Page 222 - Cultural Studies of Science Education

196 D. Karrow and X. Fazio

have fascinating life histories, and are readily locatable. Furthermore, because worms
require some “scientific” skill in locating and identifying, the program could justify
itself as a field trip. Of course, program implementation varied tremendously between
schools. One elementary school took a comprehensive integrated curricular approach
while others used NatureWatch simply as a topic of inquiry within a traditional
science course.
WormWatch had students focusing on the ecology of worms. Using various tax-
onomy charts they were required to identify juveniles, adults, and differentiate between
species. Results of these identifications were tabulated on a chart. In most cases,
students successfully located worms in a variety of settings, for example, school
playground, meadow, deciduous forest, and agricultural field. As well, students were
required to observe and record weather and soil conditions, i.e., air temperature and
soil type. Within most classrooms implementation occurred over a period of several
weeks; three to four visits to the sites usually saturated student interest and attention.
Teachers spent much of their time assisting students identifying worm developmental
stages and species.
In an effort to explore the relationship between a citizen science program such
as NatureWatch and PBE, in the next section we explore various meanings of place
and how they have influenced PBE theory. Toward the end of this section we high-
light those aspects of PBE theory NatureWatch currently invokes and hint at others
that have been marginalized. These, in turn, are explored in the fourth section where
we introduce the philosophy of Martin Heidegger.

Place Meanings and Place-Based Education

Place

Place may be one of the most frequently used words in the English language. It is used vari-
ously as a physical location (what places did you visit?), a psychological state (I’m not in a
very good place right now.), social status (people should know their place.), the location of
something in one’s mind (I can’t quite place it.), a standard for evaluation (there’s a time a
place for everything.), and on and on. (Steele 1981, p. 5)
Our intent in what follows is to orient the reader to the broad categories of place
meaning, which ultimately inform, in varying degrees, PBE theory. Where possible,
we will illustrate our review of the literature by drawing on our example of
NatureWatch. Despite the various meanings of place hinted at by Steele above,
these can be categorized into realms of experience. We recognize, through our own
work and thought on the subject the following three realms of experience: natural,
cultural, and ontological. Of course, these are categories of our own construction
(Karrow 2006), although others have also recognized them (Sack 1997). Like all
“categories,” at times they lack neat and tidy distinction. As place-meanings derive
from all three, we argue, to become more theoretically and existentially robust PBE
must also attend to these realms. Our unique contribution to the discussion arises