"You won't bother to save something unless you first care about it.  The Private Eye allows you to care quickly and deeply."
— Kerry Ruef , founder and director of The Private Eye, author of
The Private Eye: (5X) Looking Thinking by Analogy

"The Private Eye opens up a new world to people of all ages and makes us want to probe the micro-world, a place we often dismiss. The song lyric puts the Private Eye in context – “When you are young and always looking at the far side of the hill, you might miss the fairest flower standing by you very still.” We have before us the macro world in which we choose to concentrate, with a whole new world of infinite pieces, a flower if you will, that we can readily see with the aid of Private Eye."
 — Dr. Joe Baust,
      Past President of the North American Association for Environmental Education

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Fourteen Reasons Why The Private Eye is so "GREEN"
The Private Eye is the ultimate Green Machine when it comes to enviromental impact. We're talking carbon toeprint and smaller. Fourteen reasons why.....

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INVESTIGATIONS:
A Dose of Nature (with The Private Eye) as Good as a Dose of Medicine?
Ecology-based Field Trips with The Columbia Gorge Ecology Institute (CGEI)
Reports from Far and Wide
Project Learning Tree Correlations
"Connecting Children with Nature:  Using The Private Eye at Summer Camp"

“After looking through the book, [The Private Eye (5X) Looking/Thinking by Analogy] I felt like I'd walked in the front door of heaven. What really impresses me is the scientific learning that you've built into observation, and the chance to draw. I think how you've tied thinking by analogy and theorizing with the loupe is spectacular. …it would be a lot more interesting to be born with a loupe in your eye than a silver spoon in your mouth."

— Ann H. Zwinger, naturalist & author of The Mysterious Lands; Downcanyon; A Desert Country Near the Sea

 

“I value nature education very much and think The Private Eye Project has hit upon a great way to carry it out. The five-step process is simple but can lead in oh so many directions, limited only by the imagination of each teacher. And the guide book lists example after example to stimulate the imaginations of teachers and students alike. Finally, the specimens included are great for getting the process going. I think the principles espoused by The Private Eye process, and its creator Kerry Ruef, would enhance the education of any one at any time; it seems entirely appropriate for adult education, something I have done for 35 years. And if all kids were exposed to this process, perhaps we wouldn't be worried that there will be a last child in the woods.”

— Dennis Paulson, Co-Author of The National Audubon Society Field Guide to the Pacific Northwest, Director, Slater National History Museum

A Dose of Nature (with The Private Eye)
as Good as a Dose of Medicine?

A number of recent studies tell us that to improve concentration, time in natural settings may be key.  But what’s a city kid to do? And how do you woo even rural kids to go outside? When you teach with The Private Eye you get—and give—a large dose of nature Consider the implications of the two studies below, from an article on 2/24/09 in The New York Times:

"A small study of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder last year found that walks outdoors appeared to improve scores on tests of attention and concentration. Notably, children who took walks in natural settings did better than those who walked in urban areas, according to the report, published online in August in The Journal of Attention Disorders. The researchers found that a dose of nature worked as well as a dose of medication to improve concentration, or even better."      http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/24/health/24well.html?em

Another study broadens the effect of nature to apply to anyone:

"Andrea Faber Taylor, a child environment and behavior researcher at the Landscape and Human Health Laboratory at the University of Illinois, says other research suggests that all children, not just those with attention problems, can benefit from spending time in nature during the school day"     http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/24/health/24well.html?em


Whether you’re urban-locked or captive in a classroom—something as simple as a sweet gum pod held in your hand, can become, in effect, a “walk outdoors in a natural setting.” Under a loupe (which itself improves concentration), a natural object looms large, has trails with twists and turns and surprises. The Private Eye questions keep the observer on the trail, seeing more, making connections to the observer’s own life, making the trail memorable. Because the questions allow the observer open-ended associations, it really is how the mind behaves on a relaxing walk in the woods. Whether you’re inside or out, The Private Eye, used with natural objects such as leaves, flowers, seed pods, bulbs, bugs and stones—offers a double dose of concentration that, as this study suggests, may be even better, than a dose of medicine.

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Ecology-based Field Trips with The Columbia Gorge Ecology Institute (CGEI)

The Columbia Gorge Ecology Institute, Hood River, Oregon (CGEI) takes students around the Gorge on on ecology-based field trips to their local ecosystems. An integral part of the field trip is closely examining aquatic macro-invertebrates and examining the soil and plants of the forest or shrub-steppe. This year, they explored with the help of The Private Eye.

The CGEI team sent this note to The Private Eye and the photos:
“Students loved using the loupes to enter into the fascinating world of the soil and water! Kids likened stonefly nymphs to dinosaurs and scorpions and yelled in delight at ant nest under rocks. Students imagined they they were the bark beetles, racing down maze-like tunnels in the logs. They went eye-to-eye with some of the more strange organisms in the environment: the lichens, mosses, and fungi.”

