Today we began learning about Climate change and how it affects the entire world from Ms. Lonna Dawson who works for ACE, Alliance for Climate Education. She presented a stunning presentation with a lot of catchy and interesting ways that show us how we contribute to the slowly but surely happening climate change. I later asked her about her work dealing with how she chooses to inform the young generation about the world relating to climate change.
Does excitement in presenting your presentation come naturally or is that something you have to pull out of yourself?
"The excitement definitely comes naturally just because I'm excited about the message. Educating students on climate change and more importantly the solutions that you undertake to reverse climate change is extremely gratifying and extremely exciting. There are some days where as a presenter you have to bring a little bit more to the performance, but knowing that I'm educating students at such a powerful time and an important time in their life makes it exciting."
Who's idea was it to use this particular method of presenting your information?
"Well the presentation runs like a movie so its not a power point its a little more sophisticated for that and we decided to do and use animation that is fast pace and interactive; coupled with a dynamic in-personal presentation to really captivate the audience. We know what students are attracted too, we know the type of technology that they are familiar with and we wanted to make sure that our presentation uses the things that 'scientifically' have been shown to really get students thinking, texting or pictures moving quickly and there are colors being presented throughout the presentation so that was our motivation about using the innovation so that its a lot more fluid.
Is there anything about your job that makes you nervous about your job?
"No, I can't really elaborate on that. I mean there are plenty of things that make me excited. Things like that 'Ah ha' moment when they begin thinking about their consumption and how it can have an impact on the world."
After learning about climate change and how it impacts the community and the world around us, we took a trip to get some hands-on lessons about the subject at Cascade Springs Nature Preserve. There, students learned about how the PH levels of water have to be just right to support life in the waters that flow down such a serene environment. Peaceful and visually stunning, Cascade Springs is a wonderful yet hidden environment right in the city of Atlanta.
Later we went to the Outdoor Activity Center for some community service. There, students shoveled compost to be raked on to the trails behind the building.
Later, when the day was almost done, I sat down with Mr. Haddock, who is apart of WAWA or The West Atlanta Watershed Alliance and Mr. Krusac who is part of the U.S Forest Service for interviews.
Haddock-
How do you blend you job into teaching the youth?
"Well my actual title with the West Atlanta Watershed Alliance is the Environmental Educational Director so teaching is one of the principle duties that I have with the organization and teaching young or new initiates into the environmental movement is very exciting trying to develop more young emerging leaders into this movement is a fundamental priority for all environmental educational groups cause we certainly have to pass the torch on to the young people. So blending teaching and some service learning work is probably the tools that I use to get what we get done. We take people out and do community service projects and we actually educate them about the environment.
What is the most challenging aspect of your job or what is the most difficult task to complete?
"There's so much work to do is probably the most challenging. West Atlanta Watershed Alliance is principally a water organization concerned with water quality and recently we've broadened our scope to think about the acquisition of green space and the protection of the urban forest and so now the work is just continuing and growing and we're considering sustainability and climate change and all of these other things. I would hope that working for an environmental non-profit I would hopefully work myself out of a job as we create a solution for a problem but as it turns out there's always more problems to solve."
Because this is a non-profit job/organization what motivates you to do this type of work?
"My love for the environment was probably my first motivation as a child i grew up in New Jersey and I would spend my summers in Atlantic City so I loved the beach and I actually wanted to be a Marine Biologist and I got into the work thinking I would be scuba diving and hang out on the beach, but subsequently when I got my first job i was dressed up in a full encapsulated suit and working at a hazardous site, and obviously it wasn't a gorgeous beach. I've been an environmental scientist for 15 years professionally, but then I got older, got married, had kids and I wanna see a cleaner and healthier environment for them to grow up in.
The day ended with a presentation from Denise Krusac and Jackey Bellwood. I had a chance to ask some questions until we got back on the bus and headed home to Georgia Tech.
Ms. Bellwood
What is your career and how did you come to do what it is you do?
"I'm a biologist successor at Georgia Hiram College in Carters Ville. I teach basic biology but i also have an interest in natural education. We have several campuses and we educate teachers in areas of science, but also people who aren't necessarily interested in careers in science we try to get them to understand that science everyday is very important. I know some of you want to go to scientific group and some of you don't but I also want to make sure that you all are environmenatly literate."
Mr. Krusac
What is the most challenging aspect of your job as it relates to the youth?
" Um for me its probably saying 'No' because I can't remember when I've refused to talk to kids and youth and young adults and it gets really difficult because some days you're constantly running from one program to the next and we don't have weekends because we're doing these programs so saying no to an opportunity to talk to kids and adults about what we do is very difficult to do."
"I thought the day was really fun I learned a lot of new things that I didn't know until I came here, so I really liked it. It was a great day"
What was your favorite part of the day?
"I enjoyed when we went to the Cascade Nature Preserve because it was very peaceful and I felt like I wasn't even around the city anymore and it made me relax more."
