This site arose in response to a number of needs that I’m optimistic blogging can help to meet. I’m Don Duggan-Haas, Assistant Professor of Educational Studies at Colgate University and self-described ecologist of education.
The question that leads this first entry (or some derivative of it) drives my work. ReaL Earth System Science, an NSF-funded professional development and curriculum materials development grant for secondary Earth science, helped me to appreciate the wide-spread applicability of the question. In that program, the question targets the landscape and zeroes in on individual rocks. The question guides the virtual fieldwork experiences teachers are creating.
The question is really a proxy for a different question: “Why is this place like this?” The way something looks, especially as you can present it on a web page is the most conspicuous way to learn what something is like. The inquiry also leads to new questions:
- Are looks deceiving?
- Do I like the way it looks?
- If I don’t like the way it looks, what can I do about it?
These questions lead to things other than geology. There are some reasonably explicit value judgments that we don’t typically associate with geology. Consider the pair of photos shown here. Why do they look so much alike?
My hope is that in the coming months I’ll share images, videos, and ideas that will lead to wonder; hopefully, a skillful sort of wonder…
