Why should Ecobuttons run

Please note that when this article was written I was intending to bring this activity to the Earth centre near Doncaster. Now, due to the closure of that centre, that is of course impossible. There was one centre for sustainability that, sadly, could not sustain itself.

However, I am keen to look for another possible location for this activity in my home town of Sheffield. Enjoy.

Ecobuttons: Interactive is best!

A Manifesto

The 19th century natural scientist, Alexander von Humboldt, once claimed that “to know and to recognize is a general human right”. This is a statement that I fully agree with. It is my mission to make the knowing and the recognizing as dynamic and exciting as possible. It is my mission to kindle the curiosity that lies within a child to understand how the world works, to give them enough so that they can find out further for themselves. To bring a sense of belonging back to those who may have felt otherwise excluded or overlooked in life. This project will try and achieve that ultimate aim in a variety of ways, both in its content and in its delivery.

When Interactivity Works Best

I believe that, for most people, learning works best when you can share that learning experience with others around you, or even others overseas. Designing an exhibit or activity has to take this social element into account, for any discovery centre has a duty to bring communities together and to include everyone. I think that this applies to the Earth centre more than most places, it does not have the advantage of being located within a big city with a large tourist trade, and it relies largely on the local community envisioning it as a worthwhile place to take the kids on a day out, time after time.

I believe that the days of static, ’push a button’ type exhibits are largely over. A recent report detailing a survey carried out at “Explore-At-Bristol,” a science discovery centre that is totally based on ‘hands-on’ activities, brought to light some interesting findings. According to the writers results, “When visitors were encouraged by the hands-on activity to play a game with their fellow visitors, they spent a lot more time at that specific exhibit. When, however, interaction was limited to “pushing a button” to activate the activity, visitors showed less interest.” (Conti, 2004, 4) Furthermore, they add “The public’s interaction with the hands-on activities clearly indicated that using an exhibit can be a salient social moment. The exhibits used simultaneously by at least two visitors were the most popular. The most frequently observed reaction to the hands-on activities (64.9%) was that of visitors talking to one another and exchanging views on what they had just experienced.” This is why I believe that a successful exhibit or event like this should actively promote this interactive involvement of visitors. It should not only be people interacting with exhibits. But people interacting with people within exhibit space, or, in other words, visitors should feel part of the exhibit they are partaking in, and not just a casual observer.

Involving Everybody

It is very important for a centre such as the Earth centre to be seen by the eyes of all members of the community as a useful and valuable resource. The integral way of achieving this state of affairs is of course to make the activities appealing to everyone. One way to do this is to provide fun outdoor activities, and the Earth centre has already gone quite a way in that direction, with highly successful climbing and canoeing facilities amongst others. But it is also the responsibility for this kind of centre to provide a base of learning. The Earth centre’s mission statement is “to inspire understanding of sustainable development and to help people achieve it in their own lives and for the world.” If you are to have an ethos, then it must be continually worked towards. Whenever knowledge and understanding is concerned, any apparent disinterest by the recipient must be put down to ineffectual communication by the teacher. My business is in making learning look desirable, and this is what I intend this activity to bring to the Earth Centre

This means understanding and involving potential audiences. It is very important to me that this activity reaches as wide an audience as possible. Science education officer at Kelham Island Museum in Sheffield, Katy Armstrong, achieved this when she initiated the project ‘Star Matters’ as part of national science week in 2002. This was a “community outreach initiative that aimed to substantially increase family participation rates… from the disadvantaged and culturally diverse communities bordering Kelham Island Museum.” (Keir, 2003) A crucial part of this project will be to understand, contact, and involve all potential audiences.

