How to learn the EEEF Way: Third Grade
 

(c) Yogesh Pathak

 

We can think of the following four main clusters for Third Grade.
 

Teachers and parent volunteers should meet at the beginning of the year and plan an activity schedule, based on community resources, school calendar, community calendar and events, and seasons.

These are just guiding examples. Teachers/parents/schools should feel free to modify these as desired or create new grade-appropriate activities.

 

 

* The story of Evolution and Biodiversity

 

Class discussion and charts – Early Earth: A timeline of early earth, formation of crust, oceans, atmosphere

 

Class discussion – Formation of Life: Discuss using models and charts, theories of formation of simple life, and how that led to complex life forms (It is optional to discuss cells)

 

Class discussion – A timeline of Life: The various periods in formation of life on Earth and example life forms (plants and animals)

 

Field trip: How old is that? : Visit various kinds of trees (e.g. gymno and angiosperms) and reptiles, insects, birds, and mammals, and discuss how long they (their species) have been around. Compare their ‘time on earth’ with that of other hominoid apes and home sapien. In class, prepare a timeline that plots each life form found and their “k.y.a.” age.

 

Class discussion – Evolution: Introducing the concept with 2-3 specific example groups like fish, reptiles, mammals or birds. Introduce evolution as a story that is still going on.

 

A play on Darwin and Wallace: Discuss the work of Darwin and Wallace in class and provide key points to students. Let them build and present a simple play about Darwin’s voyage to the Latin America and Wallace’s voyage to Southeast Asia and how they arrived at their hypotheses and evidence about evolution, how the work was presented, etc.

 

Class discussion - Stories told by fossils : Discuss how fossils get formed and what they tell us, with examples of 4-5 fossils. If possible, bring fossil specimens to class or see them in a museum.

 

Field trip – Evolution of birds: Observe birds yet again, but this time with the lens of evolution. Briefly touch upon bird families and common features. Return to class and discuss bird evolution in more detail.

 

Class discussion - The story of dinosaurs: With the help of fossil photographs and scientific articles narrated by the teacher, discuss some types of dinosaurs, their food and behavior. Spend time discussing dinosaur fossils found in the region (if any), plot them on the timeline of life. Discuss theories of extinction of dinosaurs. If possible, visit a museum to see dinosaur models and fossils.

 

Clay work – Dinosaurs: Build clay models of various kinds of dinosaurs.

 

Class discussion – evolution of man: Discuss various types of evidence found, including fossils, footprints, skulls, and draw the tree branch of homo sapien evolution. Discuss other primates and the similarities and differences. Discuss the unique status we achieved as a species due to complex cognition, symbolic intelligence, language, controlled fire, habitats, imagination, beliefs, collaboration, migration, etc.

 

A play on our ancestor species and us: Ask students to imagine that an ancient hominin and her child were walking along a riverbank and their footprints were fossilized. Later a scientist detects these footprints and find their age and try to guess wher. Build a play around this.

 

Class discussion – Extinction: Natural extinctions and their timelines. Extinctions due to man’s activities – e.g. hunting of large mammals like the woolly mammoth,  Asian cheetah. Extinctions due to habitat loss.

 

Draw pictures of prominent extinct animals: Provide descriptions of animals like Mammoth, Dodo, Pink-headed duck, etc and ask students to draw their pictures in their habitat, behavior, etc. Bring an Earth globe in the class and show the former regional distribution of these extinct animals.

 

 

* The story of Homo Sapiens : Part 1

 

Class discussion - Collaboration among Sapiens: Imagine you are a group of 5 homo sapiens – a couple in 20s with a 3 year old baby, 1 old adult, and 1 teenager. Discuss and brainstorm, how they would survive agains natural elements like rain and flood, predators, insects, poisonous snakes, parasites etc. Discuss the roots of human habits and habitat – food, homes, role of clothes and hygiene, role of clean water, role of fire and cooked/baked food, role of tools, etc. Discuss how collaboration and language aided progress and survival.

