Louis Boden - Cogitania's Geologist Reflects on Connecting Passion
Cogitania has been a wonderful place to explore the art of teaching. Challenging, unusual, and fun, it has been my pleasure to design and implement a curriculum in geology and earth science in this creative space.
Working with the diverse and intelligent groups that came each week was fantastic. The students spanned a wide range of backgrounds and age yet were always engaged. The questions that they asked and their responses to activities and lecture helped push me to become a better teacher – learning how to taylor my lessons to their needs.
Given carte blanche to create lessons that played to my strengths as a teacher and scientist was also enightening. I struggled, at first, to connect my lessons and ideas in a cohesive way. Yet the open structure allowed me to explore college-level ideas with middle-school students. It pushed me to develop nuanced conversations about the philosophy of geology – a discipline as much rooted in acknowledged lack of absolute certainty as in empirical data.
The last three months have afforded me the opportunity to connect with thinkers age 5 to 75 – all of whom were passionate about discovering the world through the eyes of a geologist.
Few things inspire me more than seeing my own love of science, learning, and creative thinking reflected back at me. Cogitania is certainly a place that fosters this kind of joy in the sharing of ideas. I look forward to continuing my involvement with this space as a teacher, student, and scientist.
