“Raptors are apex predators. By virtue of their role as apex predators, raptors are an excellent indicator species for their ecosystems.”
Did you understand all of that? Did you have to dig into the memory bank of terms you learned in high school?
If you got all of that, that’s great; if you didn’t, don’t fret. Most people we encounter as HawkWatch International (HWI) Educators don’t know what an indicator species is, what differentiates apex predators, or that raptors are a group of birds and not just dinosaurs or an NBA team. As HWI educators, it is our job to gather the latest science from our team of researchers and then translate that in-depth science to a wider audience… yes, even to second graders.
At HWI, we teach a wide variety of ages and levels of science knowledge so we have to be cautious that we don’t fall victim to the “Curse of Knowledge” (cue lightning strike). The curse of knowledge is a cognitive bias where we assume everyone else knows as much as we do.
For example, if I say, “owls have a higher concentration of rods than cones that allow them to see better in low light,” this might not make sense to you, unless you know all about eye cells and when most owls hunt. What makes sense to me will not necessarily make sense to a 4th grader. Instead, we adjust how much content we include and what we think is the most important information for someone to take away.
For a 4th grader, we might say, “owls that are nocturnal, meaning they hunt and are most active at night, have special characteristics or adaptations in their eyes that allow them to see better at night, much better than we can!”
For high schoolers, we could go a bit more in-depth and say “humans have cells in our eyes called rods and cones; rods are light-sensitive and detect movement, and cones help us to see color, especially in bright light. Owls, because of their nocturnal nature, have way more rods than humans.” Then we might ask them, “Why might this be important?”
Ending a more scientific-filled statement with a question allows us to gauge whether learners understand our point. In contrast, asking questions at the beginning of our presentation allows us to better adjust our teaching methods and figure out how much learners already know. This is important because, as informal educators, we are not in a classroom with the same students every day. Every presentation will be different, and every time we will have to figure out where learners stand when it comes to certain topics. Are we introducing a new topic or complimenting one already taught by their teacher? This is true for adults as well. During our booth programs, we only get a few minutes with each visitor, so we have to ask ourselves, “what information do we want them to walk away with?”
Each educator at HawkWatch International has their own style. Melissa likes to use metaphors and take very complex scientific concepts and compare them to something the audience might be more familiar with. For example, she likes to compare raptor vision to how humans might use binoculars or magnifying glasses to make far-away things seem closer. I personally like to slow down and break the concept down into separate parts, explaining each a bit more in-depth and asking a lot of questions along the way.
The education team is also fortunate to have live Raptor Ambassadors to assist us, allowing us to connect with different learning styles. They are definitely one of our best tools, but teaching with a live animal is a practiced skill, especially when it comes to anthropomorphism, attributing human characteristics or behavior to an animal. Scientists aim to avoid anthropomorphizing, but this can be a useful tool in education if used properly. We want people to understand the importance of raptor conservation and often, that means looking for ways that raptors might be similar to us. We don’t necessarily want learners to project human perspectives onto our birds, but we want them to imagine what it would be like to be a bird of prey and to feel connected.
As informal science educators, we sometimes have to take a step away from the strict scientific rules and find ways to help learners, regardless of age, feel connected and inspired to help raptors and their ecosystems. This task isn’t always easy. There have been times when I skipped right through describing a concept because I thought it was something everyone knew. So, if you are ever at one of our programs and you hear us describe something that might be incredibly obvious to you, this is why. We want everyone to feel included and come away from our programs feeling excited and empowered to share what they learned.
Want to book a program with us? Fill out our interest form: https://hawkwatch.org/education/raptor-ambassador-programs/book/
This blog was written by Renata Vazquez, one of HWI’s Educators. You can learn more about Renata here.
Photos by Melissa Halvorsen.
