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?

How would you answer these 10 questions in a Podcast Interview? 2 Complete Answers Given

How would you answer these 10  questions on a Podcast Interview…two Answers given

Do you realize that only 40 per cent of surveyed people associate the benefits of biodiversity and nature with necessities of life such as food, water and fresh air? Time to change this.

Here is the background:

We have the moral responsibility to live in harmony with nature, but what exactly does nature give us? At their simplest, nature’s services are things people often take for granted:  the air we breathe, the water we drink and the food we eat all ultimately rely on nature and biodiversity.

But other services are less obvious: nature is the bedrock for the production of the most common goods in our way of life which rely on bio-diverse environments. Oceans and coral reefs provide food and livelihoods to hundreds of millions of people. Forests clean the air, regulate the local climate and retain water for rivers. Healthy soils are essential to grow crops. Mountains and glaciers are key sources of water for major rivers. Increasingly, the fragility of ecosystems poses huge risks to societal and economic stability.

Quite simply, our natural balance is the foundation for a healthy society, fair economy for all, and global security.

I am looking for podcast hosts interested in discussing questions about ecology

Here are two questions answered:

1. What are the relationships between Earth’s biosphere, ecology, ecosystem and environment and us?

Biosphere is a global ecosystem which extends from a few kilometers into the atmosphere to at least 200 meters below the oceans based on water, air, minerals and all living organisms. 

Ecology is the study of relationships, competitions and interactions of all living organisms and fellow beings within its surrounding environment  

Note: Its etymology means study of the house, in this case, the planetary house.

.

Ecosystem is a more functional localized unit with its own energy cycle containing all of the living species and all non-living elements in any particular environment. This energy flows through four levels from the sun through plants, food producers, consumers like animals, and  microorganisms, which ends with decomposition in order to recycle the process again. This can be as simple as puddle, a single tree or a forest. 

Environment depends on sunlight, soil, topography, water, atmosphere which includes energy cycles like food chains, nutrient cycles and ecological succession. Plant and animal communities as well as micro organisms form their self-sustaining habitats.

So, how important is it to relate to the Big Picture? Of course, it helps to better visualize how you and I have an individual footprint in our own habitation which is connected to the entire biosphere. By polluting our home, we add distress to the ecosystem of every other organism extending into our biosphere. When we drink a glass of fresh water, that water is  interconnected to the Big Picture and needs to be protected from its base.

2. What is the relationship between a water molecule and a hydrocarbon character?

I must say that hydrocarbons were some of the most amazing research for this e-book…I had no idea how carbon is one of the  most important elements on Earth

The most common building block for all organic life on Earth is the carbon molecule.  It is found in the soil and sedimentary rocks as well as in the atmosphere where it's a part of carbon dioxide gas emitted when fossil fuels are burned or when living organisms breathe out. It is also found in the ocean sediments developed from decaying hard shells and body parts of marine organisms.

Carbon also comes from photosynthesis which is the light energy that transfers electrons from water (H2O) to carbon dioxide (CO2), to produce carbohydrates and release oxygen.

Carbohydrates  are molecular compounds made from just three elements: carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. Smaller molecules are known as  glucose and  sucrose often called sugars. To make proteins, carbon will bind with hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen (and sometimes sulfur).

Just think the food we eat is really a complex amalgamation of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. Does it make you wonder how we can ever gain weight?

  

A Hydrocarbon only has the elements of carbon (C) and hydrogen (H). The carbon atoms join together to form the framework of the compound, and the hydrogen atoms attach to them in many different configurations. Standard composition for petroleum is 85% carbon 12% hydrogen and maybe a little nitrogen / oxygen.

The water sprite (H2O) has a a natural affinity with a hydrocarbon because they contain hydrogen. 

However, molecular chemistry is not the theme of this story even if it's interesting how bonded we are with other life forms. Almost 99% of the mass of the human body is made up of six elements: oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, calcium, and phosphorus. 

Only about 0.85% is composed of another five elements: potassium, sulfur, sodium, chlorine, and magnesium.

Then you ask Google what is a tree composed of: almost 98% (by weight) of a tree is made up of six elements: carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus and sulfur. 

Because we are bonded together with such common elements, it is vital to respect all forms of life to maintain natural balance. It is not surprising that this unique water sprite with plant features is often amazed with his encounters with different characters, some imaginary, but in real settings; and how many life forms and systems are interdependent where one broken link can affect the whole system.

Other relevant ecological questions are:

• What are the 5 parts of the water cycle beyond evaporation and condensation?
• How is climate change affected by the water cycle and vice versa?
• Why is environmental sustainability based on biological diversity?
• What are some amazing Cyclical Truths discovered in a water cycle journey that may be less known?
• How is pollution related to all  5 parts of a water cycle?
• What Is the difference between a natural cycle and a human manufacturing process?
• How can our lifestyles help to protect our water resources?
• Why does the water sprite hero have roots … doesn’t that make him immobile?
• Can scientific facts be understood better through an imaginative creative license as a first person bonding experience?
• Can water teach us about morality?  Does ecology have an ethical base?

Many of these questions can be answered by a living, feeling, talking water sprite with roots  with affinity to all lifeforms as he narrates his discoveries about several important cycles to maintain a healthy ecosystem, a healthy biodiversity and a healthy humankind society.

His story definitely connects the dots between climate, food production and ecosystems, but most importantly, he becomes a friend to the readers to be respected and protected.

What are some questions you would like to know about ecology or environmental sustainability?

Questions and comments are always important ... this finite blue planet is all we have. 

Sincerely,

Annemarie

amarie10@gmail.com

833 471 4661 (leave message and best time to call back) 

Excerpt: The Incredible Journey of a Water Sprite with Roots

 I wonder but I really don't know. I wonder if anybody knows, even humankinds who are probably too busy with no time to dig deeper into what the right connections can mean to us all. But I care. Is caring a cycle? If you care enough about something, is that caring returned to you? If responsibility is given or taken, is that responsibility respected and used well? Generally speaking, do humankinds believe in being responsible at least, if not appreciative, of how past, present and future actions are all connected?

...a friendly micro-organism found in fresh water ponds