Here at the North Carolina Science Trail, there are a few things we talk about often: recognizing science in your everyday life, embracing the ability to explore the world around you, and learning to make observations. If I am talking with a group of teachers who want to engage their students with science in more meaningful ways, the first thing I tell them to do is to take their students outside and have to them watch ants. This usually gets a little chuckle before everyone realizes I’m very serious. Learning to make observations of the small things that occur in nature helps you to be more in tune with the surrounding world. It opens your eyes to the fact that humans are only one small part of the living earth, and that all of our actions have an impact, even down to the tiniest creatures.
In this installment of Explore Your Nature Neighborhood, Sara Gagné provides us with a wonderful summer challenge. Take the time to put your phone away and observe nature. Watch the birds. See the caterpillars, follow the ants. You may be surprised at how good you feel and how many things you notice. We are hoping you find yourself back on that same forest bench tomorrow to do it all again. No two days in nature are the same.
You can read more about Sara’s work and classes on her website or Instagram page. There is also a link here to check our her book on connecting with urban nature or watch her newly released TEDx talk on YouTube.
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By Sara Gagné, Urban Ecologist, UNCC
This installment is all about you. By relying on your senses, you’ll practice the skill of observation and find peace of mind in the process. Yes, observation is a skill and the more you practice it, just like my frenemy the piano when I was a kid, the better at it you’ll be. But unlike the piano, which, to be honest, I never really took to, you’ll discover new things about your surroundings each and every time.
In the Using Your Senses video, Melissa Dowland, former Coordinator for Teacher Education at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences is back to help you discover what your senses – sight, smell, hearing, and taste – can teach you about the natural world. The video and the Using Your Senses to Observe Nature and Nature Haiku activities that encourage you to write what you observe in your nature journal are similar to a class assignment I used once during the pandemic. I asked students to spend 20 minutes in a favorite outdoor natural space and observe their surroundings. Students were not to use their phone and at the end of the allotted time, had to write what they had observed and how it made them feel. I was stunned by the thoughtful and detailed essays I received. Many students said that they had never done anything like the assignment before and were truly surprised by how engrossed they became in observing the natural world. They were also surprised by how much there was to see.
Now, I take my students forest bathing in the UNC Charlotte Botanical Gardens with Jennifer Bueno-Hutchens, a certified Association of Nature and Forest Therapy Guide. Forest bathing, or Shinrin-Yoku, is the Japanese custom of soaking up the atmosphere of a forest through the senses. Being in nature is a proven stress reliever and antidote to the mental exhaustion we all feel these days and forest bathing is the best way that I’ve found to unlock that potential. This spring semester, many students stayed on once the activity, and class time, had elapsed. We chatted for a little while about nothing in particular; I remember talking about turtles, seeds, and summer. Before we parted, one student shared that this was the most relaxed she had ever felt, which speaks to the power of the practice and the evident need for it. I hope you experience the same transformation and over the coming weeks, continue to practice using your senses to observe the beauty that surrounds us every day.
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Thank you to the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences for partnering with the NC Science Trail.
