Welcome to Discovery Journal
Exploring Nature, Teaching, and Lifelong Learning
Sharing my journey of research, teaching, and the wonders of the natural world.
This website is my way of sharing discoveries that have shaped my life–from studying cotton-top tamarins in Colombia to exploring the magic of monarch butterflies and the lessons gardens teach us. Here you’ll also find inspiring stories of extraordinary people, and reflections on a lifelong love of learning.
Tidbits
Thoughts for Today
Start with Garden Insights
Practical tips on plants, pollinators, and teaching kids through the garden.
Ecological Research
Highlighting studies of cotton-top tamarins and monarch butterflies
Teaching Resources
Mrs T’s discovery teaching method and why every child should have the opportunity to grow things
Other Insights
The more you look, the more you see
A quick hello
Welcome to Discovery Journal!
For five decades I’ve explored the natural world—delving into the lives of cotton top tamarins and then later of monarch butterflies, aphid colonies, aphid natural enemies, native plants, and insects-especially bees. In the mix there were some years of teaching kids to love the critters around us, and teaching English as a Second Language. I created Discovery Journal to share some serious research results, a book I wrote entitled Extraordinary People from Around the World featuring 14 people who did amazing things we all can admire; and also practical lessons for classrooms and backyards alike, and to celebrate lifelong learning. I’m glad you’re here!
Bio
Thanks for visiting Discovery Journal! Presented by: Patricia F. Neyman
This web site is a way of sharing some of the things that have made my life most worth living, my journeys and discoveries, and some amazing and fun things. Part of it is serious science – some of it published but now difficult to get hold of – which I link to here.
I intended to become an academic, but life led me elsewhere though my scientific perspective and interest in natural history and love for all kinds of creatures and plants grew with the years.
During my early graduate years when I was preparing myself to be a field biologist I studied botany and entomology in order to better be able to properly describe how my future subjects were relating to their environment. Those first studies in entomology developed into a full-scale love of insects, especially certain groups. Had I “discovered” insects earlier, I probably would have majored in entomology. But my PhD research focused on a primate, and the results from my studies on a squirrel-sized South-American monkey, the Cotton-top Tamarin, occupy the first section of this Journal.
The piece on Mrs. Terwilliger’s outdoor education program for children (“Nature Exploration with Kids”) is the result of 5 years of part time volunteer work with her organization in San Rafael, CA. She had a group of volunteers working with her, some of them out of a small office where they made the reservations for classes to meet us at one of the various sites close by or for a naturemobile to go to a school. She started out taking her own children out for exploration learning and it grew from there. Take a look at the expressions on the faces of the children in the photograph (R) I took one day of her leading “circle time”. Every child is totally focused. This one picture is worth a thousand words. Shortly after I left it, this oganization became (and still is) part of Wildcare in Corte Madera, CA.
At the end of my work life I spent around 8 years, 4 of them in Korea, teaching English as a Foreign Language, which explains some of the contributions, including Extraordinary People from Around the World. My intention in writing these stories was to provide ESL-level reading featuring people from many different countries, in contrast to focusing on western-oriented characters, which seemed to be prevalent in much of the EFL material I accessed. These stories might also be appropriate for certain English-speaking students. Each story is followed by a few Questions for thought and discussion. The Storybooks article grew out of a teaching job I had, and was published in the Internet TESL Journal in 2002.
In between tamarins and ESL/EFL I earned my living as the licensed contractor owner and chief “employee” of Emerald Landscapes and Irrigation. This surprising jag in my life began when out of a great need for money I took a “temporary” position doing gardening. I found that I liked the work and the Universe kept delivering up more of that instead of jobs in the academic sphere. I loved being my own boss, especially, and with the years I realized I had begun a business, one that kept me going for many many years. At the beginning I also went to Merritt College in Oakland’s renowned landscape horticulture program and completed 2 Certificates and discovered an outstanding and very satisfying profession that kept me learning about botany, insects, soil, and so much more. I specialized in native gardens and nurtured a growing interest in bees and butterflies and the plants that would attract them. I learned so much from being in business! I found working with my hands highly satisfying; and being part of a “blue collar” profession and a business-owner was a profound attitude-changing experience all by itself. The biology and ecology of gardens and the insects frequenting them became and has continued to be a whole new area of interest that is reflected here.
After ESL and retirement I was living part time in Nevada where I was seeking a research project which would be a contribution. I discovered the Monarch Larva Monitoring Project out of the University of Minnesota, and noticed on their maps that they had not a single observer in Nevada so !Bingo. I spent five summers mainly occupied with monarchs and out of it grew Monarchs of the Carson Valley Nv Area. The paper presented here is a work in progress. It has been declined by one journal as being good but in need of serious cutting (although this was the opinion of only 1 out of 2 reviewers). I am very slowly working on revision.
All the material on this website is copyright Patricia F. Neyman, all rights reserved, whether named or not, unless otherwise specified. All photos and art, except for clip art, are mine unless otherwise specified.
