Looking at feathers

This video was filmed at a DOC workshop in Turangi in 2017 as part of the Whio Forever project. It shows an experiential activity where participants were given a collection of feathers to classify and identify. As you watch the video, try to identify what the people do, what they say and the skills they used to sort the feathers.

The activity in this video is detailed on page 23 of the Whio Forever junior resource.

Transcript

VOICE OVER

‘Looking at feathers’ is an example of an experiential activity, where the learning occurs through the doing of the activity.

There are three types of feather – down, flight and contour.

[PARTICIPANTS DISCUSS FEATHERS]

A critical component in planning for experiential learning is to provide time for the participants to reflect. This allows participants to gain more understanding of their learning.

Examples of questions that may be asked to prompt reflection include:

• What were some of the skills we used in this activity?

• What did we learn?

• What might we do differently next time?

Allowing time for exploration and discussion using a hands on activity can elicit more interest, more engagement and more questions for inquiry than a theoretical activity might be able to do.

Acknowledgement

The Science Learning Hub would like to thank the Whio Forever project and the teachers involved for the use of this footage from a workshop held in Turangi in 2017.

The Whio Forever educational resource was developed by the Department of Conservation and Genesis Energy.