How do you think you can apply what you've learned to your everyday life or your Earth Tomorrow Club at school?
"Well one thing I can apply to my everyday life is what we learned about global warming and how we can change the world by saving things and use less electricity and things like that.
Does excitement in presenting your presentation come naturally or is that something you have to pull out of yourself?
"The excitement definitely comes naturally just because I'm excited about the message. Educating students on climate change and more importantly the solutions that you undertake to reverse climate change is extremely gratifying and extremely exciting. There are some days where as a presenter you have to bring a little bit more to the performance, but knowing that I'm educating students at such a powerful time and an important time in their life makes it exciting."
Who's idea was it to use this particular method of presenting your information?
"Well the presentation runs like a movie so its not a power point its a little more sophisticated for that and we decided to do and use animation that is fast pace and interactive; coupled with a dynamic in-personal presentation to really captivate the audience. We know what students are attracted too, we know the type of technology that they are familiar with and we wanted to make sure that our presentation uses the things that 'scientifically' have been shown to really get students thinking, texting or pictures moving quickly and there are colors being presented throughout the presentation so that was our motivation about using the innovation so that its a lot more fluid.
Is there anything about your job that makes you nervous about your job?
"No, I can't really elaborate on that. I mean there are plenty of things that make me excited. Things like that 'Ah ha' moment when they begin thinking about their consumption and how it can have an impact on the world."
After learning about climate change and how it impacts the community and the world around us, we took a trip to get some hands-on lessons about the subject at Cascade Springs Nature Preserve. There, students learned about how the PH levels of water have to be just right to support life in the waters that flow down such a serene environment. Peaceful and visually stunning, Cascade Springs is a wonderful yet hidden environment right in the city of Atlanta.
Later we went to the Outdoor Activity Center for some community service. There, students shoveled compost to be raked on to the trails behind the building.
Mr. Darryl Haddock talking about the Nature Springs Preserve |
Veronica Holding a lightning bug in her hands |
Haddock-
How do you blend you job into teaching the youth?
"Well my actual title with the West Atlanta Watershed Alliance is the Environmental Educational Director so teaching is one of the principle duties that I have with the organization and teaching young or new initiates into the environmental movement is very exciting trying to develop more young emerging leaders into this movement is a fundamental priority for all environmental educational groups cause we certainly have to pass the torch on to the young people. So blending teaching and some service learning work is probably the tools that I use to get what we get done. We take people out and do community service projects and we actually educate them about the environment.
What is the most challenging aspect of your job or what is the most difficult task to complete?
"There's so much work to do is probably the most challenging. West Atlanta Watershed Alliance is principally a water organization concerned with water quality and recently we've broadened our scope to think about the acquisition of green space and the protection of the urban forest and so now the work is just continuing and growing and we're considering sustainability and climate change and all of these other things. I would hope that working for an environmental non-profit I would hopefully work myself out of a job as we create a solution for a problem but as it turns out there's always more problems to solve."
Because this is a non-profit job/organization what motivates you to do this type of work?
"My love for the environment was probably my first motivation as a child i grew up in New Jersey and I would spend my summers in Atlantic City so I loved the beach and I actually wanted to be a Marine Biologist and I got into the work thinking I would be scuba diving and hang out on the beach, but subsequently when I got my first job i was dressed up in a full encapsulated suit and working at a hazardous site, and obviously it wasn't a gorgeous beach. I've been an environmental scientist for 15 years professionally, but then I got older, got married, had kids and I wanna see a cleaner and healthier environment for them to grow up in.
The day ended with a presentation from Denise Krusac and Jackey Bellwood. I had a chance to ask some questions until we got back on the bus and headed home to Georgia Tech.
Ms. Bellwood
What is your career and how did you come to do what it is you do?
"I'm a biologist successor at Georgia Hiram College in Carters Ville. I teach basic biology but i also have an interest in natural education. We have several campuses and we educate teachers in areas of science, but also people who aren't necessarily interested in careers in science we try to get them to understand that science everyday is very important. I know some of you want to go to scientific group and some of you don't but I also want to make sure that you all are environmenatly literate."
Mr. Krusac
What is the most challenging aspect of your job as it relates to the youth?
" Um for me its probably saying 'No' because I can't remember when I've refused to talk to kids and youth and young adults and it gets really difficult because some days you're constantly running from one program to the next and we don't have weekends because we're doing these programs so saying no to an opportunity to talk to kids and adults about what we do is very difficult to do."
"I thought the day was really fun I learned a lot of new things that I didn't know until I came here, so I really liked it. It was a great day"
What was your favorite part of the day?
"I enjoyed when we went to the Cascade Nature Preserve because it was very peaceful and I felt like I wasn't even around the city anymore and it made me relax more."
How do you think you can apply what you've learned to your everyday life or your Earth Tomorrow Club at school?
"Well one thing I can apply to my everyday life is what we learned about global warming and how we can change the world by saving things and use less electricity and things like that.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.