Nature Connection through Deliberate Attention and Curiosity | John Muir Laws | TEDxTahoeCity

The key to developing a closer connection with nature is deliberately enhancing your powers of observation and wonder. Learn how the methods of a field naturalist help you notice more, remember what you discovered, and be actively curious. A world of infinite beauty and discovery waits just beyond the point where we usually stop paying attention.
Naturalist, educator and artist John (Jack) Muir Laws is in love with the natural world and has lived his live sharing this passion with others. He is trained as a wildlife biologist and is a Research Associate of the California Academy of Sciences. Jack has taught nature education teacher since 1984 in California, Wyoming, and Alaska. He teaches the tools to help people develop as naturalists and stewards including, ways to improve your observation, memory and curiosity, conservation biology, natural history, scientific illustration, and field sketching all while having fun and falling more deeply in love with the world.
This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at ted.com/tedx

[@pleinaire8698]

Falling in love with NATURE!!!! YES!!!!

[@sharonolsen6579]

Awesome !! Love his way of teaching and his passion for what he does.. So appreciate his dedication to getting people excited about Nature and preserving and protecting our planet and all its inhabitants.

[@lauradunne1949]

I’m late in finding Mr. Laws but am so grateful I did. Thank you, thank you for giving voice to the message we need to hear loud and clear in these troubling times. We have lawmakers passing policies that give us permission to run roughshod over this beautiful planet we have been gifted and in doing so, prioritize not preserving its beauty but only judging something’s value based on what financial gain we can extract from it. May we all grow in our compassionate attention to the natural world, especially those who up until now have been blind to it.

[@JAsisterti]

I completely support John Muir Laws’s application to do a TED talk. For me he is such a visionary, on many fronts.
For his TED talk on the topic of nature journaling, he is sure to inspire folks to pick up their pen and colour and draw, and more importantly notice - the natural world all around us.
He knows that through nature journaling, folks build confidence, a sense of community, a sense of their own gifts, a sense of respect, a lifelong passion. He builds creative and critical thinking skills. Kids expand their learning tools, in a joyful way. They feel accepted in a group of adults, and supported to do and show their work. All levels are welcome to everything.
He does this with such energy and humour - and a great dob of wonderful and enthusiastic nerdiness- that you leave feeling: I can do this. He continually advocates for and models kindness and acceptance.
1/ nature journaling - he teaches folks to nature journal - using words/ pictures/ numbers and questions and to draw what they see. He's done this for decades, and the vast majority of the information is recorded and easily accessible.
2/ a model for community - Almost everything Jack does is free, by donation. He send out supplies to folks that can’t afford it. He has free by donation books and resources on his site. He freely gives consulatations and support to other folks. His free by donation demos and tutorials are held every week for the community at large and for educators.
He is part of building a team leadership approach to nature journaling- and each one teach one/ share one/ bring what you can approach. New groups keep forming, leaders keep stepping up. The facebook Nature Journaling site he is a co-administrator of has grown to over 17,600 members from all over the world over the course of the pandemic. He has a website and a youtube channel with depths and breadths of resources.
So, I feel, this is Jack Laws sharing Nature Journaling, but it is also Jack Laws giving us a window to a great model for how we can create community and society.
That's a lot of bang for a Ted Talk buck!

[@erins.5420]

This guys is amazing! I wish to take one of his classes in person! Hashtag GOALS!

[@davidphilipsmusic]

John Muir Laws is great! I have his bird book and it's so useful.

[@MrMrs.Hernandez]

He's so great! TED talk did well to get him.

[@MrMrs.Hernandez]

TED talks should have him do a nature Journaling talk.

[@jeremiahcooper9570]

I’m just here for school.

[@alexverdana2435]

same :p

[@Shawnbzilla]

How big do pine cones get my goodness

[@lynntalmon]

Sugar pine trees pine cones get long up to 22 inches.