A Moving Field Guide
Moving To Notice/Noticing To Move
Dancing To Remember
Over the course of a couple hours in the park, a goodly amount of ecological knowledge was imparted or reinforced. The two groups of students and their accompanying Dance Exchange members collaborated to generate some impressive and engaging sequences of moves. These dance sequences became the “Moving Field Guide,” a lively phrase created by Cassie Meador of the Dance Exchange. The Moving Field Guide added a new creative dimension to the usual records of scientists: making notes, recording measurements of dimensions and processes in the material world, and interpreting those observations in the light of existing concepts and knowledge. Thinking about dance movement as a way to facilitate the entry of novice observers into the complexities of ecological structures and processes was new to me. It proved to be a powerful tool, and I suspect one that will help cement new ecological knowledge for the students who helped make the Moving Field Guide, Patterson Park, June 2, 2011.