This article is the fourth in a series of interpretation articles by Sharon Hanzik, PWLTMN and former interpreter for Texas Parks and Wildlife
Program Development
What’s Hot. What’s Not.
As you gather your resource materials, remember:
- People love to hear…
- Good stories
- Unusual facts (catfish have over 100,000 taste buds all over the surface of their body)
- Inspirational thoughts and quotes
- Gee-whiz information in terms they understand (over 4,000,000 bathtubs full of water go over the falls every hour)
- Things that evoke emotional or physiological responses (scary things, beautiful things, sad things, happy things)
- What’s important to them
But they don’t really care much about…
Ordinary scientific data (this waterfall averages 3,694,524 cubic feet per second in flow)
Doom and gloom predictions or rehashings of catastrophes (the ozone layer will be totally depleted, and the Earth will burn up in X number of years)
The same thing they’ve heard or read at every other interpretive site or talk they’ve ever been to (65 million years ago, this area was covered by a vast inland sea)
Words to Live By
Do not try to satisfy your vanity by teaching a great many things.
Awaken people’s curiosity. It is enough to open minds; do not overload them.
Put there just a spark.
If there is some good inflammable stuff, it will catch fire.
—Anatole France, as quoted in The Earth Speaks
What is This Thing?
Tangible and Intangibles
Tangible – real, substantial, evident, things we can see and touch
Intangible – emotions, ideas,
(describe an object first using tangible then introduce the intangibles)
UNIVERSALS
Universals are feelings that all humans can relate to: FEAR, ACCEPTANCE, SURVIVAL…..
The National Park Service Interpretive Equation.
The National Park Service describes the opportunity to deliver interpretation in the following manner:
(Kr + Ka) x AT =IO
Knowledge of the Resource + Knowledge of the Audience + Appropriate Techniques =
Interpretive Opportunities
It is important to remember that the equation can quickly become unbalanced, like a teeter-totter, if too much emphasis is placed on either of the (Kr + Ka) or AT components. Either way, your interpretive opportunity may not stand up to the strain, so strive for balance in your presentations.
Goals of Interpretation – Part 1