Podcast Interview Question # 9: Why Big Picture Learning about Nature is Best Described as “Making the Invisible Visible?”

Podcast Interview Question # 9: Why Big Picture Learning about Nature is Best Described as “Making the Invisible Visible?”

“If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.” Albert Einstein

This will be one of the most important blogs or conversations I can have especially because I am a both a teacher and a student of the natural world.

My job is to help grow concepts as fundamental building blocks of thoughts, beliefs,abstract ideas or general notions that occur in the mind. My challenge is how to make sure that  mature concepts include the Big Picture overview, investigate the roots or origins, avoid patchwork thinking and stay adaptive to changes.  

On one hand, talking about the principles of teaching to facilitate the process of learning comes easily:  lesson plans, learning objectives, content analysis, comprehension questions, deductive answers that open up both critical and  creative thinking.

My teaching career has been based on the 4 general principles of learning 

1. Concrete experience … sensory perceptions of differences or similarities with objects and their actions 
2. Reflective observation … use words or images to describe experiences
3. Abstract conceptualization … emotional feedback … critical and creative thinking (decision making) 
4. Active engagement … content exercises to reinforce personal understanding and memory

On the other hand, there are so many realities, especially in nature, that cannot be seen by the human eye. We can look at a tree with shining leaves dancing in the sun, but do you visualize the layers of growth inside the trunk or see the network of roots? Can you honestly give credence to the amazing composite Big Picture without some curiosity how the smallest details play such important roles?

Some of the most amazing things I have learned about Nature are not visible to the naked eye, but nevertheless are main components in their natural functions and organization. Some agents are uni-cellular or microscopic without which the first steps in a long process can't begin. Some energy flows are vital and all- encompassing affecting cells to organs to bodies to ecosystems. How do you pay homage to systems with no critical parts missing? 

Here are some examples best understood as a composite whole:

Why is good dirt so valuable? Look inside the decomposition value of fertile topsoil with humus is started with microorganisms, bacterial and fungi. Without humus, plants wouldn’t grow as well affecting animal consumers, including humans.

How does a leave breathe or make food? Look inside the cellular structure of a leave to see different layers of cells and holes for breathing. Some cells contain chloroplasts filled with envelopes of green chlorophyll that react with sunlight to make a simple sugar compound.

How does a flower make a fruit or vegetable? Look inside the flower petals ready to attract pollinators to shake the pollen from the anthers to the receiving ovary which will develop into a mature fruit with its own seeds for dissemination.

How do pesticides affect the food web for everyone? Look at a synthetic Organochlorine molecule made up of atoms of carbon, hydrogen, and chlorine which build toxic concentrations and magnify food-webs from microorganisms, to frogs, to birds, to fish that humans eat.

How do you protect the precious fresh-water cycle? Look at the passage of a water droplet through many stages in his water cycle beginning and ending with the ocean, evaporation, condensation, precipitation, run-off, percolation, pollution, assimilation into nutrient cycles, and human digestion.

How do you protect the Ecosystem? Draw a map that connects all levels from non-living factors (air, water) to primary food producers (plants) to secondary food producers (animals) to decomposers (recycle waste into nutrients). Add factors of climate change and human interactions.  

One of the most amazing miraculous compositions by nature has to be the process of photosynthesis … we can’t physically see it happening, but without it, life would not be possible on earth, so it's best to understand the basics.  

• It begins with the specialized structure of green plants that have cells called chloroplasts that contain the green chemical,  chlorophyll.
• The sun’s light energy activates it, and together with carbon dioxide (CO2) and water (H2O) a carbohydrate molecule (C6 H12 O6) as a simple sugar, glucose or fructose, is formed.   
• These simple sugar molecules bind with glucose to form the disaccharide sucrose (C12 H22 O11) which is  absorbed directly into blood during digestion.
• Note that oxygen is released as a byproduct which supplies the oxygen content for the Earth’s atmosphere.

I have never looked at a leave the same way again! My responsibility for and admiration of Nature have never been stronger than when holding a leaf in my hand in communion with its molecular structures and functions that can making food for everyone from air and water. The question is how I can share this communion with others, especially young people?

