Final Blog Post: A Temporary Goodbye
Wow, I can’t believe that we have already arrived at our final blog post for this course. I approach the end of this semester with uncertainty; I feel both relieved to finally be done with assignments for the time being, but also slightly saddened as this course has truly been one of the most rewarding experiences this semester. I look back on my previous blog posts and am just in awe of how much I have changed as a person and an interpreter within the course of just one semester. As I approach my fourth and final year of undergrad, I’ve been spending a lot of time introspecting. What do I really want to do with my degree? It has never been a consistent answer, as I went into first year thinking I’d be applying to veterinary college. A year later, I was dead set on doing herpetology research. The next year, I switched over to entomological research.
So here I am now, reflecting on everything I have learned from this course, and I am faced with yet another “career change”. I have come to realize that my lack of commitment to one pathway out of university is because I just have a general passion and love for all things nature. Whether it was veterinary medicine, herpetology, or entomology, the common factor was that I just love learning! And with that, I love helping others learn about the same things that have brought me so much joy.
This new-found motivation is what fuels my main belief about nature interpretation: accessibility for all. Now, this of course encompasses physical and economical accessibility, but one of my main focuses is what I would call “emotional accessibility”. I have often encountered this toxic sense of superiority when it comes to STEM, even in natural/environmental studies. Sometimes without even realizing, we often place our own stereotypes on who should or shouldn’t be a part of the scientific community, and on that note; if you are not a part of the scientific community then somehow your access to nature is restricted! I remember as a kid how daunting it was to ask questions to adults; some of the people i looked up to the most have scoffed as what they considered a “silly” question. For a time, this really put me off from studying biology, and I felt like I wasn’t “good enough” to join nature clubs at school because I didnt have any background knowledge (which, who would ever expect a 13 year old to be an expert on plant identification??). I had placed this extra pressure on myself because of the role models (clearly not very good nature interpreters) that chidded me as a kid.
These experiences, paired with everything I learned from this course about accessibility such as the importance of multiple intelligences (Beck et al., 2018) or the unpacking of our invisible backpacks (Gallavan, 2005), have taught me how vital it is to an interpreter to be accepting, forgiving, and encouraging. While this might be my motivation and my belief, it does bring about a huge amount of responsibility. As I witnessed myself first hand as a kid, and as highlighted in this unit chapter, we need to use our privilege of education and knowledge wisely as you never know who is looking up to you as a mentor. As an interpreter, you automatically are given responsibility for the future generation as they are the ones who listen the hardest and care the most (Beck et al., 2018). We need to be sure that our every action is in their favor and will help mold their connection with nature.
Thanks to this course, I am now able to both identify and express my motivations, beliefs, and responsibility; two skills that were definitely lacking beforehand. I have never been good at expressing myself in forms that were not visual; but through honing my writing and talking skills thanks to the blog and podcast assignment, I have realized that these skills were within me the whole time! I just never gave myself the chance to try it out. And that is exactly what I want to do after leaving this course. I want to give kids the chance to try out new skills and learn about nature in ways that they never thought they could. I now plan to further my studies by doing a Masters in Science Communication, so that I can continue to build these skills in both myself and the kids that I hope to inspire!
Thank you to everyone involved in this course, as the content of both the readings and your blog posts have been such an incredible source of inspiration! I have learned about things I never would have thought to look into and it has helped me widden my own personal point of view. I wish you all the best of luck in the rest of your nature interpreting journeys and hope to someday see how each of you have used these skills in your future careers.
Goodbye for now!
Marie
Beck, L., Cable, T. T., & Knudson, D. M. (2018). Interpreting cultural and natural heritage: For A Better World (1st ed., pp. 127-158). SAGAMORE Publishing.
Gallavan, N. P. (2005). Helping teachers unpack their “invisible knapsacks”. Multicultural Education, 13(1), 36. https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A137921591/AONE?u=guel77241&sid=bookmark-AONE&xid=9fe2f151
Hey Marie,
After reading your post this week, I definitely agree with a lot of the points you brought up.
To start off, I think it's terrible that you got put off from studying biology from people you looked up to. One of the bigger themes from my last couple blogs is promoting conservation by getting more people interested in the outdoors and biology. Taking someone that is passionate about it to begin with, and essentially alienating them from the field, is the exact opposite of that and a shame to see. I’m glad that you were able to get around those barriers and find yourself looking into careers in biology!
You had also mentioned the notion that STEM majors feel a sense of superiority in the scientific community. I agree that this happens to an extent, and think that it is a very backwards way of thinking. In order to have a more diverse background of ideas and perspectives, we should welcome people of all different backgrounds into the scientific community. This would also benefit conservation as a whole by bridging the gap between scientific education and environmental education brought up by Wals et al. (2014).
It is also certainly important to embrace our role as spokespeople for the outdoors. As you said, you never know who is looking up to you as an interpreter or as an individual, so it is best to use the privilege we have as interpreters wisely. In chapter 7 of the textbook, Beck et al. (2019) goes over the importance of being accessible to diverse audiences. Essentially, it’s your responsibility as an interpreter to recognise the sovereignty of your clients, and present them with unbiased information in a non confrontational manner. If you fail to connect with a client because of socioeconomic or cultural differences, you risk making them feel marginalized, and not comfortable in an interpretive setting. When the goal is to get as many people passionate about the environment as possible, this is the opposite of what we should be doing.
~Nathan
References:
Beck, L., Cable, T. T., and Knudson, D. M. (2019). Interpreting Cultural and Natural Heritage. Van Haren Publishing.
Wals, A.E.J., Brody, M., Dillon, J., Stevenson, R.B. (2014). Convergence Between Science and Environmental Education. Science, 344(6184):583-584. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1250515


























