Eric Heil on an Introduction to Natural History: Beauty, Science, and Philosophy for Boys
About this episode
Eric Heil discusses the lessons of Natural History for young boys, emphasizing observation, inquiry, and the beauty of nature.
Natural History is a largely outdoor, discovery-based class for our lower school students, where they see the Valley as a textbook and the seasons as its chapters. Eric Heil has taught Natural History to his third graders for decades now, and in this rebroadcast from 2021, he unpacks the class's lessons of close observation, pattern recognition, scientific inquiry, identification, wonder, and the foundations of philosophy—all among 8- to 11-year-olds. Chapters: 3:10 Personal observation and discovery 5:35 The outdoors: an alternative textbook 9:55 Boys and nature journals 19:49 Intrinsic value in nature study 25:47 Junior philosophy: substance and accidents 31:50 "I see, I think of, I wonder" 36:23 Starting a nature study at your school Links: Webinar: How to Keep a Nature Journal featuring Eric Heil and Peter Vitz Fact or Opinion: On Preventing (or Unwinding) Moral Relativism by Michael Moynihan The Laws Guide to Drawing Nature and Journaling by John Muir Laws Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock A Natural History of North American Trees by Donald Culross Peattie Nature's Events: A Notebook of the Unfolding Seasons by John Serrao Also on the Forum: Teaching…
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