Education : Maria Sibylla Merian, remarkable 17th-century scientist & botanical artist !

 

Maria Sibylla Merian

https://de.wikipedia.org/

German-born Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717) was a Naturalist, an Entomologist and a Botanical Illustrator and is rated as being one of the greatest ever botanical artists.​

Google Doodle Maria Sibylla Merian's 366th Biryhday

https://www.google.com/doodles/

• Google Doodle:

Oh! April 2, 2013 has an awesome event! Google celebrates the 366th brithday of Maria Sibylla Merian with a beautiful Doodle featuring various forms of small wildlife – butterflies, caterpillars, a lizard, and more.

credits: Maria Sibylla Merian

https://www.botanicalartandartists.com/

German-born Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717) was a Naturalist, an Entomologist and a Botanical Illustrator and is rated as being one of the greatest ever botanical artists.​

From childhood, she had been fascinated by the life cycles of butterflies, and she made a close study of their transformations. She became a flower-painter and teacher in Nuremberg, Frankfurt and Amsterdam.

Her works on insect development and the transformation of insects through the process of metamorphosis contributed to the advance of Entomology in the late 17th and early 18th centuries.

As a botanical artist, Merian published three collections of plant engraving from 1675 to 1680. In preparation for a catalogue of European moths, butterflies, and other insects, Merian collected, raised, and observed living insects, rather than working from preserved specimens.

Maria Sibylla Merian also drew other species such as snakes, iguanas, spiders, and frogs – and these drawings are still highly collectible.

New Book of Flowers

Maria Sibylla Merian

https://www.amazon.com/

She died in 1717 after suffering a stroke a couple of years earlier. Erucarum Ortus Alimentum et Paradoxa Metamorphosis, a collection of her work, was published later by her daughter. 

MERIAN, Maria Sibylla (1647-1717). 

Erucarum ortus, alimentum et paradoxa metamorphosis. 

Amsterdam: Johannes Oosterwijk, [1718].

https://www.christies.com/

Education:

You know me! I am a huge fan of reading at school. And I don't miss a good resource to include it into every day lesson!

Today, we are very lucky! We have a wonderful theme to share with our students! Maria Sibylla Merian. Oh! dear lovely paintings!

Maria Sibylla Merian

Artist, Scientist, Adventurer

Sara B. Pomeroy & Jeyaraney Kathirithamby

https://www.amazon.com/

Today 2 April is International Children's Book Day. Same day of Maria Sibylla Merin birthday.

We can enriched International Children's Book introducing Maria Sibylla Merian as a different kind of reading. Discovering the beauty of nature and species by her beautiful painting books.

Maria Sibylla Merian
Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium
https://www.amazon.com/

We don't read only Literature and Poetry in Languages curriculum. We read different kind of thematic texts. And reading about Science and Botanic will improve students reading skills to better understand sciences curriculum. 

Jean-Jacques Audubon, it means something to you on my blog? 

So, put your students on their tablets or smartphones, and let them discover Maria Sibylla Merian.

William Home Lizars, Portrait of Madame Merian (from "The Naturalist's Library," volume 30) (detail), 1835 

NMWA; Print collection assembled by Nancy Valentine, purchased with funds donated by Mr. Oliver R. Grace

https://nmwa.org/art/

Activities:

• Invite the students to find 'Google' letters on the Doodle.

• They can read about the life of Maria Sibylla Merian, and explore highlights of her work.

• Girls will be delighted to know a new woman in Science! Ask them their opinion about this incredible woman after a good research.

Curricula: Languages; Sciences; Arts.


Level: All levels 

Each teacher will adapt activities to the level they are teaching.

"We especially need imagination in science. It is not all mathematics, nor all logic, but it is somewhat beauty and poetry."

Maria Mitchell

G-Souto

02.04.2023

Copyright © 2023G-Souto'sBlog, gsouto-digitalteacher.blogspot.com® 

Education : Maria Sibylla Merian, remarkable 17th-century scientist & botanical artist  : The mother of Ecology ? Resources by G-Souto is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

March rundown of the most-read posts

http://files.myopera.com/

"And spring comes green again to trees and grasses
Where petals have been shed like tears
And lonely birds have sung their grief."

Tu Fu, A Spring view (extract)

Springtime! Well, a little chilly, but is Springtime! This rundown of the most-read posts of March is shorter because I have been out to Brussels on work. 

