Nature close-to: a scientific approach
Nature comprises numerous living communities that interact in relationship with one another. To understand them scientifically means to see them as a whole, to research and come to know them carefully.
The teaching of biology should be living and practical. It is most living when it allows a direct meeting with natural phenomena. Direct experience of nature metamorphoses into new skills, especially if one does not merely observe, but deepens one’s observations through one’s own research and experiences directly the laws of nature.
- Looking for tracks
Understanding the living context of a landscape
Given today’s environmental situation, ecology has a very specific mission. This is why in the marine biology practicum in the eleventh class (17 year olds) at the Zurich Atelierschule it is not just a matter of precise examination of the different organisms, but also their interactions in their various life communities. For this course we chose the Atlantic island, Ile d’Yeu, twenty kilometres off the West coast of France. Within a small area one can find a very diverse mosaic of biotypes and biozones (e.g. mud flats), that lends itself to comparative analysis. To ensure lively thinking and an inter-disciplinary approach, we study astronomy on the one side and, on the other, non-biotic factors (climate, atmosphere, water and light) that give their stamp to a life space. In this way we can understand the life that characterises a landscape.
The island affords a multitude of different life regions; on one side, the sand dunes with a magnificent vegetation comprising diverse Mediterranean plants; on the other, steep cliffs with important mud flats and a vegetation deformed by the wind that remind one of the mountains of Middle Europe.
For practical field biology, the topics are given by the sand and mud areas (especially by snorkelling excursions to discover algae and to observe the diverse fauna), the vegetation of the dunes (forms and types of growth, plant associations and their transitions between different states of plant and animal communities), and the plants that colonise the cliffs. These observations are brought together in a comparative analysis of the different life spaces based on all the students’ observations.
- To discover and experience the great relationships of nature
A global view, the cosmos included
Students produce a written account of what they have observed and deepen their study by working in groups in ways that enable them to understand overall relationships on a basis of concrete studies. Astronomy and regular observation of the stars helps one understand the earth not only as a whole, but in relation to the cosmos.
One of the students (Simon Zurrer) reports: “Now a year later, I recall the enthusiasm of the whole class: Three weeks on this incredibly beautiful island, daily work in nature whatever the weather, the freedom of movement with bikes, the discussions about nature and the environment; the shared experience of the class, the nightly astronomy observations using a telescope, the microscopic studies of sea water and plankton… All this and much more made the practicum an unforgettable experience which heightened my awareness of and interest in the ecological fragility of our planet.”
Dr Ulrich Wunderlin
Literature:
Bildung und Lebensgestaltung ehemaliger Schüler von Rudolf Steiner Schulen in der Schweiz: eine Absolventenbefragung; D. Randoll/H. Barz (Hrsg.); ISBN 978-3-631-56491-2
42 Portraits of former Steiner-Waldorf students, Price: CHF 5.– (plus postage), available from www.steinerschulen.ch
