养蜂日志
关爱小学有一群活力充沛好奇心旺盛的五年级男生。上学期,他们对学校大院里飞来飞去和水龙头周围出没的蜜蜂产生了兴趣。连续几天,这群孩子中的几个会兴致勃勃地带着他们最新采集到的“活标本”奔进RCEF办公室,把它们放到用废弃的瓶子、胶带和木筷搭制的简易“蜂房”里面。“这是什么蜜蜂?”他们问,“它是黄蜂还是蜜蜂呢?怎么才能养活?”看到孩子们的热情不是一时的三分钟热度,老师们决定带领他们去请教真正的养蜂人。离我们步行十五分钟的邻村有一对养蜂的老夫妇,我们便利用晚饭前的休息时间,步行穿过农田去拜访他们。

- 养蜂人给孩子们的自制蜂房提建议
面对九个七嘴八舌,如连珠炮般发问的小鬼头,老夫妇俩从容应对,他们成了孩子们慈祥耐心的“老师”。孩子们对夫妇俩的蜂房问这问那,养蜂“爷爷”和“奶奶”都一一作了解答。为了满足孩子们的好奇心,他们不仅让孩子们触摸蜂蜡,甚至还打开蜂房的盖子让他们观察蜂房里面的情形。“奶奶”还给每个学生,还有他们的“活标本”品尝了甜甜的佳酿桃花蜂蜜。几次如此的“实地考察”下来,孩子们明白了蜂群是如何运作的,它们怎样采集各种各样的花蜜和花粉,还有养蜂人收集花粉、蜂蜜和蜂王浆的方法。

- 每个学生都品尝了养蜂奶奶酿制的甜美蜂蜜
随后一连两三个星期,这群学生们每天自发利用午间休息的一个小时,把他们的笔记整理成“养蜂日志”,还配以生动的插画。在午后的酷热里其他同学们都沉入梦乡,我和养蜂小队便聚集在稍稍凉快一点的图书室里,查阅有记载蜜蜂知识和图片的书本,或是在互联网上搜集信息。九个孩子分成三人一组,这样一来每人都能
参与写作和绘画。现在他们的作品就陈列在图书馆的“学生原创书栏”里供所有的学生阅读。这些让孩子们引以为豪的作品还得到了养蜂人夫妇的“权威认可”。他们表扬我们的学生写得好。除了我们从维基辞典上转载的关于蜂后每天产2000个卵的描述引起了些质疑(相比养蜂人的经验此估计可能过高),其他的内容都被证实是准确的。

- 让孩子们引以为豪的“养蜂手册” 让孩子们引以为豪的
这次的“养蜂项目”由孩子们的兴趣自发而起,而我们的老师都没有同蜜蜂打过交道,所以有这次踏访农村养蜂人的经历我们感到很幸运。虽然这些农人自己家里没有孙辈,但他们对待我们的学生们慈爱有加,为他们提供了教科书以外的难得的实地学习的机会。

- 孩子们向养蜂人展示编写完毕的书籍
农村特有的条件可以提供很多像这般通过社区成员的丰富知识来得益学生教育的机会。前提条件是校长和老师许可孩子们走出教室去农间探访,或者邀请村人到学校来讲演。关爱小学已经逐步形成了这样的传统,而且RCEF今年计划更进一步加深学校和农村社区的联系。现在,你可以在“小发明家”课外活动里发现我们这些养蜂男孩的活泼身影。今后RCEF会继续开展新的课程来证明让农民以及其他农村成员参与到小学教育中来的积极作用。


修正

Leandra Lok 说:
在 %I:%M%p 添加 2009年42月7号Great project, again! Really nice to read about this interested boys. They must have learned a lot because they were motivated to learn! How about other students? Were they interested? Did they boys also shared their experiences in the classroom by giving a presentation?
Wonderful to read! thanks
Michelle Wang 说:
在 %I:%M%p 添加 2009年04月8号I am so happy to see this article! I was so moved and inspired by these boys’ passion about bees when I visited Guan Ai this past summer. This project not only connects the classroom with rural community, but also helps the students with their research, teamwork, leadership, design, writing, critical thinking skils, etc. It also provides them with a strong sense of accomplishment, and continues to drive their desire to learn and curiousity in life. I am so proud of them!
Diane Geng (作者博客) 说:
在 %I:%M%p 添加 2009年59月8号Hi Leandra, thanks for your comments! Other students were also interested but not as much as the original group. The fourth grade teacher didn’t have time in the schedule to make this into a whole-class or cross-grade activity so we had to find times during recesses and “nap times” to do the visits and make the books. Since this required special permissions, it was easier logistically to keep this project just to the original group of boys who sparked it.
We discussed how they wanted to present their knowledge to other students and the boys decided on making books for the library. Other students have now read the books and they sit on a shelf in the library for all to browse.
Wei Ji Ma (作者博客) 说:
在 %I:%M%p 添加 2009年22月9号This is really exciting. It is a very moving and characteristic example of what rural education can be like. It even highlights the advantages that rural schools can have over urban schools (which urban school has beekeepers 15 minutes walking away?). I think we should make this example known to the wider world.