Interpretation Day with Mr. Miller

On May 18th, Barret Miller came to our school to help our outdoor ed class prepare for this week. This week we are interpreting to grade 4 students at Rivers Wetland Centre of Excellence. Many people in my class were concerned that they wouldn’t be able to hold the students attention. They were also concerned that they wouldn’t be able to explain the concepts to the students. Barret Miller helped us forget those worries by giving us helpful tricks and ideas to keep our audience’s attention. He told us that we could show biodiversity using jelly beans. We could fill one jar with colourful jelly beans and another with black jelly beans and ask the students which jar they would rather eat. Most kids will say they want to eat the colourful ones. The colourful jar represents the wetland with lots of plants and animals and the black jar of jelly represents an ecosystem with not many types of plants and animals.

We also reviewed our topics that we will be presenting this week. On Monday my group will be interpreting The Effect of Greenhouse Gases. On Wednesday we will be interpreting The Water Cycle. For The Effect of Greenhouse Gases, we learnt that we can show the greenhouse effect by placing a thermometer in a jar. Then we put a thermometer on the ground and ask a kid to see which is warmer. The one in the jar will be warmer because the jar will trap the warmth in. For the water cycle we learnt that we should draw a picture of it while someone else is explaining. This helps the visual learning students understand the topics. We also learnt that we should cut out some questions so that the students don’t get bored. We also learnt that we should edit the document we are reading from so that we can understand it.

We then walked to Rivers Wetland Centre Of Excellence. First we had lunch and a quick break. Then we learnt some interpretation tips such as standing facing the sun and/or wind. This is so the sun and wind is not in the audience’s face. We also learnt that our audience should be within the triangle created by your arms when you stretch them out. This ensures that the audience can hear and see you clearly. We also learnt that you should be at the front of your group so that you are in the lead.

We then went to the critter dipping station and learnt some helpful techniques. We learnt that you should always critter dip on your knees, crouching down, or on your behind. This reduces the risk that you or the students will fall in. We then played a game called perch, pike, and plinairia to represent the food chain. Most people were perch and we collected food that we could later use to help another perch escape the spawning area. There was two pike and their job was to tag the perch and take them to the spawning area. When a perch was caught they had to dro all their food. The plinairia’s job was to spread the food around.

Overall I enjoyed my day and learnt lots of helpful information about interpreting.

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