And March was Easter time too. So students and teachers were out from school.

On my blog I share some free pedagogical proposals and ideas for activities to include into school curriculum.

When I find something new and interesting,I love to transform these resources in pedagogical tools considering how they add to my thinking and practice.

The classroom must be an open space. Students must feel free to talk and learn about all the subjects they care about, or are curious, in and around every curriculum.

So, I really thank my usual readers - teachers no doubt! - who continue to follow my posts and reading the last ones. 

Here the five most-read posts of March:

World Poetry Day at school is the most read post of the last month. World Poetry Day is an opportunity for children to be introduced to poetry in at school (all levels). It is a time when classrooms are busy with lessons related to poetry, in which students examine poets and learn about different types of poetry.

© Peter Reynolds drawing

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/

"In celebrating World Poetry Day, UNESCO wishes also to promote the values that poetry conveys, for poetry is a journey – not in a dream world, but often close to individual emotions, aspirations and hopes. Poetry gives form to the dreams of peoples and expresses their spirituality in the strongest terms-- it emboldens all of us also to change the world."

Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO

Message for the World Poetry Day

This year is meant to support poetry, return to the oral tradition of poetry recitals, promote teaching poetry, restore a dialogue between poetry and the other arts such as theatre, dance, music, painting and so on, support small publishers and create an attractive image of poetry in the media so that the art of poetry will no longer be considered an outdated form of art but one.

Children's poetry | Primary Education

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/

I would like to celebrate on this day the Portuguese poetry for children and youth. So I suggest two books from the Portuguese poet Manuel António Pina, the Portuguese poet who died last October, 2012.

Manuel António Pina, awarded with the famous Prémio Camões 2011. He didn't wrote only for youth. Manuel A. Pina is one of most important Portuguese writers. His books are translated in Spanish, Danish and Bulgarian.

Google doodle | Douglas Noel Adams

https://www.google.com/doodles/

Science-fiction Literature and Google doodle. Google celebrated Douglas Noel Adams and his famous science-fiction series "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" with an amazing doodle. 

Douglas Noel Adams (11 March 1952 - 11 May 2001) was an English writer, humorist and dramatist. 

Education:

Love Google doodles! They could be introduced in any curriculum as I already wrote. And I write a lot of Google doodles. It combines creativity, digital culture and motivation to fantastic school lessons. You must think about it.

Here, a good motivation to one or two lessons about Science-Fiction in Literature. 

The day that Adams died (May 11, 2001) Oxford University professor and author Richard Dawkins wrote:

"Science has lost a friend, literature has lost a luminary, the mountain gorilla and the black rhino have lost a gallant defender (he once climbed Kilimanjaro in a rhino suit to raise money to fight the cretinous trade in rhino horn), Apple Computer has lost its most eloquent apologist."

http://www.ibby.org/

April 2 is always a very special day! International Children's Book Day! It is a wonderful day for teachers who love to read in the classroom and for students who love to share new books/e-books! 

I love books,  I love children books, I love reading, I love reading in my lessons.

The United States was the sponsor country 2013! The theme was "Bookjoy around the World", Ashley Bryan was the poster designer, Pat Mora  wrote the message that can be read here.

Oh! But April 2, 2013 haa another awesome event! Google celebrated the 366th brithday of Maria Sibylla Merian with a beautiful Doodle featuring various forms of small wildlife – butterflies, caterpillars, a lizard, and more.

Google doodle Maria Sibylla Merian's 366th Birthday

https://www.google.com/doodles/

German-born Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717) was one of the greatest naturalist and scientific illustrator.

Education:

You know me!  I am a huge fan of reading at school. And I don't miss a good resource to introduce in every day lesson!

Today, we are very lucky! We have two fantastic activities to share with our students! 

We could enriched International Children's Book introducing Maria Sibylla Merian as a different kind of reading.... and discovering.

Earth Hour

http://earthhour.org/

Saturday 23 March was Earth Hour 2013! At 8:30 PM (local time), lights switched off around the globe for Earth Hour and people have committed to actions that gone beyond the hour.

http://www.earthhour.org/

In 2011 more than 5,200 cities and towns in 135 countries worldwide switched off their lights for Earth Hour 2011! 

In 2012, more than 7,000 cities and towns in 152 countries worldwide switched off their lights for Earth Hour, but Earh Hour 2013 was the largest climate campaign ever!

