Isn’t discovering things amazing? Sometimes it can be as simple and random as realising just how good vacuum bags are at storing clothes! My brain has been hazy to say the least at the moment, so having moments where everything comes together and just makes sense is amazing.
I think that it is a common misconception that discovery is about being an explorer or doing science, and that is a part of it but it doesn’t have to mean just that. I was running a workshop in a school last week and I asked a bunch of nine year old what things they had discovered, the list was endless, but featured:
Riding a bike “doing a front flip”. Doing experiments, talking ot other people, reading, writing, painting, travelling.
Discovery is so important, and giving people the desire to discover more is vital. Not just the desire, the validation, the skills, the means, I guess the internet is a pretty great thing for that.
What does discovery mean to you?
- Time on your own?
- Discovering the way you think and feel and how that relates to your behaviours?
- Discovering your place in the world?
- Discovering how to do new things with your body, your mind your personality?
- Or is it one of the things on the list that the kids came up with above?
And why is discovery so great? It leads to better understanding of challenges and how to overcome barriers, it makes us more satisfied with ourselves, it connects us to others, it is really a great thing to do on an individual and a society level.
I love being a creative science practitioner, running discovery workshops, going into schools encouraging people to discover, using scientific discovery as a backdrop but recognising that there is actually a fine line between all the different areas of discovery and that the best discoveries are ones that have no boundary just because a syllabus says it is so!
I’d love to hear about what you have discovered recently, and if you can’t think of anything, go and discover something new….
Becky
xx
