This week, I will be discussing norm 1 and norm 2 from our textbook, “The Global Educators.” There are a total of 8 norms but I will only be focusing on the first two in this week’s blog post.
Norm 1: Be Prepared
Many great global collaborations fail because the educators are not prepared or do not know what to prepare for. One tool that I really enjoy to prepare myself is Twitter. Twitter is such an amazing social media platform for educators to communicate, plan, and collaborate. Similarly to educators, biologists need to collaborate with each other. However, biologists rely on each other to bring a piece of the puzzle. They need the other biologists to share what discoveries they found with the rest of the group to be able to get closer to the answer that they are looking for. With so many living things involved and so many factors that can change the result, biologists need every person to contribute all they can so they can get a more accurate discovery. For example, biologists looked at dinosaur bones and the physics of flight to understand how bird flight evolved. When a biologist named Ken Dial added a new piece to the puzzle, a picture of how a baby bird uses their wings, the answer as to how flight evolved became much clearer.
Norm 2: Have a Purpose
Why are you collaborating? What are you collaborating for? These are the questions you should be asking yourself every time you contribute in a collaboration. If we look at the Biology field, there are multiple studies we can focus on. Do you want to find the cure to cancer? Do you want to find a way to incorporate holistic healthcare to traditional medical healthcare? Do you want to find a way you can change the structure of a plant to help it survive better in a certain environment? Or do you just simply want to understand how the human body works and why it does what it does? Regardless, you need to have a purpose or a reason as to why you are collaborating. Scientists who are looking for a cure for cancer or Alzheimer’s need to collaborate with other scientists to understand how this disease developed and if they can develop any medication that can help prevent that from happening to others in the future.
Although I am not directly collaborating with other biologists on a specific experiment, I follow biologist on my Twitter and see what they share with their audience and can learn a lot from what they share.