Mrs. Butler's Honors Biology class is reading The Forest Unseen: A Year’s Watch in Nature by David George Haskell. The book is about an ecologist who visits a mandala (a small piece of the forest) a few times a month for a whole year. The author writes his observations in this journal-style text. Each chapter in the book chronicles Haskell's visits for the month. Rumsey's class will read the book throughout the whole year. Students just finished reading the September chapters and are moving on to October.
Mrs. Butler says, "We've each picked our own mandala space out on Treasure Island. Each month we will visit our mandala two to three times to make observations about how the space changes throughout the year. Even our distance learners have chosen their own mandalas at home to observe!"
Students will then draw conclusions from their observations about the natural world around them, the innerworkings of the ecological systems of the forest mandala, and their place as biological beings amidst the thriving network of life.
“The fading dawn colors revive momentarily, and the sky shines with lilac and daffodil, layering colors in clouds like quilts stacked on a bed. More birds chime into the morning air: a nuthatch’s nasal onk joins the crow’s croak and a black-throated green warbler’s murmur from the branches above the mandala. As the colors finally fade under the fierce gaze of their mother, the sun, a wood thrush caps the dawn chorus with his astounding song. The song seems to pierce through from another world, carrying with it clarity and ease, purifying me for a few moments with its grace. Then the song is gone, the veil closes, and I am left with embers of memory.”
― David George Haskell from The Forest Unseen: A Year’s Watch in Nature
