Thursday, October 25, 2007

Young Scientists

Kids Count: Young Citizen-Scientists Learn Environmental Activism
From Edutopia
http://www.edutopia.org/service-learning-citizen-science

Now I understand this article is very short compared to others, but I saw some things as I read that got me thinking about our environment and some things that I truly enjoyed reading. This article touched on young citizens (like me) getting involved in their community through science. The story told in the article was one about the rediscovery of wingless soil insects. (For some fun, trivial background information): This specie of insect was first discovered in New York in 1951. This tiny purple bug was found by a group of high school students at Great Smokey Mountains National Park, which is located on the border of Tennessee and North Carolina, according to my research.
One thing I really liked about this article was how the youth was getting involved in their world. Normally, these days you see teens wasting a lot of their time on things like the computer or fiddling around with the new technology and getting so wrapped up in it (I include myself in this). Now I’m not "dissing" on our technology, because our technology gives us amazing advantages. But we as humans get so involved with whatever new gadget that our world begins to revolve around just that, and nothing else. I think that we need to remember where we came from. And for me, it’s nice to hear there are people staying in touch with the real world… I find it refreshing.
The other thing I loved so much about this article was that fact that it proves; We never stop learning. Amazing, isn’t it? I am in love with this. I can wake up everyday knowing that today isn’t going to be the same thing as it was yesterday, but it will be totally different. I look forward to learning more about me, my family, my friends, and of course, my world. As I read that these students rediscovered this little insect, I though to myself: "How lucky are we?" Some people might say, "Well, it’s just a bug." Just a bug? I say, "HELLO WORLD OF NEW DISCOVERIES!" It’s weird how exciting this is for me....But just think about it...If that little bug was out there, think of what else might be undiscovered. The world has come so far from its beginning and to think that we still haven’t discovered all it has to offer simply amazes me.

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1 comment:

Sean J. said...

Hannah Your blog was great. As young citizens we really do need to strart thinking about our world and ways that we can help. It was good that you really expressed your feelings about the article.