Interpreting nature
Observing, noticing, and being curious are at the heart of 'interpreting nature.'
I'm passably good at it now- I'm full of 'I wonder' questions, and I can tell a good story, and I think that I can engage program participants and encourage interest in the natural world.
That's all we can do, after all.
A follow-up:
I was thinking about this after an afternoon program focusing on interpretation. A two-hour period was barely enough time to observe and practice some basic interpretive approaches, and leave with some reflections and new questions.... one was whether the foliage of deodar cedar (one of the cut branches I'd brought to use as one of number of subjects for interpretation) was rich in Vitamin C (like some of our native pines) so we began thinking about the role of Vitamin C in plants. Another observation was how flexible the branch was (a great adaption for heavy snow in its native Himalaya mountains). Another subject was a collection of smooth colorful stones -- they're sedimentary, one person observed, so they weren't from around here. Cool!
I'm passably good at it now- I'm full of 'I wonder' questions, and I can tell a good story, and I think that I can engage program participants and encourage interest in the natural world.
That's all we can do, after all.
A follow-up:
I was thinking about this after an afternoon program focusing on interpretation. A two-hour period was barely enough time to observe and practice some basic interpretive approaches, and leave with some reflections and new questions.... one was whether the foliage of deodar cedar (one of the cut branches I'd brought to use as one of number of subjects for interpretation) was rich in Vitamin C (like some of our native pines) so we began thinking about the role of Vitamin C in plants. Another observation was how flexible the branch was (a great adaption for heavy snow in its native Himalaya mountains). Another subject was a collection of smooth colorful stones -- they're sedimentary, one person observed, so they weren't from around here. Cool!
I think you would be great at it! I would love to hear you interprete nature.
ReplyDeleteThat is a good skill set...gail
ReplyDelete