My Ideal Role as an Environmental Interpreter
As we learned in this week of the Nature Interpretation course, we as instructors should work towards our strengths when it comes to education. We need to understand what our teaching styles are, as well as assess what audience we would be most effective in teaching by employing the methods we know and trust. For me, I feel that my passion for nature interpretation would be best directed at children and teenagers. I have very much experience teaching younger folk (I have worked as a swimming instructor for 5 years) and feel that I know how to keep their attention throughout a lesson, how to best plan activities and games around even the driest of subjects, and how to deliver the material in a way that will (hopefully) spark an interest in them. I know that I have the energy, the creativity, and juuust the right amount of discipline needed to effectively share my passion for nature with youth!
(Image from Aquam. These diving rings are a swimming instructor’s best friend; endless pool game possibilities!)
More specifically, I think the role that would suit me best would be a summer camp counsellor, perhaps in Algonquin or Temagami Provincial Parks because I am familiar with the environments. I would love to lead campers on nature hikes and trips, pointing out fascinating things that they might never notice otherwise and trying my best to answer any questions they might have about what they are seeing. My ultimate goal in this position would be to get the campers to stay curious about nature; to question what they are seeing, and to come up with hypotheses for why they believe are the way that they are. The more they think about what they are seeing and why it is the way it is, the more they will develop an interest in nature, and the more they will begin to understand how complex and intricate the natural areas of the world are; one of the factors which (I believe) makes it so fascinating.
(Personal photo: an old growth forest in Harrison, British Columbia. The untrained eye might just see a forest here; however, I see layers upon layers of dense and diverse plant and tree species, each reliant on the layers below for physical support and nutrient supply)
I know when I was younger, I had so many people who pushed me to appreciate and learn about nature, and to stay curious about the weird and wacky that existed out there past the tree line. Without this appreciation for nature of mine being nurtured and developed throughout my life, I would likely not be in the career path I am in today; an environmental sciences student, passionate about saving the natural spaces which I have come to love throughout my time on this planet.
(Personal photos: Left, my two brothers and I; we’ve been bonding over our love for the outdoors our whole lives! Right, my father and I on the first day of Beavers.)
As the population of the earth grows, the risk to natural areas across the world becomes ever greater; urban and agricultural areas will replace forests more and more, fossil fuels will warm the atmosphere and fundamentally alter earth’s ecosystems, and the species on earth will have habitats altered as a result of our actions. How great would it be, though, if we could pass on an awareness of environmental issues, an appreciation for the complexity and fragility of earth’s ecosystems, and a sense of thankfulness for what these areas have given to us, on to future generations?
Thanks for reading; I will be back soon!
Best,
Ty 🦥
Reference: Ribbed diving rings. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.aquam.com/3/Catalogs/Residential_Shoppers/Ribbed diving rings .php