Comments on: Spring Comes To Northern Ohio http://www.nabt.org/blog/2009/03/27/spring-comes-to-northern-ohio/ A Biology Teaching Community Sun, 11 Nov 2012 04:35:30 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: richardbenz http://www.nabt.org/blog/2009/03/27/spring-comes-to-northern-ohio/comment-page-1/#comment-9 richardbenz Sun, 29 Mar 2009 20:53:20 +0000 http://www.nabt.org/blog/?p=47#comment-9 We had our first birdsong morning just about a week ago. Later in the year it will be much easier to take this for granted (or at least to not notice the beauty of birdsong.) Of course when I teach a workshop at Philips Exeter in late June, it is hard to ignore the incredibly loud birds that start right around 4:30 AM right outside my dorm window ; ( But we need to think about nature as Rachel Carson described in The Sense Of Wonder--> we need to observe the night sky or the birds in the trees, or the meadow flowers as though it was the last time we were ever going to experience it again. AND we need to pass this WONDER along to our children and to our students. Carson wrote that she would endow every child with "a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life." However, "if a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder, he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement, and mystery of the world we live in." The word cloud was made with a web application called Wordle at www.wordle.net. You paste in a paragraph or what-have-you and the application creates the word cloud. Then I do a screen capture jpg and insert as needed. I try to select text that I think will look good--in this case I wanted Environment, creek, students, Earth, watershed, etc. RB We had our first birdsong morning just about a week ago. Later in the year it will be much easier to take this for granted (or at least to not notice the beauty of birdsong.) Of course when I teach a workshop at Philips Exeter in late June, it is hard to ignore the incredibly loud birds that start right around 4:30 AM right outside my dorm window ; (
But we need to think about nature as Rachel Carson described in The Sense Of Wonder–> we need to observe the night sky or the birds in the trees, or the meadow flowers as though it was the last time we were ever going to experience it again. AND we need to pass this WONDER along to our children and to our students. Carson wrote that she would endow every child with “a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life.” However, “if a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder, he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement, and mystery of the world we live in.”

The word cloud was made with a web application called Wordle at http://www.wordle.net. You paste in a paragraph or what-have-you and the application creates the word cloud. Then I do a screen capture jpg and insert as needed. I try to select text that I think will look good–in this case I wanted Environment, creek, students, Earth, watershed, etc. RB

]]> By: rheyden http://www.nabt.org/blog/2009/03/27/spring-comes-to-northern-ohio/comment-page-1/#comment-7 rheyden Sun, 29 Mar 2009 19:25:57 +0000 http://www.nabt.org/blog/?p=47#comment-7 Very nice, Rich. I loved your description of the coming spring and the importance of keeping the big picture in mind as we investigate the details. So much of this is about noticing, right? Paying attention and noticing. For instance, when I went outside this morning, I noticed birdsong. The first birdsong of spring, here in New England, breaking the silence of winter. Also liked your Wordle - is made up of the text from this entry? Very nice, Rich. I loved your description of the coming spring and the importance of keeping the big picture in mind as we investigate the details. So much of this is about noticing, right? Paying attention and noticing. For instance, when I went outside this morning, I noticed birdsong. The first birdsong of spring, here in New England, breaking the silence of winter. Also liked your Wordle – is made up of the text from this entry?

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