 

Field trip, demonstration and discussion – Language: On the field trip, hear and note the vocalizations of as many birds and mammals as possible. Back in the class, hear the recorded vocalizations of other birds (more sophisticated) and primates. Discuss the structure of all these vocalizations -their types, vocabulary and meaning, variety, limitations, role in collaboration, etc. Discuss if these became an inspiration of vocalizations of early man, and how these would have developed further.

 

Short class demonstration - Coexistence with other hominins (preliminary, with Neanderthals as an example): Highlight or point out that evolution of multiple hominins happened simultaneously and it was not just homo sapiens. Show fossil evidence of other hominins. Discuss neanderthals in more detail with reference to distribution maps of neanderthals and sapiens and possible conflicts.

 

Field trip and cookout - Early sapien diet: Collect food from nature and cook it using basic means (fire) and basic cutting/grinding tools and equivalent of pots, ideally from natural materials that homo sapien had access to. Taste the food and compare it with today’s nutrition. Discuss the techniques early sapiens used for cooking.

 

Early sapien tools: Using clay make tools like early stone tools in class, discuss their usage.

 

Class discussion - Fire and it’s many applications: Based on actual evidence, discuss how early use of natural fire started, what it was used for, when sapiens gained control on fire, and how it’s use expanded.

 

Class discussion and field trip - Settlements and the role of water bodies: Visit communities who live near a river in the area and are in some ways dependent on the river. Ask how they see the river, what do they think about it, what the river does for them. In class discussion, try to imagine the early homo sapien settlements near river.

 

Discussion –Simple machines: Discuss the urge homo sapiens feel about outsourcing repetitive task and building technology to simplify tasks. Discuss early simple machines or structures like wheel, lever, bridge, roads.

 

Discussion & field trip – Early sapien impact on trees: For the field trip, visit a community that extensively uses firewood for energy like water heating and cooking. Ask for their monthly consumption of firewood and where they get it from. Think of early sapiens’ usage of firewood by putting in various hypothetical population numbers. Discuss what species of trees and grasses serve best as firewood. Look into the surroundings for these plants, and their extraction if any.

 

Discussion and demonstration – Early sapiens’ hunting impact on animals : Impact of hunting on other species like small mammals, large mammals, birds, fish. Take examples of small mammal hunting in past and present, large mammal hunting in past and present, and how that affects animal populations, possibly leading to extinction

 

Lecture and Drawing session - Early sapien art and it’s evidence in caves: Demonstrate example caves and art in those caves. Discuss the events depicted in those scenes and the evidence of animals existing at that time. Students could draw art similar to what they saw on cave walls with their own imagination.

 

Migration of Sapiens across the globe: Explain with charts the migration(s) of sapiens across the globe. Touch upon the distribution of other hominins and their extinction.

 

Lecture and discussion - Myths and divinity among early tribes, present tribes, and role of nature in these myths and divinity

 

 

*    The story of Homo Sapiens : Part 2 - Our journey from hunter-gatherers to farmers, pastoralists, and today’s industrialized mode of living

 

Class discussion: Our transition from hunter gatherer to pastoralist and agriculture. What did we gain and what did we lose from this transition? How did it affect us? What happened to our population? When did the transition start and where?

 

Discussion – Domestication of animals: Discuss the urge homo sapiens feel about outsourcing repetitive tasks. Discuss domestication of animals like dogs, sheep, goat, buffalo, cows, and horses to serve human needs. What do we get from the animals and what do they get in return? Compare the domesticated animals’ lives with that of their wild brethren. Show some comparisons.

 

Discussion & field trip – Sapien impact on land use: First discuss early villages and early cities that came up in various parts of the world. For the field trip, visit the nearest village and work out the sq. m. area the homes, roads and common establishments  occupy. Then expand this calculation of a suburb and then the entire city. Discuss what kind of natural landscape that must have existed before the establishment of the said village, suburb, and city. Discuss the impact of habitat loss on other species.

