Analysis Of Into The Field By Amanda Giracca

Into the Field, is a magazine article written by Amanda Giracca and published by Orion Magazine. The article begins with Giracca traveling with students of Prescott College, and former professor Bob Ellis to the North-central Arizona. There they will “ground truth” of biological theories. Giracca then talks about how she favors Ellis teaching by taking students out into the field, and how she can’t imagine her own students in such a learning environment. Furthermore. She explains her role as a college professor, and how she admires her students determination to stay engaged and eager to learn.

THE PURPOSE

The purpose of this article is to make the reader aware of students losing their critical thinking and connection to the environment by not being engaged with nature as Giracca was taught when was in college. In the article she explains how classes like Ellis’s class have become obsolete since the early twentieth century, and during this time outdoor biology studies were mandatory for students, because as Giracca puts it, “Educators believed that cultivating students’ awareness of their natural surroundings was essential.”. She describes how Ellis’s class

was essential for her and how it prepared her for her teaching career. To her, today’s world is much more competitive and classes as such would be unrealistic for such a realistic world.

THE STRUCTURE

Giracca did a very good job of combining a real-life story with real-life stats to back-up her thoughts.

From beginning to end, the article flows smoothly and grasp the reader’s emotions by giving great detail of her surroundings. The beginning of the passage starts with a small introductory story of where she is and why is she there. It sort of sounds like a journal read. From there, she explains her relations with Ellis and how his teaching inspired her career. Furthermore she describes his method and how it would be beneficial for many students today, along with history on how science is taught. The article than returns to that story-like feel with Giracca, Ellis, and the students. The article comes to pleasant end with Giracca feeling confident in Ellis's students that they will have successful

careers.

MY VIEW

“Into the Field” Illustrated by Nikki McClure, www.orionmagazine.org/article/into-the-field/

When first glancing at this image from Into the Field, I was quickly intrigued by the mood of the image. The image had me to wonder, what was this handful of text about. So my reason for choosing this article was simply because I my love for biology and curiosity. Once I read the article I was able to completely understand where Giracca is coming from. Personally, classes that take me out into the environment are more in my favor. Like Giracca, I believe in order for this country to have a better tomorrow, we should strive for students to know how to connect with our environment and how fluctuations in our environment impact society. I like how she backed up her opinion with hard facts from pass professors and scholars, it really gave me something to grasp. Overall, this was great article to read. It illustrated her acknowledgement towards teaching and her appreciation for Ellis’s ways of teaching.