As an environmental educator, I’ve often been asked, “What’s your favorite part of your job?” and I always respond, “The Aha moment.”
For those who haven’t had the privilege to teach others, this is the moment that you see the light in the eyes of your student when they connect something they knew with what they just learned, forming an understanding. Their eyes grow big, a smile sometimes appears, and a small “oh” may even escape their lips. It’s like the metaphorical lightbulb shining over their head when something clicks.
The difference between understanding and just memorizing facts is enormous. You can remember, “The Eastern Indigo Snake is the longest snake native to the United States,” but that on its own isn’t going to help with understanding or lead you toward my goal of inspiring action to protect the environment.
Understanding comes when you go deeper – “Indigo Snakes are predators that eat a variety of small prey in their environment and help keep populations of certain species in check. An example of their prey are rodents, like rats and mice species, that often feed on the plants that humans grow for food”. Connecting that to existing knowledge like “Rats and mice getting into people’s food can cause problems,” and “we need healthy crops for the population’s food security,” creates a more complete picture. Hopefully, this provides an opening for understanding like “Indigo Snakes are important to our survival.” This allows for continued connections with more information, such as “Indigo Snake numbers are now low due to many human factors,” and hopefully leads to action with the new understanding of the importance of Indigo Snakes and our role in their survival.
I have seen this “Aha moment” in people of all ages, not just children, and it’s always satisfying. The joy of this moment is that I know they were genuinely engaged and listening. I’m not feeding them every piece of the puzzle as they come to this understanding, and most importantly, it’s now part of the foundation that will allow the student, myself, and other educators to build upon that knowledge in the future.
Ultimately, the “aha moment” is needed to help move people from understanding to caring and onto action. I challenge you to adapt how you teach others by giving them more than basic facts; instead, try explaining the why or how and inspiring that “Aha moment” because it helps us all in the long run.