Education:

Students like to commit on environmental causes. A lot! They dare and they do! I wrote about Earth Hour 2011 and Talking about Earth Hour with students.

My ex-students prepared a post on their blog Hora do Planeta 2013. They are amazing! They continue their blog even they left school. They are now preparing to college. But they are enthousiastic environmentalists  and they committed to continue their green blog.

I am sure that you prepared your lessons carefully and your students were well motivated to dare to save the Planet, March 23 8:30-9:00PM (local time).

“International Year of Water Cooperation”

UN

World Water Day & Education & Education was observed on 22 March as a means of focusing attention on the importance of freshwater and advocating for the sustainable management of freshwater resources.

http://www.unwater.org/

Education:

As you see, educators must be prepared for all kinds of events to share and teach. March is an inspirational month! Perhaps it is about Spring?

We had World Poetry Day, Arbor Day and Forest International Day! Wow so much to talk about and inspire our students! 

The success of the "International Year of Water Cooperation" and the World Water Day depends on the involvement of everyone! We start this involvement at school, don't you agree? It is at school that future citizens of the world start.

We could start with this infographic where students could vizualize the importance of Freshwater. And we continue to different activities.

As regular readers know, I have been out in Brussels to participate at the European Forum Learning Futures and Innovaton. I had to prepare my presentation the last two weeks before. And I came home on 20 March.

So, it was a bit difficult to me to write three posts in three days in a row but... not impossible.

Regular readers know that blogging is a free contribution to inspire new teachers, when I have the time between work and scientific writing.

I really hope that you will enjoy every pedagogical proposal published in March and you will discover some new pedagogical ideas to introduce in your lessons.

I thank you very much to all the colleagues from around the world that kindly read my blog but are shy (?) to become followers.

“When one is building a ship, one does not begin with gathering timber and cutting planks, but rather by arousing in people the yearning for the great wide sea.”

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

G-Souto

09.04.2013

Copyright © 2013G-Souto'sBlog, gsouto-digitalteacher.blogspot.com®

March rundown of the most-read posts by G-Souto is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

International Children's Book Day & Maria Sibylla Merian !

International Children's Book Day
https://www.ibby.org/

Today it is a very special day! International Children's Book Day! It's a wonderful day for teachers who love to read in the classroom and for students who love read new books! 

I love books,  I love children's books, I love to read, I love to read in my lessons.

Since 1967, on or around Hans Christian Andersen's birthday, April 2, International Children's Book Day (ICBD) is celebrated to inspire the love of reading and to call attention to children's books.

Each year a different National Section of IBBY has the opportunity to be the international sponsor of ICBD. ICBD decides upon a theme and invites a prominent author from the host country to write a message to the children of the world and a well-known illustrator to design a poster.  

The United States is the sponsor country 2013! 

• Theme 2013:

"Book joy around the World"

The theme is "Book joy around the World", Ashley Bryan is the poster designer, Pat Mora  wrote the message.

You remember! Mexico was the sponsor country 2012! The theme was "Once upon a time, there was a story that the whole world told".

Juan Gedovius was the poster designer, Francisco Hinojosa wrote the message (Spanish).

https://www.bookfair.bolognafiere.it/

The Hans Christian Andersen Award is the highest international recognition given to an author and an illustrator of children's books.

The winners of the 2012 Awards were announced by IBBY at the Bologna Children's Book Fair 2012.

But Bologna 2013 celebrated its 50th anniversary last March 25-28. Congratulations! It's the best Children's Book Fair from Europe.

«The "rights" place for children's content»

To mark the 50th anniversary Bologna Children’s Book Fair in 2013, Bologna Fair and AIE - Italian Publishers Association will be launching a new initiative to pay tribute to excellence in the world of children’s publishing: "BOP - Bologna Prize for the Best Children’s Publishers of the year."

Planeta Tangerina

Best children's book publisher, Portugal

http://planeta-tangerina.blogspot.com/

And Portugal has been honoured as "Best Children’s Publishers of 2013" of Europe with Portuguese children's publisher Planeta Tangerina.

Planeta Tangerina is a well known children's books publisher by all Portuguese educators and educators of the world. 

