Learning Outcome Three: Employ techniques of active reading, critical reading, and informal reading response for inquiry, learning, and thinking.

Introduction: There are many ways to approach active and critical reading, everyone does it differently. You have to do it in the way it works for you. Annotating allows you to connect with the writer on a deeper level. When I am annotating a paper, I go through and mark things that I simply do not understand. This makes it easier to pull apart the reading and to comprehend everything that is going on. Another thing that is important to remember when reading is to realize why you are being asked to read this. Other things that I decided to mark up were, things that were interesting and things that made me curious to learn more.

Below the journal entry, you will find sign posts. This is how I chose to annotate the journal article that I read. One thing that I questioned was what is place-based learning. The article talks about it, and in order for me to fully understand it, I needed to know what that was. In the article, one thing that I found interesting was the fact that Hawaii is surrounded by water and there is actually a less amount of students who are interested in marine biology. Something that I made a connection to was having career days, when I was younger I always found them so helpful, to see all the different careers and the different directions you could bring your life to.

Journal Entry: In the article, Journey through the Hawaiian Archipelago: Using Marine Science and Place-Based Learning at the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology, its main focus was developing interests in local communities about joining and enrolling in marine science programs. There is less interest in marine biology with local students and more interests from out of state students. To address this issue, the HIMB wanted to bring the science to the students. They accomplished this by partnering with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Associations where they reached out to k-12 students and incorporated art-science projects. These science projects were used to enhance students awareness and understanding of coral reefs. The purpose of this study was to help transform student attitudes towards marine science and increase the number of local participants in marine programs. 

The HIMB also wanted to promote the number of local/female students participating in ocean science fields and provide diverse learning programs for everyone. Their main goal was to try and spark interest and enrollment into related ocean programs. At least half of the students that completed the Moku o Lo‘e: The Best Kept Secret in Ka –ne´ohe Bay course showed a change in their opinion about science and its importance in conservation and stewardship. These were results that HIMB was hoping for and it did support their thoughts on getting people involved in marine sciences. 

Questions (pink)

Q1: “Using place-based and experiential education” (Pg 30)

• What is place-based learning?

Q2: “The ability of environmental education” (Pg 31)

• How will learning experiences transform the attitudes of students? And how will kids take that to the next level?

Q3: “Partnering with other curriculum programs” (Pg 32)

• Do other programs demonstrate these ideas in a better way?

Interests/Curiosity (blue)

I 1: “Yet for a state enclosed” (Pg 30-31)

• Interesting to see that they are surrounded by water and there is not a lot of interest in studying marine biology.

I 2: “By targeting different segments of” (Pg 31-32)

• Will these interests actually lead to students pursuing a career in marine biology? Or will the interest fade with time?

I 3: “These collaborations have resulted in” (Pg 32)

• 20,000 people got the info, but how many are going to turn that into a career?

Connections (green)

C1: “In Hawai’i, however many school” (Pg 31)

• This made me relate to going to school back home. It wasn’t very often that we had the opportunity to go on field trips because of things like busing, liability, and costs.

C2: “Career days also reach hundreds” (Pg 32)

• Career days are very helpful and involve a lot of planning. But from a student’s perspective they are insightful for someone who does not know what field they want to work in.

C3: “Place-based and experiential education” (Pg 34)

• I relate this to how I learn. Hands on activities have a greater impact for me on retaining the information.