W04&05

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After writing about my elementary/middle school experience last week, it's got me thinking how huge of an impact lower level education has on you in your adult years. I think of this as I am deciding who to interview for the Clinical Interview. Originally, I was going to chose my brother Joe, who is now a student at USF studying finance.

As I continue to think about this, however, I realize that his childhood may impact and highly influence his results. He too attending Learning Gate Community School. Because of the environmental influence of the school on his childhood, I think that he might be a really interesting and unique case. Additionally, Joe loves to fish. He has spent a lot of time in the wetlands and understands a lot of the natural patterns that go on there, such as if it is good/bad to fish before/after rain, etc. If I interview him about the wetlands, I actually think his results will show that he knows much, much more than the average adult about wetlands.

Because of this, I am instead going to interview a friend of mine that studies Psychology here at UF. I feel as though she will be a more appropriate representation of the general adult population as far as environmental knowledge goes.

 

The above picture is Joe with a snook!

 

I would consider my brother ot be an expert fisherman. Like the video on the expert of the Beatles White album, nothing sas that being an expert means being an academic or a professional. The topic doesn't need to be biogeochemistry! My brother can be an expert at fishing an areas he's been living in for his whole life, without any real, formal education at a college level.

 

The lesson plan that I wrote about in this blog post stems from my experience interning this last summer in Tampa and the Florida Aquarium. I worked as a husbandry intern in the wetlands department and took care of various exhibits and types of animals, ranging from to fish to birds and reptiles.

I had some "very special" experiences, as my primary biologist would say. He loved to show me the not-so-glamorous parts of working in an aquarium. Some days, this included subjecting me to torture by an overly angry pelican named Lexi, who really enjoyed biting my feet while I was trying to clean her exhibit. Additionally, I pulled fish that were stuck in nets after sitting outside in the heat for several hours. That smelled pretty good. I would be told to "go retrieve Thumper and a Thumper Transport Box" to feed to the 13 foot ball pythons, meaning "pull a large, furry, dead, frozen rabbit out of the freezer and stick it in water in a plastic bin".

All kidding aside, it was a fantastic experience. I did some gross things, but hey, that's what marine science is sometimes. I am fortunate to be able to draw my knowledge gained from this experience to incorporate into my lesson plans.

The picture about is me and two other interns "stuck" in the reptilian shift cage... fun times! 

Thinking scientifically meant more to me after this experience. It means taking into consideration all things that you know about the world, as processes and facts, and making hypothesis on the outside world based on what you already know. The Fish is Fish video goes to show how one's personal experience can affect the way they learn and how they see the world, relating back to constructivist theory.

When viewing the Harvard video, I realize that I really need to do my research! I believed many of the same misconceptions that they do about the seasons. To me, what they see makes at least some sense because though the distance from the Sun does not change much, those few degrees difference is enough to change the amount of heat and light received at any given time.

To learn is to expand on knowledge. Being a competent math or science student is thinking like a mathematician or scientist. Learning means expanding thinking and knowledge. Learning does not necessarily imply understanding. Student thinking can be determined form group tasks, free-writes, and many other ways. This can be assessed by various tests and other activities.

I think part of being an expert of your field is realizing that there is so much to know about it that you probably will never know it all. Experts know everything that there is to know, but recognize how much more potential an item holds.