Unit 10: Final Blog
After ten weeks of studying various approaches and topics that aid in our integrity as nature interpreters, I believe that my personal ethic has shifted to a more environmentally conscious one. Prior to taking this course, I recognized to some extent the importance of our role in nature, but not to the depth I understand now. When the course first started, my background was solely science based, not so much of my knowledge came from other aspects such as technology, art and history. I will however like to mention that studying how nature intertwines with many different disciplines actually allowed me to draw comparisons to prior course work I have completed in my undergrad. For example, when I look back at a philosophy course I took, I remember touching base on how Greek ancestors viewed art and how it was based on their interpretation of their environment. They would recreate scenes or objects they found beautiful and used their art as a way of representing their meaning of beauty.
Moving forward, I want to encourage more of my life to understanding nature and why we learn about it from the moment our academic careers begin to when they end. One of the most important things that I found about nature interpretation is the way that information is presented to an audience. Throughout course material, blog posts and even our podcasts, the use of many learning styles have been tackled.
Personally, I believe that it is significant that I answer the questions posed in relation to my personal ethic and what I bring to the table. To begin, I am a firm believer in everyone having the opportunity and right to an education. My family came from an ex-communist country and when they were growing up, education was free for those who wanted to learn and pursue their undergraduate, graduate and Ph. D’s. With this being said, I believe that children especially should be granted opportunities to learn and see what nature has to offer, no matter the gender, ethnicity and status. Even though certain aspects of nature interpretation are due to privileges, but there should be certain aspects that are available to all to some degree. Furthermore, I feel that I acquire a sense of responsibility to ensure that I am using my knowledge to inform and teach those around me. Whether it be as simple as having people tune out other noises and listen to the sound of birds or as difficult as having people learn about the impact our environment has on human health. Lastly, I have found that the most suitable approach for me is interpreting nature through science. I have always been a very logical person and prefer knowing exactly how and why something is occurring. I’ve never been extremely creative and prefer actual answers to phenomenon’s not miracles or magic. However, I do wish that I was able to be more open-minded when it came to certain topics as it keeps it fun and allows for many different answers.
If I could carry my knowledge and skills from this course and others that have similarly focused on the significance of nature, I would want to focus on the direct relationship between human health and nature. My audience would involve students and adults who are determined to stay healthy and build their relationship with nature due to the many positive health impacts it has. I believe that I am a personable person and am quite outgoing which would make it easier for me to attract a larger range of audience. I also find that my work experience, from a family clinic to an apple farm to bartending would allow me to use multiple learning styles to educate my audience (i.e. those who are willing to learn about nature and health). In addition, I have experience with many different age groups as I was a gymnastics coach for a number of years so understand how an array of age groups develop skills and learn.
Even though I do not see my future career in environmental sciences, or anything related, I do believe that the skills and knowledge I have developed in ENVS*3000 will be useful anywhere and everywhere. I truly believe that our role as nature interpretations is significant in creating a sustainable environment for generations to come. I think that if other students were grnated the opportunity to learn about their role as nature interpreters, the idea of our environment would be much different. In today’s society, the only topics that are brought up frequently are climate change and sometimes wildlife. We are taught that our actions have consequences are that we are all guilty of attaining to climate change. We have individuals who do not believe in it at all and others that are devoting their lives to improving sustainability for future generations. I think the most prominent example of this is the ban of single use plastics and the transfer to electric cars. One of the greatest issues though is the cost to become sustainable, whether it be buying cold cuts over grass-fed raised beef, filtration systems over water bottles, or whatever it may be. In Canada it is expensive to eat organic, drive an electric car, and have a life built around the idea of sustainability. Even though the benefits to this lifestyle are at large, many people do not care and simply cannot afford this. I believe that the future will provide more affordable opportunities for Canadians to improve their lifestyles and acquire one that is based on sustainability and positive ecological impacts. All in all, I am grateful for the privilege of being able to learn and discuss with classmates about the role of nature interpretation and how we will all carry this in our future.
How will you carry knowledge from this course into your future?
Hi Ilda,
Like you, I also do not see a future career in anything related to environmental sciences, since I plan on working as a Crown attorney, but I also plan on transferring my skills and knowledge learned in ENVS*3000 to my future career. In your post, you highlighted that one of the most important aspects of nature interpretation is how information is presented to an audience. I agree that this is important, and I think that the communication skills learned through creating our blog posts and podcasts are one of the most transferable aspects of ENVS*3000.
As I mentioned, I plan on working in criminal law, and I think that being able to communicate information to different audiences will be necessary for this position. I am sure I will need to be presenting evidence, and how the evidence should be interpreted, to other legal professionals, witnesses, and victims. I believe that the communication skills developed in this course will be helpful for this.
As well, I think that everything we learned about privilege and interpreting diverse groups will be highly transferable. Working as a Crown attorney, I will likely be dealing with individuals coming from diverse backgrounds with varying levels of privilege; as such, being able to understand and communicate with diverse groups will be useful.
In your post, you discuss how nature interpretation is important for creating a sustainable environment. I agree, and this makes me wonder why nature interpretation is not focused on more in elementary school. If children are our voting future, we need to start developing their love of the world around them early.
Thank you for your post!
















