Kenneth

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Biology
Zoology
College / University Preparation

A passionate Biologist and Natural Historian with a B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. in Zoology with 40 years experience in large public Aquariums who loves to share his passion, knowledge and experience.

Biology
Zoology
College / University Preparation

Lesson location

- online

About Kenneth

A passion for biology has been the hallmark of my professional and personal life. This passion is most fulfilling when I can inspire a sense of wonder and understanding about the multiple facets of biological processes, organisms, interactions and natural systems. For 39 years as an Aquarium professional my greatest rewards have been engaging guests through living animals and systems to share knowledge and inspire caring through the first hand, real life experiences that aquariums can provide.

Now I want to re-direct this passion in a different, but similar direction. I would like to interact more directly with people to help them understand the uniqueness of animals, plants, and ecosystems in our world, and the interaction with the physical and chemical aspects of habitats that shape them. An intuitive understanding of these interactions is vital to the functioning of the large systems in today’s public aquariums, and I would like to inspire and help create this intuition in others.

My thoughts about the next steps in my professional life keep coming back to teaching biology. Not because I think this will be easy, but because it will present challenges where I can use the first-hand knowledge of biology that I have accumulated in my career to help others learn and understand.

My teaching experience was a while ago, in grad school, but my teaching in “educational moments” with guests along our exhibit path, and in training staff, have been frequent and rewarding.
I would appreciate talking with you or others on your staff about how I can help your institution with helping all generations better understand and our biological world so that they will care enough to make good decisions.

About the lesson

I believe all learners are unique due to their variable experiences, and may all need different approaches to teaching depending on their motivations. Some are younger, and looking to either complete coursework as requirements for a degree, or are majoring in the course subject to make it their career. Some may be more experienced and mature, already with a degree, and want to learn more about the subject for the sheer joy of learning and exploring a subject.
The difference in motivation between these two general groups demands different approaches which need to be as varied as the backgrounds of the learners. Teaching biology has a special advantage for the educator as most learners will have an innate and almost instinctual interest due to what is termed biophilia, or love of biology. At a basic level, humans have needed to know about their biological surroundings to learn vital information: what you can eat, what is going to eat you, which situations are safe, and which are not. This innate interest drives an interest in nature, animals, plants and ecosystem interactions.
Teaching is about making connections for the individual, so that new information can be related to what a learner already knows, so that knowledge can be anchored in what has been learned before. These connections will be unique to the individual. For example, when teaching someone who knows about octopuses about bird behavior, I would focus on what is similar, between bird behavior and octopus behavior.
One of the escape behaviors of an octopus is to flush red, jet away leaving an ink cloud, and then quickly change to a lighter color and become immobile on the reef so that the eye follows the cloud and not the now-camouflaged animal. There is a similar behavior in a shorebird, the Willet, which displays bright black and white markings on the wings while in flight, which draws the eye, but when it lands on a beach it quickly folds its wings covering the bright markings, runs, and then stops and remains motionless. The bird goes from a bright animal easily seen to a gray immobile object distant from where the eye last saw the animal.
As another example, given someone is interested in mechanical pursuits and information, the biomechanics of insect flight can be compared with aircraft. Finally, a scuba diver can understand the dynamics of gas exchange in some insects that dive down in the water by relating this to correct buoyancy balance in the water, a basic scuba skill.
As an educator I use my experience and education based expertise in biology to recognize a learner’s interests to make a connection to the new information being taught. I draw on my 42 years of real-life experience from undergraduate and graduate studies and 39 years designing, building, and managing large public aquariums to draw parallels to connect to the information being taught. Hopefully these new connections will open up a new windows to a fascinating range of subject matter that will motivate my students to want to learn more.
My passion for the subject drives me to find ways to help others learn and appreciate biology and the scientific method. A deep love of this science inspires me to help others love and understand the subject as I do. I also believe in the scientific method of inquiry as the bases for gathering the most useful and predictive knowledge. Anecdotally based explanations may be a source for questions to ask, but by themselves can be misleading: statistically supported information has the best chance of finding the real patterns amid the “noise” of nature. I strive to help develop the ability of learners to think critically in the same way.
I also believe that a teaching philosophy and techniques need to be dynamic as a teacher grows in their profession. Keeping an open mind and continuing to develop are part of growth for all of us.

A passionate Biologist and Natural Historian with a B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. in Zoology with 40 years experience in large public Aquariums who loves to share his passion, knowledge and experience.

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A passionate Biologist and Natural Historian with a B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. in Zoology with 40 years experience in large public Aquariums who loves to share his passion, knowledge and experience.

Lesson location

About Kenneth

About the lesson

Rates

Rate

Pack rates

online

Other tutors in Biology

Isabella

Amelia

Willow

Lian

Sarah

Madison

Michael

Lila

Madison

Aria

Isabella

Sophia

Hanna

Zara

Katherine

Nathaniel

Hannah

Chloe

Sophia

Rachel

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