This post deals encourages you to revel in being an amateur. The first bit introduces a video on why we don’t understand things that we should (and some videos that support that assertion) and the second bit discusses what that has to do with reveling in the amateur.
The First Bit: “Why we don’t understand as much as we think we do”
A while back, a link to Jonathan Drori’s TED Talk “Why we don’t understand as much as we think we do” was posted on the Earth science teachers’ listserve, ESPRIT. The video is a good one. If you’re familiar with the Private Universe Project, you probably have some understanding of the first two thirds of the video. Here’s the video (If the video doesn’t play, click the link to open in a separate window.):
Jonathan Drori: Why we don’t understand as much as we think we do
Drori references the Private Universe videos and if you’re unfamiliar with them, they are very much worth a look. Note too, the list of ‘Related Resources’ on the page. Minds of Our Own has more videos of the Harvard and MIT grads. You need to log in to learner.org to watch these videos, but registration is free and simple and gives you access to a fascinating library of materials.
The Second Bit: Reveling in the amateur
What I liked about Drori’s video was praise of the amateur (and the partial dismissal of the professional). He says that good scientific interpretation — good science learning — is grounded in the amateur in the best sense of the word; from the root of the word, meaning “of love and passion.” He also noted that the overly polished presentations in some science museums actually obscure the science
In developing educational materials, I can’t help but worry about slickness. We need enough of it to, as they say, attract eyeballs.
But I think it’s a min-max problem. You don’t want the student-curriculum or teacher-curriculum interaction to be about the slickness.
If you go to the exhibit hall of NSTA, slickness rules. It’s cool, in a way. If a science geek (like me) wants to have fun on the exhibit hall floor, there’s plenty of fun to be had. But we shouldn’t be enticed by the shiny baubles. (I hope that flashing LED necklaces don’t really help the sales of textbooks, but I strongly suspect that they do.)
I think there’s great advantage in teacher made materials and I think that teacher made materials can beget student made materials.
And student made instructional materials are the bees knees.
In developing educational materials like Virtual Fieldwork Experiences, slickness needs to be subservient to pedagogy. The value of familiarity and pride that comes from creation often trumps the value of spiffiness.
This post, perhaps, is a long way of saying: Just do it.
Make the stuff — whatever the stuff may be — labs and worksheets, curriculum maps, virtual fieldwork experiences and whatever kind of equipment you can. Revel in being able to do it even if it isn’t all that spiffy.
Of course you don’t need to make everything — there is a lot of good stuff out there — but probably not enough stuff that’s relevant to the science that’s local to your school or home. Homemade equipment or curriculum is almost always cheaper too.
So, revel in being an amateur:
- Take pictures of the science you can see.
- Make VFEs.
- Make equipment.
- Write curriculum materials that are focused on where you live, learn and teach.
The learners you work with will see you as someone who immerses themselves in stuff that matters and you can better figure out how to immerse them in that same stuff.