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Reports from Far and Wide
The Private Eye makes the first step to conservation easy. The simple tools of The Private Eye process help unlock a door to a world of wonder -- intimate, personal, intriguing, exciting. And it is easy to translate through a change of scale this caring from one part, to a whole object, to caring about the whole system on which it depends, and which in turn depends upon it. The Private Eye teaches us to care and to never stop caring about our environment--whether it's inside our minds and bodies or the world that surrounds us--efficiently and engagingly.

Click on the loupe for the Tohono Chul Slideshow tour!

"Through The Looking Glass" Desert Ecology Jo Falls, Tohono Chul Park, Tucson, AZ.  Slideshows

"Project Learning Tree Activity Correlations to The Private Eye" Terri Jacobson, Wildlife Biologist & Outreach Specialist, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Jackson, MS "Grassland Managers Look Closely" Carrie Anderson, Tofte Ranger District, Superior National Forest, MT "UTOTES:  Outdoor Classrooms and The Private Eye" "More Sharing with Bolivian Educators" Liz Baird, UTOTES ( Using The Outdoors to Teach Experiential Science) Program, North Carolina State Museum of Natural History "Jeweler's Loupes as Field Microscopes" Donna Rainboth, PEERS Program, Eastern Oregon State College "Likin' Lichens With a Little Help From The Private Eye Loupes" C. L. Moss, Ecological Educator, Mattole River Watershed, CA

JO FALLS
Director of Public Programs/Education Curator
Tohono Chul Park
Tucson, AZ
 

The overlying goal of this project was to develop hands-on resources to enhance and amplify the school’s Outdoor Wildlife Habitat previously funded by a Heritage Fund Grant. Science and environmental education were the major focus of the project, but teachers found that the interdisciplinary activities and objectives used skills spanned the entire curriculum from language arts to fine arts. For example, a study of skulls and skins easily led to theories about animal adaptations. From this evolved detailed drawings of mammal dentition and creative poetry on the lives of desert animals -- from the animal’s point of view. 

The use of The Private Eye® tools and curriculum did allow teachers to expand their hands-on use of the Outdoor Habitat, successfully taking students from lower to higher levels of thinking and developing multiple intelligences while making the world of nature more accessible. In one class, “pocket museum” collections focusing on native plant species were collected from the Habitat. Other groups studied pollination, bird migration, habitat components, and conducted a unique pill bug exploratory study.

Hands-on learning as practiced by Tohono Chul Park provided opportunities for joint experimentation. The role of student and teacher was fluid and alternated back and forth between participants. The involvement of adult retirees, Docents at Tohono Chul Park, created an added environment of intergenerational learning that allowed for learning in a social context as well as an academic one. These 21 trained Docents used the students’ natural curiosity to lead them into more structured activities, offering multiple/multi-sensory modes of learning along with active exploration and self-developed models. Traditional logical/mathematical learning was enhanced with the use of props – rather than simply discussing how a bird’s feathers “zip” together, students actually pulled one apart and watched it come together again with The Private Eye® loupes.

 These spatial, tactile and visual experiences provided rich imagery that complemented logical/mathematical descriptions.At the end of the first semester a mid-year evaluation session was held for the entire team to assess the success of the program. At this time suggestions were made on how to begin incorporating the Outdoor Habitat with the onset of good weather and ideas for new classroom activities were shared. This was followed by a final evaluation session at the end of the school year in May, attended by all teachers and docents, as well as the Homer Davis principal, District Superintendent and Career Ladder Director. The team discussed the entire project and determined its efficacy in meeting its stated objectives.

Both Tohono Chul Park and the Flowing Wells District awarded certificates of appreciation to all participating Team Teachers and Docents. In addition, teachers received the maximum allowable credits for Career Ladder and State certification. A presentation to the School Board in May even spotlighted several participating Team Teachers and their students.In the end, summative evaluation of this project came not only from the Team Teachers and Docents, but also as a University of Arizona graduate project. 

Students from the School of Public Administration and Policy conducted an evaluation of the “Through the Looking Glass” partnership for classroom credit. To quote from their Executive Summary:

• 93% of participating students said they “like” or “loved” the program.

• 84% of participating students said that they would like to be in the program again.

  Of the nonparticipating students that had heard of the program from their friends, 69% said they would like to be in the program also.

  When asked what they liked about the program, several students reported that they like activities that mixed science with other disciplines such as art and history. They also like the hands-on experiences.

  Participation in the program was significantly and positively correlated with better attitudes towards science and teachers reported that the program stretched the children’s imaginations and piqued their interest.

  78% of participating teachers reported that they learned “a lot” about the local desert at school, compared with 45% of the control group.

  Teachers reported that they had never attempted nature education before the program, but now they viewed the environment as a teaching resource. There was also evidence of increased teacher mastery of natural science subjects.

  Special education teachers said that the program was better able to reach their students than anything they had tried before was.

• All teachers reported that they would continue to use The Private Eye questions and loupes because they help the students to look at the world in a new way, they help the students to learn the scientific method and they stimulate creativity and higher level thinking.

Tohono Chul Slideshows
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