Malka Niknamfard
Henry David Thoreau was quoted as saying, “A man’s interest in a single bluebird is worth more than a complete but dry list of the fauna and flora of a town”. This quote is directly related to this week’s reading portion of Surrounded by Science: Learning Science in Informal Environments by Marilyn Fenichel and Heidi A. Schweingruber in that it stresses the idea that the key to successful learning is nurturing an individual’s interests and hobbies in an informal setting as opposed to merely forcing one to memorize irrelevant facts in an academic setting.
This idea was proven in the Project FeederWatch experiment conducted by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in Ithaca, New York, in which participants fed birds and recorded the different bird species that visit each bird feeder. What was interesting about the experiment was that most of the participants bombarded the scientists and other staff members with scientific and experimental questions regarding the experiment, and were really engaged and seemed to express a lot of interest in what they were doing. This experiment proved that when people are provided with a hands-on approach when it comes to learning and conducting research, not only do they express more interest in the subject, but they also learn the topics more thoroughly because they are experiencing them in an informal manner instead of in a solely academic setting.
Before reading both “The 95% Solution” and Surrounded by Science, I must admit that I was quite skeptical about the idea that it is possible to learn more about science outside of the classroom. However, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that there is much truth to this idea. Informal science opportunities are crucial in today’s society because they are responsible for igniting interest in scientific topics that most people would otherwise be exposed to via memorization and the study of mere facts that have no application to a person’s daily life. Formal science learning cannot engage individuals by forcing them to memorize facts and simply does not cater to an individual’s interests. The bird watch experiment proved to be important because not only did participants express interest in the topic at hand, but it also allowed the participants to feel as though they are a part of the scientific community and that they too are capable of making an impact on the scientific world.
