Posted by Bunky Manley on January 30, 2006

Q: How would you describe your job? What do you study? What are your tools? What kind of vocabulary does a naturalist use in their studies? These are questions from my third grade class. Thank you for your response. A about was selected only because it had to be.

A: Basically, my job is education - teaching others about nature. I have a job that allows me to share all kinds of neat information about animals and plants with other people. Since our website is designed for almost anyone who wants to see it, children and adults, I get to plan material for both younger readers and older readers. And now we're even providing units in Spanish for people who are Spanish speakers or those who are learning Spanish. I certainly don't know all of the information I provide in our units BUT I do know where I can find information when I have an idea I want to share. So, I often think of some animal or plant or environmental issue that I think would be interesting to share with people and then research that topic to be sure I have the latest information and the most accurate information. Then I have to figure out how I want to illustrate it (draw pictures about it) and write about it. So I need to use both my artistic skills and my writing skills for each and every unit.

In my studies, I don't focus on one or two areas of biology but need to work with all kinds of topics. In other words, I share some information about insects, creepy crawlies, fish, reptiles, amphibians, birds, mammals and plants. I have a large library of books where I work and then I can also go to the library or go online for even more information. I guess if asked what I like to study most, I'd probably have to say birds, fish, and trees - these are my favorites topics.

Since I do all of my own art work, I have pencils, several kinds of drawing paper, and pen and ink for creating the illustrations. Then I scan my artwork into my computer and put together my unit poster with the computer. As you probably already know, I make one poster for the older readers and another for the younger readers but usually keep the same artwork for both. Of course, books and the internet are also both important tools for me since these have so much information to help me with each of our units.

The vocabulary that a naturalist uses is borrowed from all kinds of different speciality areas in biology. So, we use the vocabulary from entomologists (people who study insects), herpetologists (people who study reptiles and amphibians), ornithologists (people who study birds), and mammalogists (people who study mammals) and so on. Since studying nature involves all kinds of animals and plants, it's important to know at least something about each of these areas. When I write my posters, however, I have to be careful not to use too much of the vocabulary of biologists since many people are not familar with these terms. If I do use a special biological term, I try to let the reader know what it means so they understand.

I hope I've answered your questions well and want to thank you for asking. If you have questions in the future, please be sure to write me again. Thanks for being part of the Electronic Naturalist program.

John Wiessinger ( January 30, 2006)