Why use this tool

“Adopt a Spot” encourages learners to slow down, observe and reflect on the world around them. It can be used to stimulate curiosity among learners about the natural world around them, to encourage examination of interactions across systems or even to note change over time.

When to use this tool

Stage(s) of Learning: Engage, Explore - Use this activity to stimulate learner curiosity about the natural world or the world around them. Learner questions can connect lived experience to more complex content.

Time: ~15 minutes

Audience: All Ages - Learners of any age can observe and take notes via writing or drawing. Older learners can be asked to observe for specific phenomena or attempt more complex analysis afterwards.

Ease of Use: Simple - This activity requires learners to sit for a few minutes and observe. For natural-world observations, learners must have access to the outdoors or safe spaces with windows that can see outdoors.

How to use this tool

Preparation: Identify your purpose for assigning the observation: What are students looking at and why? Based on this, decide the parameters for your learners’ observations. For example, if learners are learning more about local wildlife, they should pick a spot where natural life is present. If learners are watching people interact with nature or a space, they should pick a spot where human-populated areas and places with little human presence overlap.

Directions:

1. Outline the purpose and parameters of your observation activity. What sort of place should learners choose for their observations? How long should they stay there?
   1. Note that if learners feel they cannot find a safe location from which to observe the outdoors, they can choose an indoor location with a view of natural outdoor space.
2. Provide guidance on how to conduct observations. Encourage learners to look all around them when they reach their spot, including directly above them and below their feet. Learners should close their eyes and listen. As they draw or take notes, learners should try to represent exactly what they see, without judgment or analysis.
3. Encourage curiosity: Before learners conduct their observations, draw their attention to the directions on the bottom of the worksheet. Learners should note three questions about the things they observed. Ideally, these questions should be tied to the purpose and theme, but they should also be authentic!
4. Conduct observations: Give learners the time, during your learning session or on their own, to select their spot and conduct their observations.
5. Share: Ask learners to share their observations and their questions.
6. Reflect: Take a moment to reflect on commonalities and trends from the sharing. Are there certain things people noticed most? Were there any novice understandings or misconceptions that surfaced and may need to be considered? What questions were most common? You will want to revisit these at the end of your engagement.
7. Transition: Use the common interests and ideas from the learners to move into the next stage of your engagement.
   

Modifications and Variations:

• Have students return to the same spot multiple times to observe. Consider:
  • How does the spot change over time?
  • How is the spot different at different times of day?
  • How is it different during different seasons?
• To encourage more analysis from your learners, use the more complex “See, Think Wonder” and immersive “Five Senses” variation of the See-Think-Wonder activity as a basis for observation.
• Have students choose one element of the location, such as a given animal or waste disposal location to observe over a longer period of time and take very detailed notes on exact activity.
• Use a preliminary visit to identify interesting elements to quantify - such as the observed number of a certain species or the observed number of times a certain behavior occurs - and record quantitative data.
  

What to do next

• Consider using National Geographic MapMaker to create a map of the spots students observed. Educators can create a classroom map of locations and use the “Sketch” tool or the StoryMap tool to highlight student observations.
• Dig deeper into one phenomena that students observed. Can they learn more about a species they saw? Research one of their questions about behavior or interactions.
• Use student observations as a way to identify connections inside and across systems. How are the animals, plants and physical features of the site interacting? How do they depend on each other?
  

Learn more

• For additional suggestions for working with learners, see our EDULab Toolboxes for Explorers and Educators.