 

 

Clans/Tribe: Class discussion on how early sapiens possibly organized themselves into nomadic or semi-nomadic tribes, followed by more stable settlements after agriculture started. Discuss trust within tribes, distrust between tribes, and potential interactions between them. Initial norms and rules in communities and villages.

 

Play – Trade: Build a play through various imaginary situations, to demonstrate nascent trade among hunter gatherers, extend it to pastoralists and later to agriculturists based on various kind of surpluses. Include the birth of concept of money.

 

Class trip – village market: If possible, visit a nearby village market to see what kind of good are sold. Discuss it back in the class.

 

Discuss specialization of skills and vocations in a village and the role of farmer in this social organization (services received, surplus shared).

 

Visit to Potters: Demonstrate Pottery as an example of skilled vocation.  Discuss raw materials, process, finished goods created, customers (today and in the past). Participate in pottery if possible.

 

Discussion - Early housing: Demonstrate housing from ancient rural cultures as well as large cultures like Indus. Examine how housing material might have evolved from natural elements to bricks.

 

Discussion - Start of chiefdoms and kingdoms: Discuss these in the context of agriculture and specialization of roles, need of protection for agricultural surplus, etc.

 

Discussion – crafts in early culture: Evolution of arts including beads, painted pottery.

 

Preliminary discussion - commerce : Weights and measures in cultures like Indus, Evolution of monetary commerce, Sea and land trade with other cultures.

 

Preliminary discussion - Evolution of science (early, preliminary) and technology: Metal use – Copper, Bronze, Iron, Gold, Silver

 

Demonstration - Early transportation: On land, rivers, oceans, snow. Show examples of potential transportation used by early cultures including boats, chariots, carts.

 

Discussion – Ancient larger civilization along major rivers: Preliminary. Some examples of dams/water management, farming, crafts, customs, and trade

 

Discussion - Middle ages, role of military in sustaining kingdoms and empires: Impact on nature e.g. wood for navy, hunting of mammals, firewood needs - Preliminary

 

Discussion - Modern scientific discoveries and inventions: A quick journey through Steam engines, electricity, jet engines, globalization, hyper transportation, hyper construction, variety of man-made materials, energy use, information technology: Preliminary, along with impact of nature like pollution and change in land use

 

Discussion with examples - Modern-day hunter gatherers, tribal societies and their co-existence with farmers, pastoralists, and the industrial man

 

Consolidation of Homo Sapiens Story Part 1 and 2: This could be done through open ended projects like a write-up, stories, drawings and plays.

 

 

* Geo-Eco Cluster

 

Class Discussion and Field trip on Maps: Develop a basic geographic understanding of their vicinity, town, and county or district. Take a tour of the surroundings, come back to class, and try to draw a map.

 

Map interpretation Exercise: Given a map of their town and district, discuss the features and findings, fill various details in the map, etc.

 

Discussion – Our lifestyle: Based on the earlier cluster activities, relate the physical/climatic conditions in the district to the modes of living, vocations, and socio-cultural aspects.

 

Discussion - Concept of Ecosystem (Preliminary): Discuss in a scientific way, an ecosystem

 

Field trip to one or more local natural areas and trying to understand them as an “ecosystem”: Lake, River, Hill/Mountains, Forest, Grassland, Savana, Desert, Coast, Ocean

 

Short Discussion - Natural landscape as a mosaic of ecosystems

 

Landscape mapping activity: The teacher could take a large map of the town or district, and map natural landscape(s)/ecosystems onto it  -- may not necessarily fit the map’s usual boundaries.

History of nature-man relationship to land, water, and forests (e.g. a river preceding human civilization, and human settlements happening along rivers) can be highlighted – mostly taking local examples from the district.

 

Consolidating Discussion - Local environmental history:  Story of evolution and story of man-nature relationship mapped on the local town/district.