Page 6 - Eureka! Spring 2010

Nutty About Details By Kristelle Lapointe

nual event jointly hosted
to detail and that this
n a day and age where biologists
In the community Ispend more time interfacing with by the Faculty of Science can be honed in many
disciplines and areas
computers than doing field research
and the School of Jour-
of life. Acorn provides
and where children are more likely
nalism and sponsored by
NSERC that showcases
vivid descriptions of
to spend their time studying the ins
and promotes excellence
his sons’ hobbies that
and outs of their video game con-
soles than playing outdoors, John
support his belief in
in science journalism.
our innate love of life
Acorn is leading a naturalistic revival
Acorn, who shares his
passion for nature with
and living systems. He
that would make E.O. Wilson proud.
Dr. Wilson’s biophilia hypothesis
son’s passion for trains
tor at the University of
proposes that as humans we sub-
community about the parallels be-
Alberta, is perhaps best
and his practice of
consciously seek connections with students as an Instruc- John Acorn speaks to the Carleton speaks of his eldest
tween entomology and day-to-day life
the natural world around us. Acorn’s known for having starred spending hours inden- Photo: Henri Goulet, Agriculture Canada
lecture, entitled Birders, Bugsters, in the long-running tele- tifying, photographing
Gricers and Pokémon: Inside the vision show entitled Acorn, the Nature and cataloguing them, just as Acorn
Mind of a Naturalist, and which was Nut. Acorn says that through his work does with the insects he studies.
presented to a near-capacity crowd at he aims to transform his audience. The Acorn also speaks about marveling at
the Kailash Mital Theatre, left little goal is to alter people’s perspectives his youngest son’s minutia in collect-
question that “the Nature Nut,” as so that they will pay more attention ing pieces from the children’s trading
he’s known, is driven by an unending to their surroundings. In the process card game Pokémon, and cannot
desire to further connect himself and he hopes to encourage a new genera- help but enjoy the coincidence that
others to nature. tion of “bugsters,” a term he coined to this game was inspired by inventor
In February 2010, Carleton Uni- describe amateur entomologists. Satoshi Tajiri’s childhood study of
versity’s Faculty of Science had the Acorn maintains that anyone can beetles.
pleasure of hosting John Acorn, an develop a passion for natural his- The take-away message of Acorn’s
internationally-recognized and award- tory regardless of the amount of lecture is quite simple. Regardless of
winning entomologist as one of the time previously spent in nature. He your motivations or specific interests,
speakers at the 2010 Discovery Lec- believes that the most crucial skill as- the most important step is to just get
ture. The Discovery Lecture is an an- sociated with entomology is attention out into nature, observe and enjoy.
Jeffrey Manthorpe, Assistant Professor of Chemistry, looks on as Carleton students
work in the Superlab.
Two types of visits are available. The first consists of hav-
ing the students do a first-year laboratory experiment in the
Superlab and attend a regularly scheduled first year chemistry
lecture. In between these two activities, students eat lunch in
the food court, or if their teacher has arranged a campus tour,
students are given a free lunch in the residence cafeteria. The
second consists of the same laboratory and lunch, but the
lecture is given by one of our faculty members on a more ad-
vanced topic. Teachers who choose the regular lecture option
often do so because the topic reinforces something they are
teaching in their classrooms, at that time. The teachers who
High School Outreach spreads opt for the more advanced lecture often do so because they
like wildfire want to expand their students’ horizons.
Students appear divided on what is the highlight of their
visit, but certainly the feedback is overwhelmingly positive! As
he Chemistry Department has had a very active high news of this program, and of the Superlab, spreads across Ot-
Tschool outreach program for many years. In the 1980s, tawa we have arrived at the point where we cannot schedule
Ron Shigeishi, then chair of the department, made contact any more visits during the academic year; definitely a nice
with local high school chemistry teachers and invited them to problem to have!
bring their classes to the campus for a half-day of activities.
Since then, the program has grown to the point where this Robert Burk
year we hosted 54 classes of 24 students each. Chair, Department of Chemistry

6 Spring 2010