What does all of this mean for science education (see Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3)? Is this a depth and understanding all educators should have – all students should have? How does it look to teach this in a classroom? What about the barriers and divides that exist between the practice of education in classrooms and the achievement of these learnings for all members of society? What of the shortfalls of the Western education system? Why do we sit in desks? Is it the best way we learn? Do we all learn different?

Despite it being paradoxical, if everyone was capable of embracing and recognizing these issues through lenses of kinship with nature, pluralism, multiple perspectives, and subjectivity this may allow us all to proceed towards a collective “good” as a mosaic of individuals belonging to different cultures and places. We could critically analyze oppressive structures that are a fundamental part of our society today and see how they influence our perspectives and worldviews.

If you’ve been reading these posts or watching the videos up until now, you should see the passion I have for science education – how it looks for me – what I value – my perspectives and worldviews. It’d be short-sighted of me to think this is the way, but as I’ve hopefully conveyed, it is one of infinite potential ways of approaching science education and nature. One interpretation of an “infinite” universe based on a finite, limited experience, and who knows I may watch this video years from now and not agree with things I’ve said in it – and I asked questions in the videos and throughout their production. In creating these videos, I considered not having my face in it – simply doing a voice-over, yet then, instead, felt it would humanize me more, allow us to connect more by making me appear more real or “mortal”. Yet the fact that this video now is found on a system and network of electrical wires and code perhaps makes me immortal, despite my finite existence as a remixed compilation of atoms, cells, and experiences. The human you observe here may be long gone, yet continues to be a part of our new, natural world that includes the digital realm.

These thoughts in these blog posts and all of these videos – the nature of science, perspectives, kinship… they’re all parts of what I think science education should be and make you feel inside or outside of a classroom (wherever you learn, which should be everywhere). It’s why science shouldn’t be something you feel you aren’t good at, it’s why science should make you feel that kinship with nature and the universe, it’s why you shouldn’t just like science and nature, you should love science and nature. I believe as science educators and students, this is how it happens, you model what loving the universe feels like and what questioning everything looks like. What you do with that feeling, whether it is support environmental policies or simply find your place in this universe, is up to you.

Thanks,

Logan Petlak.