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April 11, 2007
Learning on the Road Part 2
Have I mentioned road trips are great places to learn new things? Well, the road trip to the mines of Nevada by my friends Pa and his grandson Nick lent itself to even more learning than just the geography and science components of Nevada’s back country.
It takes planning to go on any trip. Planning requires some research. Pa had done the research on Goldfield and a few other of Nevada’s old mines. Nick was interested in turquoise and backed up Pa’s research by doing some of his own. Between the two of them they came up with a variety of locations to appeal to their interests.
Next were the additional skills needed to get them from one place to the other. First there was the navigation aspect. Someone needed to do some calculation about how far to go, where, and how much time it might take to get from one location to the next. Navigation became Nick’s job.
He mapped out their location, planned the trip, and set their path. It was his job to keep them on track, which I mentioned in an earlier blog, was a challenge. Navigation requires planning and research. It also requires math skills particularly around distances and time. There’s a delicate balance around arriving at a location and arriving at a location during daylight hours when you can actually see and visit it.
Another skill is managing the finances of a road trip. When my kids were younger, they’d know how much there was for the trip, and where we were going. It was their job to stay within budget. Nick had a similar challenge. From a stash of funds for the trip, he was responsible to handle all the money exchanges on the trip-gas, food, lodging, and snacks. Oh, don’t forget the all important snacks.
They were in Nevada so no one could go through Nevada without a little additional learning in math. There is no where in Nevada you can miss an opportunity to gamble, even gas stations. Pa, willing to expand learning to some extent, used the chance to explain chance or at least games of chance. Fifty cents in a slot machine turned into $1 then $2, but quickly faded to a loss of well, let’s leave it at a loss while we move on to the next stop in our travels.
So once again, the teacher in me wants to be satisfied. Was something learned from this great fun? You bet. Besides the geography and science, there was research, planning, and math skills. I’m a big believer in getting as much learning from an activity as possible and road trips lend themselves to lots of learning really well. Perhaps even more important was the learning didn’t feel like learning.
To me, when learning is a part of living and the fun activities of what we do in our lives, the learning is natural, not contrived or artificial. The skills learned become important to making a child’s work happen, not something that happens apart from the rest of what he or she does everyday. Letting kids use the learning skills they are acquiring to enjoy themselves seems like such a great reinforcement for wanting to know and learn more.
Anyone up for a trip to the Grand Canyon?
Posted by Dr Joni at April 11, 2007 08:15 PM