Google Doodle Maria Sibylla Merian's 366th Biryhday

https://www.google.com/doodles/

• Maria Sibylla Merian:

Oh! But April 2, 2013 has another awesome event! Google celebrates the 366th brithday of Maria Sibylla Merian with a beautiful Doodle featuring various forms of small wildlife – butterflies, caterpillars, a lizard, and more.

credits: Maria Sibylla Merian

https://www.botanicalartandartists.com/

German-born Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717) was a Naturalist, an Entomologist and a Botanical Illustrator and is rated as being one of the greatest ever botanical artists.​

From childhood, she had been fascinated by the life cycles of butterflies, and she made a close study of their transformations. She became a flower-painter and teacher in Nuremberg, Frankfurt and Amsterdam.

Maria Sibylla Merian

https://de.wikipedia.org/

Her works on insect development and the transformation of insects through the process of metamorphosis contributed to the advance of Entomology in the late 17th and early 18th centuries.

As a botanical artist, Merian published three collections of plant engraving from 1675 to 1680. In preparation for a catalogue of European moths, butterflies, and other insects, Merian collected, raised, and observed living insects, rather than working from preserved specimens.

Maria Sibylla Merian also drew other species such as snakes, iguanas, spiders, and frogs – and these drawings are still highly collectible.

New Book of Flowers

Maria Sibylla Merian

https://www.amazon.com/

She died in 1717 after suffering a stroke a couple of years earlier. Erucarum Ortus Alimentum et Paradoxa Metamorphosis, a collection of her work, was published later by her daughter. 

MERIAN, Maria Sibylla (1647-1717). 

Erucarum ortus, alimentum et paradoxa metamorphosis. 

Amsterdam: Johannes Oosterwijk, [1718].

https://www.christies.com/

Education:

You know me! I am a huge fan of reading at school. And I don't miss a good resource to include it into every day lesson!

Today, we are very lucky! We have two fantastic events to share with our students! Children's Book Day & Maria Sibylla Merian. Two in one?

Maria Sibylla Merian

Artist, Scientist, Adventurer

Sara B. Pomeroy & Jeyaraney Kathirithamby

https://www.amazon.com/

• Reading:

As educators, we have an ubiquitous responsibility to encourage the love of reading in our students by exploring this wonderful and magical resource in our in-person lessons.

Of course, today is the fay of reading by pleasure! Let your students read what they like the most. 

There are two reasons:

• One is benefiting those readers in your classroom that wish to read from you and need to let them be free. 

• Secondly, it is so you can reap the exponential rewards their choices offers. 

By inviting your students to bring a book or e-book from home or go at the school library to choose a book/e-book to read aloud in the classroom will let them completely free and happy! Students like to be active in the classroom and make their choices. 

credits: Marc Hill/Alamy

International Children's Book Day is a fantastic motivation to tell and experiment with our students how reading can be a gift by stimulating their imagination and "offering creative solutions to obstacles that we will find along the way."

The love for books and reading are awesome moments in Languages curricula (in the classroom, or online).

Students become better readers when their teachers love books and love to read. I can assure you. It's a 'transmissible' pleasure! Even for those students that at the beginning are poor readers. 

Reading has a curative power. And helps to spot 'problem behavior' and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Believe me!

Maria Sibylla Merian
Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium
https://www.amazon.com/

But we can enriched International Children's Book introducing Maria Sibylla Merian as a different kind of reading. Discovering the beauty of nature and species by her beautiful painting books.

We don't read only Literature and Poetry in Languages curriculum. We read different kind of texts. And reading about Science and Botanic will improve students reading skills to understand better science curriculum. 

Jean-Jacques Audubon, it means something to you on my blog? Or Ada Lovelace? Of course! 

So, put your students on their tablets or smartphones, and let them discover Maria Sibylla Merian.

William Home Lizars, Portrait of Madame Merian (from "The Naturalist's Library," volume 30) (detail), 1835 

NMWA; Print collection assembled by Nancy Valentine, purchased with funds donated by Mr. Oliver R. Grace

https://nmwa.org/art/

Activities:

• Invite the students to  find Google letters on the Doodle.

• They can read about the life of Merian, and explore highlights of her work.

• Girls will be delighted to know another woman in Science! 

Curricula: Languages; Sciences; Arts.


Level: All levels (each teacher will adapt activities to the level they teach) 

G-Souto

02.04.2013

update: 02.04.2022

Copyright © 2013G-Souto'sBlog, gsouto-digitalteacher.blogspot.com® 

International Children's Book Day & Maria Sibylla Merian ! by G-Souto is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.