Museum without walls: making Earth and planetary science education more equitable
Sarah Wardlaw
While becoming enriched by knowledge of Earth and and planetary science, it seems there is a reluctance for many to believe in the idea that such knowledge can lead to an absolute truth about the natural environment. The play is for surface not substance. This is the perceived correspondence between human and natural worlds, notions of deep-time, or a primordial past that constitutes a knowledge which is usually preserved or understood by a small group or those specially initiated in the scientific disciplines.
We can be in no doubt that a high-quality Earth-science education provides the foundations for understanding the world and is an important part of the school curriculum, yet is usually introduced with progression through specialised chemistry area of study, with few or no opportunities to engage and motivate a new generation of diverse learners. There are few opportunities to learn outdoors too, to visit exhibitions, or participate in gamified or other interactive experiences to learn about the super-type scenarios such as the big bang or other natural events and the science ideas underlying them. There is a tendency to simply deny or neglect the meaningfulness or significance of phenomenological experience. A reduction, it can be argued, that precludes the many ways in which we experience 'embodiedness' with planet.
As we repeatedly fail to recognise user-learners practical needs, or to implement the necessary services to bring about improvements, the easy-to-grasp grand or ‘‘meta’’ narratives of religious belief systems such as the story told in Genesis of God's six-day creation continue to inform human consciousness and becomes deeply rooted in social relations. Consideration, therefore, needs to be given to the epistemological aspects of learning and engagement of Earth and planetary science that have been neglected by 20th century epistemology.
For Robert B. Laughlin, understanding concepts of geologic time and some basic science can give a new perspective on climate change and the energy future: "The damage that human activity presently inflicts, many say, is comparable to this. Extinctions, unlike carbon dioxide excesses, are permanent." We can be no doubt that understanding of geoscience is key for a more stable vision of the world, albeit one that is not bound up by geographical divisions or along sectarian lines.
Developing inter and cross-border practices that is concerned with fostering public engagement must be involved at some level with the adoption of new learning experiences that involves data gathering, modelling, and processing of imagery and sounds etc. The usability of geo-graphic data is a particular challenge; the focus being on how it is structured and encoded within the different levels of learning experience. This is where we can look to the dynamic between empirical science and differences in perspective or information processing styles.
We should maybe look to those great sacred spaces of the world religions, as a place of ‘‘knowing’’, as what we may today term as 'experiential space' whereby new mediated user-learner experiences can powerfully translate scientific processes as observable events rather than depending on narrow and frequently disconnected contexts. As science advances and the relationship between art, technology, and society evolves new challenges are created. We can consider promoting public participation outside the classroom more by extending spatial coverage of under-utilised geological assets and overlaying them with augmented experiences and information, thus ensuring a continual source of creative and practical responses are stratified with free movement of individuals, families, or groups.
Through citizen engagement we can increase the level of stimulation, gather new data, enhance the user-learner experiences through social media and give citizens new spatial skills, new knowledge, and ultimately new freedoms. The idea that Earth and planetary sciences can inspire participatory and creative work through engagement that relates across divides and possibly even helping to improve cross-cultural adaptation in the future. One can see Malraux’ thoughts on the concept and opportunities for a musée imaginaire – a ‘museum without walls’, and as a logical extension knowledge arising from this the nature of planetary scale reasoning.