In my opinion, there is nothing more antithetical to the learning process than to be a narrow-minded, opinionated, fuzzy thinker with incomplete facts and lack of connections. Importantly, knowledge cannot be limited to what is obvious, but must go beyond the visible to the microscopic life forms that begin the energy cycles that intertwine Nature's bio-systems together.

So, here was my teacher’s challenge. How do you take Nature’s complex functional interdependence and present the cases for self-organization, mutual reciprocity, and respect equality for every creature? You write a story with living characters so they can become heroes and friends. You don't bully a good friend, right?

So, I wrote two e-books for all ages where nature’s major characters were personified as talking, interactive, feeling organisms with many chapters about probable experiences. If they can inspire a few more minutes to look at a leave or a bumblebee, then my educational mission is accomplished.

1. The water sprite with roots had to commute between the animal and plant world on his mission to discover Cyclical Truths.
2. The birch tree is inhabited by a tree dryad who as the age-old essence of knowledge having traveled with people before, shares his experiences, community and realities of succession.

Both stories have numerous pictures and diagrams to best offer a Big Picture overview. 

Along with this  personal narration, the hope is that each reader will find identity and purpose in life through connections to their community, to nature’s  bio-systems and  to compassion and  peaceful co-existence.

Questions and comments are always appreciated and welcome. What is an unique experience with the natural world that takes your breath away?

Annemarie

amarie10@gmail.com

1 833 471 4661 (leave a message for a return call)

https://helpfulmindstreamforchanges.com

   

Excerpt: And then the shattering of that glass bottle; for what purpose, he wondered.  Why do people do that without reason except for a momentary fling, some entertainment? What was their reason to leave their own personal mark for the sake of many futures to come? Why couldn’t they see that they could  pass on the legacy of a tree as nature intended to their offspring to admire and respect? Their lifespans were so much shorter than most trees so why would they endanger their existence for a few symbols?  Words didn’t exist in nature, other than when people called them “things,” possibly to suit their limited visions rather than embrace the abundance of nature itself without words. Did people have words to celebrate the connections in harmony with nature that only an invisible spirit could invoke? 

Ecological Succession of Birchum Birch

Photosynthesis ... ever wonder how a leave makes food?

Podcast Interview Answer #3: Why the Top 3 Inches in Topsoil Are the Most Important Gift for Life on Earth?

Podcast Interview Answer #3: Why the Top 3 Inches in Topsoil Are the Most Important Gift for Life on Earth?

“Everything is connected to everything else. Everything must go somewhere. Nature knows best. There is no such thing as a free lunch. If you don't put something in the ecology, it's not there.”  Barry Commoner: The Closing Circle, Making Peace with the Planet

No trick question: You have a choice between a box of fertile topsoil and a bag of gold coins. What would you choose? Maybe you’ll change your mind after reading this answer.

First, look at the Big Picture and see two main facts as clearly as possible:

1. Only 4-12 inches (10-30 centimetres) of soil that contains humus is found on the Earth’s upper crust. This thin layer of earth is all that exists to provide nutrition to all human life.  It can be said that human destiny is dependent on these 12 inches.
2. Humus formation is a biological process of the ecosystem where the energy flow starts with the sun through photosynthesis to help plants make food that is consumed by animals. The last stage is decomposition of organic waste matter in order to release carbon back to the air and convert dead biomass back into mineral nutrients like  nitrogen compounds, phosphorus, sulfur, calcium, potassium, and magnesium.

Humus is often associated with beginning leaf litter around trees. Its formation can be called an “organic pre-digestion” for plants; providing a pantry of living nutrients to be absorbed by plants for continued growth with sufficient water and sun. 

Amazingly, nature’s infinite organization provides order here, too. The metabolism of dead and living material has its own food cycle web.  It starts with microorganisms like bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and nematodes. It is followed by macro-organisms like springtails, mites,  millipedes, daddy long legs, woodlice, earthworms, snails and slugs.

There are many irreplaceable functions of good humus.

(Please note it is impossible to duplicate the process with any man-made fertilizers).

