What can a flying squirrel teach us about reading, questioning, collaboration, and the way we learn?
That was all it took to get our 4th and 5th graders started at Tambran School, our International English school in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua.
As students watched flying squirrels move through their environment, they began recording what they noticed and wondered. Why can they move through the air? How do they find food? How do they stay safe? What happens when it is dark?
What began as curiosity quickly became an investigation.
Our students have started a new 4th and 5th grade science unit, Structure and Function, where they are exploring how the structures of plants and animals work together to help them meet their needs. But while students are learning about science, they are also putting their ELA skills into action: reading informational texts, identifying main ideas and supporting details, citing evidence, participating in collaborative discussions, and communicating their ideas.
In other words, our students aren’t just learning science. They are learning how to make observations, read with purpose, talk, and communicate like scientists with the “I notice…” and “I wonder…” statements.
It Starts With a Question
One of the strengths of our OpenSciEd science curriculum is that learning begins with phenomena and questions rather than simply presenting students with information to memorize. This is inquiry-based learning at its best.
Students first encounter something interesting. They observe. They wonder. They share ideas. Then they investigate.
This approach creates a classroom where students have a reason to read.
As our 4th and 5th graders began wondering about flying squirrels, they turned to informational text to find out more. While reading, students practiced identifying the main idea and supporting details, locating relevant information, and connecting what they read to their own observations.
But there was a deeper purpose behind the reading. Students were reading because they had questions they wanted to answer.
When a student finds a detail in an informational text that helps explain something they observed, reading becomes more than a comprehension exercise. It becomes evidence.
“I think this because…”
“The text tells us…”
“I noticed…”
These are the beginnings of scientific reasoning and evidence-based thinking, and they are also the language skills we intentionally develop through English Language Arts.
When Science Becomes Something You Can Experience
Our Flying Squirrel Challenges have taken this learning one step further. Instead of only reading about the needs of flying squirrels, students have had opportunities to experience some of the challenges these animals face. These hands-on science activities make abstract ideas concrete.
The Nest Challenge
Students used chenille stems to construct their own flying squirrel nests.
As they worked, they had to think about the purpose of a nest and the characteristics a structure might need to help an animal meet its needs.
The activity transformed an abstract scientific idea into something students could physically experience and discuss.
The Food Challenge
Students also explored the challenge of finding food.
Working with a partner, they spread food cards across their workspace, mixed them up, and then worked to find matching foods.
The experience encouraged students to think about how animals locate resources in their environments and how memory, senses, and body structures can contribute to meeting their needs.
Most importantly, students had something concrete to talk about afterward.
They could connect the experience to their developing ideas about flying squirrels and use their observations as part of their reasoning.
The Danger Challenge
In another challenge, students had to move from one area to another without touching the ground.
The activity gave them a chance to think about movement, safety, and how an animal’s unique structures and behaviors might help it navigate its environment.
These experiences are intentionally connected to the larger scientific questions of the unit.
The challenge is not the destination. The thinking that happens because of the challenge is.
Reading, Talking, and Thinking With Evidence
After students investigate, one of the most important things we do is talk.
Our classroom discussions give students opportunities to explain their thinking, listen to different perspectives, ask questions, and return to their sources for evidence.
This is where our science and ELA standards come together in a particularly meaningful way, building English language and literacy skills.
Students are practicing ELA standards related to:
Reading Informational Text
- Identifying main ideas and supporting details
- Using evidence from informational texts
- Connecting information across sources
- Asking and answering questions about a text
Speaking and Listening
- Participating in collaborative discussions
- Building on classmates’ ideas
- Asking and answering questions
- Explaining ideas clearly and respectfully supporting ideas with evidence
As we can see, these skills are not practiced in isolation.
A student might read a passage about a flying squirrel, identify an important detail, connect it to something they observed, listen to a classmate’s interpretation, and then use evidence to explain why they agree or disagree. That is literacy in action.
Making Thinking Visible Through Scientific Modeling
Another important part of our learning is scientific modeling. Students have begun creating models to represent their ideas about how a flying squirrel’s body parts work together to meet its needs, particularly in the dark. These models are not meant to be perfect drawings. They represent students’ current thinking.
As students encounter new information and evidence, they will have opportunities to revisit and revise their models. Their thinking may change, and that is exactly what we want. Science is not about having the right answer immediately. It is about asking questions, creating hypotheses, gathering evidence, developing explanations, and being willing to change your thinking when the evidence gives you a reason to do so.
This process also connects naturally to ELA. Students must decide which information is important, communicate their ideas clearly, explain their reasoning, and support their thinking with evidence.
Beyond One Science Unit: Interdisciplinary Learning at Tambran
The flying squirrel investigation is one example of what interdisciplinary learning can look like at Tambran School, an international PreK–8 school in Nicaragua.
We believe that literacy is not limited to the ELA block. Students use reading to understand science. They use writing to communicate mathematical reasoning. They use discussion to explore social studies ideas. They use research to investigate questions across subjects. And they use evidence to support their thinking in many different contexts. This is what we mean by literacy across the curriculum.
Our OpenSciEd approach supports this naturally. Students encounter a phenomenon, develop questions, investigate, gather evidence from different sources, discuss their ideas, construct models, and revisit their thinking.
The process is active, collaborative, and inquiry-based.
t also gives students opportunities to experience some of the characteristics of project-based and experiential learning: authentic questions, collaboration, problem-solving, hands-on experiences, communication, and reflection.
And the Investigation Continues…
Our flying squirrel investigation is only the beginning.
As we move through our Structure and Function unit, students will turn their attention to plants and investigate how plant structures help plants meet their needs and support reproduction. The questions will change, the organisms will change, the evidence will change. But the process will remain the same:
Observe. Wonder. Read. Investigate. Discuss. Use evidence. Build a model. Revise your thinking. Ask another question.
That is the kind of learning we hope students carry with them beyond the classroom. Our goal is not simply for students to know more about flying squirrels, plants, or the structures of living things. We want them to become curious, thoughtful, confident learners and communicators.
