn more efficiently by engaging naturally. Moreover, I claimed that we can facilitate that situation and simply organize our classroom environment and school arrangement. I think it is a good point that we can include dogs, turtles, cats, dogs, chickens, fish, rabbit and sheeps in a kindergarten. We can separate these animals into the outdoor and indoor setting, so we can create an school atmosphere for children in which children not only improve their developmental areas by activities but also they gain a sense of caring environment, lives of animals and plants. At that point, I think that educator should know how he/she integrates the environment to the education. I think there are lots of ways to immerse children to the world of living things. You can easily teach the insects to the children as a result of a kind of insect enter your classroom, or you can organize field trip to the zoo or you can bring up your children to the picnic. By that way, they learn by doing, they learn by observing and they learn by experiencing and discussing. As a future teacher, I claim that teacher fit the environment into their daily activities simply. They can use natural materials such as pine cones, shells or small rocks for art activities or children able to do music by using small rocks. I mean, teachers can integrate environment to their activities, so they learn environment and ecology and living things more effectively.

For the lab session, Pınar and Gülşah present their subject : Animals. I think these are the enjoyable hours for us, because we found the possibility to examine live worms, ants and fish. We made a living area for worms and we comforted them:) We looked them from magnifying glass. All activities worked properly, even though my friends busy with living, active animals. Activities were suitable for children. In future, we can explain worm's lives or birds' eating style with these activities, so I congratulate my friends for these beneficial and enjoyable presentations.