The world around us is full of small life and beautiful creatures that we will only know if we take the necessary time to carefully observe them. This book called Observology, A statement in favor of silent contemplation, He brings us closer to beings who share our vital space – Mariposas and bees, worms and even flies– Already other life forms and elements such as fungi (or the droppings of birds!) With which we live with distracted.
Accessible and pleasant, illustrated with both scientific strictness and creativity, Observology It places one hundred animal and plant species under an imaginary microscope and offers us the most interesting data of each. As a good manual, introduce In addition to the student of observologist in the theoretical principles of the activityExplaining the best time to practice it and the required basic instruments (magnifying glass, notebook, camera) to get the most out of the daily expeditions.
Much more than a purely catalog of living beings and elements of nature” Observology It is an instrument to teach the gaze, an invitation to get away from the screens and drag through the beautiful real thing we have before our nose.
Get that «Children fall in love with nature that are right in front of them“And” in her own house “is the goal of the Neo Zeeland illustrator Giselle Clarkson in her book ‘Observology: A manual for organizing small scientific expeditions’.
The manual for observology
Clarksson, who opens in the Spanish spreading market with the first Spanish translation of a work that combines science, humor and illustration, says in an interview with EFE to “a tool to teach the gaze” that promotes daily exploration of the little ones, since “that” promotes, “that” “”Writing about the science of children should be fun, you have to make them laughBut also respect their intelligence: if it is not a pleasant experience, they will not want to read it. “
Therefore, far from proposing a naturalistic catalog, the book «offers a series of tutorials, such as’ how to save a moth from drowning without deteriorating the situation” And culminates with a ‘final exam’, including a diploma that the reader gives the ‘authority to practice observology here, there and where’.
With training in visual arts from the University of Canterbury, Clarkson worked in children In the window look bugs instead of crushing them, better!“.
They are bugs, no samples
One of the personal crusades is precisely that of Change the story that weighs on invertebrates, as “essential for the health of our planet” as “misunderstood” And so he acknowledges that “it bothers me when the media talk about rare spiders or gigantic worms with words such as ‘monster’, ‘disgusting’ and ‘nightmare’.”
Science insists that Clarkson, “starts in the window” because the connection to the natural environment “does not require exotic journeys or special permits“And a child” can examine a fly or spider that crosses a wall or can support a coinaal without the permission of an adult. “
Loose Insects are “fantastic interesting, important and useful beings“Although they are often considered” boring or annoying because they are common or enter our houses without being invited, “an idea that wants to spread among the little ones.
Lots of magic and surprise
For Clarkson -maker of the concept of the Observology, It is essential that children have experiences with “surprise and magic”, not even during learning Threats such as climate change or loss of biodiversity.
Regarding the threats of the environment, it also believes that “as adults should lead children about them and give an example with good practices, but we should not forget that they are children” and that is why “”They deserve moments of magic while they deal with nature“.
Bees, butterflies, snails, lichens and fungi, among other things, parade through the pages of his work, but Clarkson encourages special attention to “the subtle beauty” of brown moths and their “Diversity of shapes and patterns«.
In this context, it reminds itself of an anecdote that reflects the importance of certain observations when, in March last year, the The Swedish biologist PAV Johnsson photographed a moth on the balcony of his hotel on Stewart Island, in Nieuw -Zeeland.
By sharing the image in Inaturalist – the platform that scientists and the general public share to publish their photos of nature, discovered that it was one ‘Titanomis sisyrota‘, popularly known as ICY PhoenixA species that had not been observed since 1959 and that was proclaimed until that time. Efe /ecoticia.com