![]() ![]() Through a slow and transdisciplinary study, I have come to think-feel wonder(ing) Footnote 1 as a dynamic, multidimensional, multimodal, and somewhat sensitive and slippery affect (Byers, 2021) a common, ubiquitous, and catalytic force that works to open up possibilities and make felt potential in and through everyday events and encounters. I will share here an overview of some of my theorizing about the concept thus far as a means of providing context for engaging with the meta-assemblage that follows. KeywordsĪs an emerging science education researcher and long-time elementary science teacher in the United States, I have been thinking about and dwelling with the phenomenon of wonder for many years. A more wonder-filled approach to science education may be necessary now more than ever. These co-movements suggest how “traditional” science and school science education are not only complicit with, but also may be directly implicated as primary protagonists in the violent anti-Black racism and planet-wide suffering happening today. The intention of this meta-assemblage research-creation is to explore the affective flows of the phenomenon of wonder, while also inviting consideration of how the multiple forces and co-components of the body(ies) assembled here move together in an uneasy and historically traceable tension. What might wonder have to do with critiquing science (as the hegemonic and “neutral” discipline it has become) and living out a more life-affirming and anti-racist vision of science education? In this chapter I share a meta-assemblage research-creation: a researcher-created experimental exhibit of found poetic data assemblages about wonder, joy, Black life, neurodiversity, love, science, and science education. ![]() As long as a galaxy is massive enough to hold onto that material - again, continue to be thankful for gravity - those heavy elements get incorporated into future generations of stars and solar systems.Wonder is an elusive yet ever-present dynamic phenomenon that deserves more attention in (science) education. Meanwhile, the corpses, which may become neutron stars, can then merge, producing the majority of the heaviest stable elements on our periodic table. The most massive stars implode after only a few million years, and the ensuing runaway fusion reaction destroys the star and blows the outer layers, full of heavy elements, into interstellar space. These ultimate death throes of the Universe's most massive stars take us all the way up the periodic table. SimonnetĦ.) Be thankful for cosmic cataclysms: supernovae and neutron star mergers. NSF / LIGO / Sonoma State University / A. Merging neutron stars create the majority of ultra-heavy elements in the Universe. ![]() gravitational waves emitted from the collision, while the narrow beams are the jets of gamma rays that shoot out just seconds after the gravitational waves (detected as a gamma-ray burst by astronomers). Here are ten phenomena that made it all possible, and ten reasons to give thanks.Īrtist’s illustration of two merging neutron stars. At a huge number of different points in our Universe’s history, the laws of nature came together in such a way to enable our existence, and to allow us to look back today, 13.8 billion years later, with thankfulness in our hearts. This wasn’t guaranteed from first principles, but simply happens to be. Here and now, it’s possible for us to exist, and to exist as long as our natural lifespans will allow us. The biggest unifier that all human beings have in common, that we all exist on the same world and in the same Universe, is never on display better than today: American Thanksgiving. BlakesleeĮvery day, we have a choice whether we take our lives, our existence, our freedoms, and our moments for granted, or whether we express appreciation and gratitude for the good things that exist. NASA, ESA, Hubble Heritage Team (STScI / AURA) J. ![]() The Universe is an amazing place, and the way it came to be today is something very much worth being. ![]()
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