• Maintains crumbly soil structure
• Regulates water retention
• Recirculates oxygen and accumulates carbon
• Decomposes organic matter into mineral elements
• Suppresses pests, parasites and diseases
• Controls plant growth
• Recycles nutrients for plant roots, microorganisms, bacteria, fungi and litter-feeding insects (larvae, crickets, ants, termites)

In basic terms, topsoil formation is the movement of living material from the waste material of living things into plants, to return to the living material into Mother Earth.

As living matter, you may well ask how can we manage and protect, not deplete humus?

In fact, according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, a third of the world’s soil is now moderately to highly degraded.

There are four main reasons why humus may be depleted in our soils:

1. Over use of chemical fertilizers which are generally harsh salts that can oxidize living carbon-based matter 
2. Mechanized rough tillage of soil upsets fragile soil structure
3. Failure to protect microbes... misunderstanding their importance. Microbe life can be nurtured by using cover crops and feeding them with fish emulsions
4. Failure to build organic matter after using chemical fertilizers. Important to add various crop covers to maintain organic matter in the soil for abundant micro-life and strengthen vigorous roots.

In summary, humus is natural decay when leaves and other plants material are decomposed by soil microorganisms into the most basic chemical elements and nutrients that depend on soil for life, such as plants.

We must never take soil and humus for granted and preserve its creation by life, out of life, for life. 

The more you learn about nature's infinite bio-systems, the more impressed you must be that Nature is a dynamic living system where soil, water and energy; plants, animals and people are part of a complex web of relationships and networks, interconnected and interdependent.

Just think, a box of dirt will at least grow some food ... a bag of gold is useless if there is no food. 

Check out other podcast questions and answers

Questions and comments are always welcome.

Annemarie

amarie10@gmail.com

1 833 471 4661 (please note best time to call back)

https://helpfulmindstreamforchanges.com

  

"Soonday’s smile widened like a rippled puddle. Birchum, you should be proud. You have made a real actual humus garden here. You have a host of bacteria, fungi and protozoa partially eating and softening the leaves so that a crew of mites, sow bugs, silverfish and more insects can continue to digest and release the minerals. Along with water, these nutrients are taken in by your tree’s roots and then carried up to become part of your trunk, branches, twigs, buds and leaves … you are part of this total picture … be proud.” Excerpt from Ecological Succession of Birchum Birch

Why Read about a Talking Birch Tree who Loves Family, Community, Environment and Nature?

Why Read about a Talking Birch Tree who Loves Family, Community, Environment and Nature?

“And when you don’t understand how webs connect; or how roots make leaves; or how the food web is many links that can’t be broken;  when you lack empathy for the most ordinary creature, the worm or the bee, you become disconnected and pay the price one way of another, too often with disorder and disease.”

...excerpt from Ecological Succession of Birchum Birch

Animals don’t talk but that doesn’t mean that they don’t have voices or feelings. You may think that trees don’t communicate but it doesn’t mean they don’t belong to their community and environment.  In fact, a tree is a perfect member of a community that shows that  a body is an assembly of species and relationships, never self-contained. 

Nature starts with a single cell growing to more complexity where each part has a purpose. We can best survive as a whole society if we believe in diversity and cooperation.

A tree can teach that we are an ecosystem in our own rights. 

This story is about a young birch tree called Birchum Birch.  A special tree Dryad, as the essence of knowledge, explains many of his experiences about his home, his biology, environmental co-operation and Nature’s most important law that everything is connected. They share experiences about weather, climate changes, value of humus, seeds, insects, fungal dangers, adaptations and interact with various animals providing shelter and food who, in turn, reciprocate help in times of problems.

However, when he encounters People, he realizes how big ego and short-term thinking can impact a community’s lifetime, with the hope that Nature can recover given a chance. After her travels, the dryad discusses giant food webs from Nature's primary perspective and people’s secondary processes in 'Mega Plants' and 'Mega Malls,' along with manufactured seeds, that try to alter the essence of life on Earth.  

A simple question asked, "Is how do you grow a can of food?"

A loud clarion call is heard throughout the story that the Universe is not outside you …

 “what’s good for each of us is good for all of us; what hurts one of us, hurts all of us.”  

