Final Blog
As we reach the end of the semester, and thus the end of our nature interpretation class we must look back and reflect upon our development as nature interpreters. The prompt for this week’s blog is to answer the following questions; describe your personal ethic as you develop as a nature interpreter. What beliefs do you bring? What responsibilities do you have? What approaches are most suitable for you as an individual? These are all complex and important questions. In order to answer these questions, I think we should take a step back and ask ourselves what is our goal as an interpreter?
What is my goal as an interpreter, this is a simple question with a complicated answer. Ultimately my goal is simple, I want to provide inspirational education. What I mean by this is I want to help create the next generation of naturalists, biologists, ecologists and interpreters. However I end up interpreting, I want the end result to be showing an interested audience that the natural world is amazing. I want to bring out the same passion for the natural world I discovered, to my audience. Chapter 1 discusses the goal of interpreters as inspiring resource stewardship, developing awareness of natural and cultural heritage and perpetuating the deepest values and traditions of special places (Beck et al., 2018). This summarizes my goal very well, resource stewardship is especially important in my personal goal as I want to ensure that the next generation understands the importance of preserving and conserving the natural world. As Ralph Emerson said in chapter 16 “nothing great was ever accomplished without enthusiasm” (Beck et al., 2018).
The first question from this week’s prompt is describe your personal ethic as you develop as an interpreter. Chapter 5 discusses the guiding principles of interpretation, on of these principles was developed by Dr. Maria Montessori (Beck et al., 2018). She developed the beginnings of constructivism or allowing individuals to learn on their own (Beck et al., 2018). I would like my personal interpretational philosophy to follow this idea. The quote “a truly educated person continues learning long after the years in the classroom because motivation comes from by a natural curiosity and love for knowledge” (Beck et al., 2018). I want my personal ethics of interpretation to follow this philosophy of individually motivated learning. This style of interpretation will allow me to create a lifelong passion for the natural world and hopefully fulfill my goal of inspirational education.
“Only YOU can prevent forest fires”, this iconic quote from Smokey Bear highlights my first belief. That being that everyone can make a difference. I truly believe that if someone is passionate about something, they can make a positive change. I think Smokey exemplifies this belief perfectly. This simple quote puts the protection of forests from fires in the hands of everyone. Smokey Bear believes that everyone can and should make a difference and so do I. My second belief is that there is always more to learn about the natural world. This idea is discussed in chapter 6 with the idea of Vitamin N (nature) (Beck et al., 2018). This prescription for Vitamin N is daily and lifelong. No matter how much time you spend in nature, there is always more to learn. The idea that you cannot learn everything about the natural world is daunting, but if you get your daily Vitamin N you can learn something everyday and connect with the natural world.
The next question is what are your responsibilities as an interpreter? My responsibility ads an interpreter is simple, I need to ensure I provide accurate information to my audience. Providing accurate information to your audience is always important, however, it is especially important in science communication. Not everyone is directly involved in science, but science effects the lives of everyone (Fischhoff, 2013). Effective science communication provides the audience with the benefits, risks and all the important elements, to allow the audience to make their own informed decision (Fischhoff, 2013). This is especially important in nature interpretation, however we choose to interpret, ultimately we will be providing our audience with information about important topics. It is our job to ensure this information is accurate, to allow our audience to be informed about the natural world and all its wonder. My second responsibility is to encourage the passions of others.
The final question I will be answering is what interpretive approaches will work best for me as an individual. The approach that will work best for me to interpret effectively is roving interpretation. This technique is discussed in chapter 9 and entails an interpreter roaming about areas of high traffic and explaining important features to their audience (Beck et al., 2018). The reason I know this approach will work best for me is because I have a lot of experience with it. In grade ten I was part of the CELP program (Community, Environmental, Leadership, Program). The final project for this course was taking a group of grade four students on a nature walk and discussing habitat types and their importance. Roving interpretation worked exceptionally well in this scenario, the students followed a defined trail, and we were spread apart along the trail. This allowed us to deliver the form of interpretation we felt was most appropriate. I would ask the students if they wanted to play a game, learn some facts, or ask me some question. This allowed a more flexible, and personalized interpretive approach.
I would love to hear your personal goal for interpretation and how you plan to achieve it. I would also enjoy discussing the similarities and differences between our ethics, beliefs, responsibilities, and approaches. Nature interpretation is a powerful tool for making the difference we want to see in the world. I would like to end with a quote from Sam Ham “the primary emphasis of interpretation is that it is designed to make a difference on purpose”. I hope that myself, and all other in this class can go make a difference on purpose.
Beck, L., Cable, T. T., & Knudson, D. M. (2018). Interpreting cultural and natural heritage: for a better world. Sagamore Venture.
Fischhoff, B. (2013). The sciences of science communication. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110(Supplement 3), 14033-14039.
Hi Warren,
Great post this week! I’ve enjoyed reading all of your blogs this semester, and this one particularly stuck out to me. I agree with you that sharing the passion I have for nature is what I would love to be able to do as a nature interpreter. I’m not sure what my exact future is as a nature interpreter but that is what I do know. I have a hard time distinguishing between personal ethics and beliefs. Since personal ethics are specifically important to one person, I am not sure if there is a difference between personal ethics and beliefs. I think that responsibilities are how we choose to act on our personal ethics. I feel that as nature interpreters, who have a university education, that it is our responsibility to share what we know with the public to make our knowledge accessible. Like you say, providing accurate and accessible science communication is incredible important. It’s really cool that you have experience with roving interpretation and know that that is what you will use as an approach in your future as a nature interpreter. Now you have experience with this and know how you can move forward in the future.
Great post and best of luck in the future.
-Georgia





















