# Informal learning activities/EdcFrr

These educational name tree forests are intended provide trees in support of formal education focussed on the development of social skills.  By themselves, they are like Wikipedia portals but are much simpler and more focussed.  They can very well used for mere wandering, but are particularly intended for use by teachers to support their promotion of the social interaction between their pupils that is the basis for healthy development of sociality.

## Educational Name Tree Forests

An educational name tree forest provides a portal into Wikipedia for the extension of knowledge about a particular area of discussion.  There are two kinds of name tree groves that can be used educationally, specific and generic.
Generic groves are like the groves of the primary and secondary name tree forests, and are intended to accommodate wandering.  Their somewhat randomly selected trees are placed in alphabetic sequence, and they are provided with hints, which are usually links to the relevant spot in a specific grove.
Specific groves are topical, intended to support focussed learning.  Their trees are structured by their topical relationships and they are not provided.
The specific groves within a forest overlap in content with the generic groves.  They are intended to support learning in their overall subject area in different though complementary ways.

### Living Creatures

Life is a very complex phenomenon, as described here .  The study of life is called biology. 
Objects that live are usually called organisms. 
One way of looking at it is to consider an organism as a being that has offspring.
Living creatures have various forms.  The more complex forms, the ones most likely to be of general interest, are embodied in multicellular organisms. 
The most familiar forms are plants and animals.
The groves of the living creature forest are described and listed here .  A separate specific grove is given for various general classes of living things.  The generic groves, being in alphabetic sequence, mix up the various classes of living things.

## Educational Use

These informal learning support pages on Wikipedia are not necessarily educational.  They might well and simply be used for recreation, that is for example, just for filling in time in a way that exercises the mind usefully, rather than merely for blotting out the passage of time, as poker machine gambling and similar time-fillers do.

### Artisanal Skills

Domestic (Cooking,  Gardening,  Sloyd )  Art  (Drawing,  Painting )  Woodlore,  Technology  (Tools,  Metalwork,  Weaving )  Woodworking  (Carpentry,  Handicraft,  Joinery )

### Personal Skills
## Educational Support

Education is (or should be) primarily about bringing people, particularly young people, into society.  That means that the focus should be on developing social skills.
Early formal education typically focusses on literacy and numeracy.  Indeed literacy and numeracy are important in education, but only because they should be the basis for the acquisition of social skills.
Literacy, especially vocabulary and grammar, is the basis for personal social skills, that is, for good face to face social interaction.
Numeracy is important for professional and artisanal social skills, that is, for making judgements and decisions with and about other people in daily life and in employment.