The theme of the story revolves around ecological succession which is the process of gradual change that involves the whole community over time. It is based on order that can predict the sense of a new development in any habitat. 

The social extension is that any change is dynamic and like Nature, nothing is ever black and white. Between any two extremes there is a gradual change which means greater tolerance to accept changes over time.  People must learn tolerance as they adapt to conditions to help their communities to succeed through a cooperative social succession.

An interesting symbol is the cocoon with an open question about what kind of transformation happens in order for adults to survive in a consumer-based business environment.

The moral like a web spins out that a solitary birch tree can represent the essential connections between our  healthy Planet and balancing Self through cycles, cooperation, unity and appreciation of the wonder of Nature because  once gone it can’t be replaced.

As a retired teacher who values education and process, the author continues to be so impressed by Mother Nature and so passionate to use her voice to speak on her behalf to help protect the environment for future generations. Her wisdom or mantra have only grown stronger that the more you learn about Mother Nature, the more you will also be impressed about her abilities, integrity and appreciate the need for a relationship with Nature as a friend and partner.

You wouldn’t bully or hurt a friend, would you?   

Questions and comments are always welcome...changing our society one tree at a time.

Download Ecological Succession of Birchum Birch   

See Ecology on menu ...scroll down

Kindle e-book: 

Questions and comments are always welcome...changing our society one tree at a time.

Annemarie
amarie10@gmail.com
1 833 471 4661 (leave message for best time to call back
https://helpfulmindstreamforchanges.com 

Why Write a Story About a Birch Tree with Feelings about Family, Community and Environment

Why Write a Story about a Birch Tree with Feelings about Family, Community and Environment

Our mother earth is teaching us a lesson in universal responsibility. This blue planet is a delightful habitat. Its life is our life; its future, our future. Indeed, the earth acts like a mother to us all; as her children, we are dependent on her. In the face of the global problems we are going through it is important that we must all work together...Dalai Lama  April 2020

Animals don’t talk but that doesn’t mean that they don’t have voices or feelings. Trees don’t communicate but it doesn’t mean they don’t belong to their community and environment.  

In fact, a tree is a perfect member of a community that shows that  a body is an assembly of species and relationships, never self-contained. A tree can teach that we are an ecosystem in our own rights. Nature starts with a single cell growing to more complexity where each part has a purpose. We can best survive as a whole society if we believe in diversity and cooperation.

This birch tree is called Birchum who interacts with the weather, his humus, his seeds and leaves and helps his community in good times and bad with both shelter and food. He overcomes his insecurities with the help of a tree Dryad who as the essence of knowledge explains how his personal organization helps to contribute to his environment.  

Through many experiences he learns about the value of home, cooperation, and Nature’s most important Law that everything is connected. He takes pride in his unique Self in his special space as well as belonging to a forest legacy. He understands love as “moving together to help each other be better.” 

Within Nature’s cycles and plant succession, his time also reflects new beginnings followed by endings which become new beginnings.

However, with his People encounter, he realizes how big Ego and short-term thinking can impact a community’s lifetime, but that Nature can recover given a chance. With his Dryad they discuss giant food webs from primary nature’s perspective to people’s secondary processes in Mega Plants and Mega Malls, along with manufactured seeds, that try to alter the essence of life on Earth. 

A loud clarion call is heard throughout the story that the Universe is not outside you … 

“what’s good for each of us is good for all of us; 

what hurts one of us, hurts all of us.”

Like a web, the moral spins out that a solitary birch tree can represent the essential connections between our healthy Planet and balancing Self through cycles, cooperation, unity and appreciation of the wonder of Nature because once gone it can’t be replaced.

This e-book is available next week for download plus Kindle.

This week you can ask questions or share some thoughts about what you would say if you were a tree.  

Sincerely,

Annemarie Berukoff

Helpfulmindstreamforchanges.com

PS: "It's unbelievable that sometimes it takes great imagination to see how we are all connected..."  excerpt: The Ecological Succession of Birchum Birch

...a love story for all ages who care about family, community, environment and Nature