In the scientific literature, the use of characters from the Pokemon franchise has been suggested as a possible way to broach biodiversity and conservation challenges.
True.
Specifically, this is in reference to a short letter that was published in Science in 2002 (29 March 2002. Vol 295: 2367) and entitled "Why Conservationists Should Heed Pokemon."
It starts:
According to E.O. Wilson's Biophilia hypothesis, humans have an innate desite to catalog, understand, and spend time with other life-forms. This in turn provides a powerful aesthetic argument for combating the present extinction crisis. Yet, as industrialization and urbanization reduce our direct interactions with nature, our interest in the variety of living things is perhaps becoming redirected towards human artifacts, with potentially grave consequences for biodiversity conservation.
Which simply means that if you stick a picture of some local flora or fauna (and we're talking common flora or fauna) iin front of your average 8 year old, you might be surprised at how seldom a correct identification is garnered, whereas under the right circumstances, you stick the below picture in front of that same 8 year old...
...and you find that they can identify and often spew out attributes for about three quarters of these characters. Here's how the authors of the paper put it:
Our findings carry two messages for conservationists. First, young children clearly have tremendous capacity for learning about creatures (whether natural or man-made), being able to at age 8 to identify nearly 80% of a sample drawn from 150 synthetic "species." Second, it appears that conservationists are doing less well than the creators of Pokemon at inspiring interest in their subjects: During their primary school years, children apparently learn far more about Pokemon than about their native wildlife and nter secondary school being able to name less than 50% of common wildlife types.
As Confucius might say, "Holy freakin' moly! That can't be right." And so, the paper ends:
People care about what they know. With the world's urban population rising by 160,000 people daily, conservationists need to resetablish children's links with nature if they are to win over the hearts and minds of the next generation. Is Ecomon the way ahead?"
And here's the thing - Ecomon? That's a cool idea. And really now - how hard would it be to produce such a character set, especially in this day and age of Web 2.0 and its sprawling network of graphic designers out there wanting to make a difference.
I'm actually reminded of a similar venture promoted by Boingboing a while back that called on this very community to provide images for the 700 Hobo Names Project. Boy, did they ever deliver!
So people, couldn't we do something similar for our kids and natural wildlife?
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Welcome to my world. Apparently, though, Pokémon was inspired by bug collecting.
If I may add two things.
First, this isn't surprising. The HUMAN capacity to retain information is amazing. We often underestimate children.
Secondly, there's something else to leverage - fan artists. I run a website for artists and writers (http://www.seventhsanctum.com/), and am absolutely amazed at what people who are essentially hobbyist artists will produce. A visit to a place like http://www.deviantart.com/ is quite informative.
Heck, you could leverage ecologically-minded fans of Pokemon who do fanart.
Beware of violating the Pokemon trademark.
RPM: Man, that's hilarious. Pokemon for good and evil-very zen.
And DragonScholar: will definitely look into those sites. This might make an interesting project generally.
David,
Your concept is actually quite valid, because people have an innate ability to remember certain kinds of symbolic systems. The Pokemon are highly individual, highly archetypical, and very distinct (and, yes, I admit to having played some of the games - they're disturbingly addictive). A similar activity leveraging a system like that would easily be used as a fun educational tool.
Go on and check out the sites - www.deviantart.com has a search engine. As for Seventh Sanctum, hey, use the "Send" comment to drop me a line or drop me a line on the message boards if you want ideas on leveraging fan artists - I run a contest quarterly for artists and have met some absolutely incredible people.
Keep your idea in mind. Science should be FUN.
What a great idea! My 10 year old daughter is a walking pokeon (and animal) encyclopedia. I'd love her to have the same fascination and knowledge base of flora and fauna.
Heck, I'd be happy if the checker at the grocery store could at least identify a leek or napa cabbage properly!
My 5-year old daughter's interest in Pokemon lead her to ask me about the real meaning of "evolution".
When I was much yonger, I spent hours and hours filling binders with Wildlife Fact Files cards. (http://www.goodnightstories.com/wildlife/wildlife.htm) Each card focused on a seperate animal, providing pictures, descriptions, and insteresting facts. The whole set was divided up into some rudimentary taxonomy so you had to be careful to flip to the right section every time you added new cards. I looked forward to getting a new set in the mail very month or so (it was totally a money-maker, but still great) so I could rip it open an see what animals came this time. It helped turn me into a science nut, so I think the theory is spot on.
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Amo este desenho...eles s㯠tudo!!!
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Your website is set up so that it is hard for people to leave (unable to leave through back page function). But what it really does is make us want to never make the same mistake and ever return again!!
do you have any list of pokemon generation by generations????????????????? im a pokemon fan too,,,,,,,,,, and i hope you understand me. good day to you.............
I love pokemon even since and I am a collector of pokemon things, toys etc.
omg.... this image is bomb i love pokemon soooo much but dis is preety hot... you know just incase i forget tha name o fma pokemons i kno that this will alwys be there for me... its really nice....
becoming redirected towards human artifacts, with potentially grave consequences for biodiversity conservation.
Many people who are successful in these new paradigms that can be adapted to find the fastest, or the new ones come to realize that.
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