Place-based education is a hands-on approach that connects students to the world around them for learning across subjects. This occasional series will explore projects that emphasize that approach. 

Advice for the day: Be nice to the crows in your yard.  

“Crows are able to recognize human faces and remember who they are,” wrote a Loomis Chaffee student for the animal perception project in teacher Laura Schulte’s Neuropsychology class. “They have extremely sharp perception and can distinguish between ‘good’ humans and ‘bad’ humans based on past experiences with them.” 

In the animal perception project, which focuses on a lesson about sensation and perception, each student chooses an animal that could be found near campus. They then research the visual system of the animal, compare and contrast it to the visual system of a human, and consider how those biological/neurological differences will shape the animal’s “umwelt” — how it experiences the world around it. Students must list their sources. 

This project, just one of many on campus that uses the place-based learning philosophy, does not rely solely on research. That is just one phase. The others are “create” and “reflect.” To help students understand how their animals perceive their surroundings and to simulate that perceptual experience for others, the students produce videos. They have access to a variety of camera types (aerial drones, 360 cameras, Go-Pros) and can use editing effects in post-production. They go out to a realistic habitat and film. On one day in November, the habitat was the Meadows, with drones flying above. 

“Overall, this project was a really cool experience — getting to use a drone for the first time was a highlight,” the student focusing on crows wrote in a reflection. “In trying to mimic what a bird might see from the sky, I really enjoyed experimenting with the drone’s sports mode to capture those diving and swooping shots, which made the whole process feel really immersive.” 

Part of the learning process, too, is finding out what aspects of an animal’s experience cannot be conveyed in a video.  

“One major challenge was replicating the crow’s wide-angle, nearly panoramic vision,” wrote the student. “The drone camera has a more limited view than a crow’s, so our footage ended up resembling human binocular vision with a narrower scope than a crow’s nearly 300-degree range. This restriction made it difficult to fully convey the crow’s ability to detect objects from the periphery.”  

Laura said she hopes students gain an understanding that other creatures see and experience the world differently than we do. 

“And I hope they extend that to recognizing that humans can perceive the world differently, even given the same stimulus.” Laura said. “So just different interpretations of the stimulus. Am I right? Is the dog right? Is the squirrel right? Nobody's right. It’s just different experiences based on the tools available to them. So that is the main thing I hope they gain in addition to applying their knowledge of the human visual system and contrasting that with another animal’s vision.” 

Another student focused on bees. Bees have two eyes on each side of their head; they have an ability to see ultraviolet light, which guides them toward the pollen on a flower’s stamen; and they have up to 280-degree vision compared to 180 degrees for a human, noted the student. Bees also have three ocelli eyes that sense only light and allow them to perceive the time of day, helping them know when to return to the hive, according to the student’s research.  

“It was really interesting to do a deep dive into how a specific animal perceives the world, learn more about the differences between human and animal eyes, and understand every species sees the world in a unique way,” wrote the student in a reflection. “This understanding can also be tied into my own perspective and allow me to understand that different people have different perspectives. I also had a lot of fun adding a compound eye filter to my video.” 

Inspiration for the project came from two visitors to campus in the 2023–24 school year, when the all-school theme was “Wonders of the Natural World.” Ed Yong, whose book An Immense World was an all-school read, visited campus in September 2023 for a convocation. The book examined how animals perceive the world. Later in the school year environmentalist Dan Kinzer worked with Laura’s classes on replicating how an animal perceives the world. He brought equipment such as a drone and a 360 camera. Laura wanted to repeat that experience this year and worked with Director of Technology Dan Corjulo to get the equipment needed.