Facilitating Lifelong Learning

My dad always says that it doesn’t matter what you don’t know if you know how to learn. Knowing how to learn is a skill that is beneficial throughout life. Educators can increase students’ desire to be life-long learners by creating an environment of curiosity and facilitating involved learning.

The teaching environment is vital for student engagement. As a teacher’s assistant for various professors and classes, students approached me most frequently when there was ambiguity abut assignments. A clear syllabus or online portal with policies, assignments, dates, and rubrics decreases stress for students so that they can focus on learning and not on guessing what the instructor requires of them. In addition, instructor feedback on important papers and tests transforms grades into a learning experience rather than a decree of fate. Organization and feedback enhance the learning environment, but more can be done as well.

Growing up, my home was a learning environment. My mom would look up everything from William Henry Harrison to the Linnaean system in her encyclopedia set, while I begged her not to tell me what she discovered because I didn’t need to know for my homework. Now her spirit of curiosity has rubbed off on me and I recognize that questions from students and self can be the most impelling motivators. A classroom environment based on organization, feedback and curiosity sets the stage for long-term learning.

Life-long learning is encouraged through active teaching which requires students to understand reliable sources, make connections, and explore. As an undergraduate one of my professors assigned a text book that he had written. This made me realize that real researchers are not so distant as they may seem. When instructors assign readings and give lectures not only based on textbooks but also peer reviewed literature it builds students’ confidence in learning from the source, helps them understand what a reliable source is, and gives them an understand of how real research happens. When instructors encourage discussion and other projects that guides students to make connections it helps students remember and apply what they learn. Sometimes when giving tours of paleontology museums I compare extinct animals to Pokémon and suddenly the fossils come to life. Such connections, whether made by the instructor or by students, in groups or individually leads to increased engagement with the material and opportunities for exploration. In my high school physics class, we dropped pumpkins off the school roof to calculate that velocity equals distance over time. This personal experience with equations made the principles understandable. When students are able to explore for themselves, they are more likely to internalize the subject matter. When instructors provide original sources, and opportunities to make connections and explore it leads to active learning.

Learning is enhanced when instructors create an environment of stability and curiosity and then facilitate interactions with the material that is based on original sources, and students’ own application. This type of education can lead to life-long learning, so that when students confront the unknown, they have confidence in their own ability to learn.

Spirit of Curiousity

This is the mandible of Thomomys umbrinus aka a Southern pocket gopher. You can tell it is a 

gopher because of the small bump on the back of the jaw. The base of this bump starts at the "1" and it appears to be for the end of the incisor. Yes that tooth goes all the way back there. 

At work I often spend a lot of time inventorying and cataloging random bones. This can get really boring! but when I am able to keep up an attitude of curiosity it can be really fun. Before inventorying various rodent mandibles I could only recognize them as rodent, now I can tell gopher mandibles from marmots, pack rats, rabbits, and porcupines (granted those are bigger). The process of discovery was really fun and it made me excited to perform the inventory.

My problem is keeping that spirit of curiosity, because it is sometimes difficult to do, and then the monotony press in...

Questions and Observations

Nearly every work day I walk past a replica cast of a giant sloth skeleton. It's pretty impressive, and it is one of the more popular exhibits at the museum.
The other day I came across a large mammal scapula in the museum collections. The animal it was from wasn't identified so I thought I would give it a shot. I googled some mammoth and mastodon scapulas and then realized I had no idea what a giant sloth scapula looks like, despite walking past a beautiful example almost every day! So the next time I walked by, I actually took a closer look.
This experience made me realize two things about questions. First, one reason why questions are so important is because it causes us to actually slow down and make important observations. Second, it is easy to see things (skeletons/objects/problems/infrastructure) as single entities and only when a question comes along do the individual parts become visible.

Perfect for What?

A couple of weeks ago I went with Jeremy to his ecology class. It was fascinating. They talked about various types of photosynthesis (who knew there were multiple types?) and how they were each good for different situations. They also talked about other evolutionary trade offs. I was struck how different animals and plants were perfectly adapted... for their environment. They were all different and all perfect for their situations even though they still have pros and cons. The desert version of photosynthesis keeps plants from loosing water but it makes it so the plants have to grow really slowly, while other types of photosynthesis make it so the plants can grow fast but if they also loose more water.
Sometimes I think it is easy to get caught up in trying to be perfect or wanting the perfect.... something. But the thing is there is no one situation and therefore there is no one perfect solution. Therein lies the beauty. You can be perfect! for your situation.

Mesa Verde Two

​So like I said we went to mesa Verde and it was amazing but.....

It was frustrating too. A lot of what I learned about mesa Verde in school was about you're there was a lot of violence in the region at the time, but every ranger we talked to denied this, telling us that that was old information and that there is no evidence for violence.

So when we came home I did several google scholar searches and even contacted my college professors, (professional archaeologists) who have studied the archaeology of the area. Everything I looked at said or alluded to the violence of the area. My professors said the same thing, even suggesting that the very presence of the cave dwellings was a proof of violence. They they ended their emails with tactful sentences about political correctness and politics causing the Park service to blatantly lie about the state of things.

I know revisionist histories are a thing but it is still disturbing to find it for yourself. and why? Why is extensive scientific evidence so feared? Who cares if someone's possible ancestors were fighting? Every one has ancestors who fought, who were violent. I like to tell people about how one of my ancestors was the first white man hung in the America's for murder. And when people claim offense for truth being spoken (or at least the most likely scientific evidence) I think the warning bell has gone off. Instead of teaching falsehoods to the unsuspecting to assuage their feelings we should be helping people be resilient enough not to take offense at all.

Mesa Verde

​About a week ago we went to mesa Verde. I had never been there but I had learned about it in my anthropology classes.
It is a national park that has multiple archaeological sites. Some are houses and other buildings on the mesa tops where they farmed. But the impressive sites, the ones people really go to see are the cliff dwellings. Giant multi level pueblos nestled in natural caves and alcoves high above the canyon floor and nearly inaccessible from the mesa tops.
I don't think I have ever gone to a place that has sparked my imagination like this place. It was awe inspiring and just filled me with curiosity. How would life be like to live on the side of a cliff but be part of an otherwise normal agricultural society. What was the violence like that would force you into living like that. If the best source of water was 9 miles away at a bottom of a canyon what was water gathering like?
I already wrote a book about a hunter gatherer society, in large part because I was fascinated by what life would be like as a hunter gatherer. I kind of want to write one about a complex cave palace dwelling society to explore the possibilities....

Satisfaction

​I've never really budgeted before. I've kept track of where my money goes and I've avoided spending money but that isn't really the same as planning on spending a certain amount and then doing things to make that happen.

Lately Jeremy and I have been budgeting, especially in terms of groceries and I have never found grocery shopping so satisfying. Usually when I have completed my grocery shopping it is like, "great, I'm done with that necessary item." But since we've been budgeting successfully it has not only been a chore to check off, but it has also been an accomplishment. Is it any wonder addictive computer games tend to have lists of simple requirements that you can accomplish each day and gain a bit of that sense of satisfaction.