What Knowing and Recognizing Can Do

I don’t believe that the traditional picture of the eco-warrior does any good to the image of ‘green’ issues in the public eye. You can’t go around forcing people to recycle their wares, save energy, or eat organic chocolate bars. Human nature is such that the more you try and impose these things, the more defiance arises. What you can do is to explain how the world works, demonstrate what effects result from our misuse of the worlds resources, and then leave the ultimate ethical decisions to the customer, to the consumer, still leaving choice intact. Most citizens after all, except the very youngest, are not empty vessels completely ignorant of environmental issues- everybody has some idea and some degree of opinion on say, air pollution, or deforestation and it makes sense to tap into these popular lay beliefs because often they can be just as valuable as technical knowledge for the further advancement of humankind. In science communication there are two central models for how the public understand science, and this applies to environmental concerns as well; in the deficient model information is seen as being transmitted in a one-way stream from the technical community to the public. In the contextual approach, we, as communicators, try to take account of the particular circumstances of the recipients of technical information and of their existing knowledge and beliefs. I cannot stress enough how important it is to understand peoples circumstances when it comes to issues like these.

Not knowing leaves people scared. Once people have knowledge, life seems much brighter, and gives them confidence that they can actually make a difference to the world. And having just a little knowledge about the complex networks and cycles that are present on Earth, of how simple the underlying rules actually are, and how even the smallest of changes can result in a huge impact on a global scale, once their horizons are broadened to see the world changing on an unprecedented scale and understand exactly how they could make a difference; then can people can go make their decisions. Just as this project aspires to be presented in way that involves and immerses the visitor. Just as it hopes to involve everyone no matter their background, their beliefs, their circumstances. It’s content is also one that is geared towards making those people feel as though they belong to something much greater, something for which their actions really do count, something indubitably beautiful… This dynamic, complex system we call our Earth.

Learning Lessons From Nature

One of the most important parts of this project is it’s attempt to blend an awareness of the complex, self organizing principles of nature with similar forms of self-organization and autonomy that can help stabilize a society that has been left in depression after loss of industry and livelihood. From this, I take inspiration from an activist community located in Asturias in north-western Spain named ‘Escanda,’ which, when translated into English stands for ‘Collective Social Space for Self-Organization, Diversity and Autonomy’. This region has seen a downturn in economic prospects over recent decades with the closure of mines and shipyards, generating high levels of unemployment. The founders of the Escanda initiative “believe that regions in crisis offer good possibilities to take control of their lives through the construction of the type of social relations that we want to experiment with at Escanda.” (quoted by Muller, 2004)

I believe that there are parallels between the region of Asturias and that of the Don and Dearne Valley. Escanda’s main aim is to create a autonomous, self-sustainable community, a space where new combinations and connections between individuals can occur, a horizontal space far from the hierarchies and role-attribution of a state-led society. In their own words; Escanda’s contribution is “constructing alternative social relations based on solidarity, equality in diversity, autonomous self-organization, mutual support, and the integration of human activities with the ecosystems where they take place.” (emphasis added) I believe that the Earth centre too should have a commitment to these values and that this current project will try to integrate both the central environmental ethos of the centre as well as its obligation to promote good citizenship.

Evaluation

Every science or environmental communication project requires good evaluation, not just as an afterthought but as a continual and integral part of the activity itself. Thus, I am intending to make evaluation a very important part of this project. Evaluation methods that I might use include questionnaires, interviews, focus groups, video diaries or feedback comments. I will be looking at how well my project has fared towards meeting its aims;

1) Visitors leaving the activity having learnt new things, having an idea of how ecosystems are organized, and being inspired to continue learning and to make changes in their lives that could reflect this sensitivity and holistic organization of nature.

2) Creating an interactive and social environment which succeeds in bringing people together. Teaching people the importance of working together for the good of the whole, while nevertheless (and this is important) retaining their individuality and autonomy.

3) Accessing and involving all possible participants from the community, including disadvantaged and culturally diverse members of the community.

4) As part of understanding that customers are not ‘blank-slates’ and have already been exposed to issues on ecology and sustainability from the media, from books, and from life experiences I want to encourage public debate. It will be difficult to assess just how ‘involved’ visitors felt towards the content of the activity/exhibition, but I shall attempt it.

To sum up the project, I would call it a science communication project that has strong social implications both in content and delivery. A forward thinking educational project that highlights not just a scientific theory, but a whole new way of looking at the world. A way that is inclusive and horizontal, rather than exclusive and vertical. A way that is dynamic and non-linear, rather than static and linear. A thoughtful and considerate way, and a way that I very strongly believe in.

August 2004

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