One of my favorite things to do is to talk to people I meet out in the world about the ocean or animals or really anything marine related. I recently went back up to the Northwest coast of Florida to see family, the waters were crystal clear, and a beautiful teal and the water sparkled under a cloudless blue sky. There were small groups of about 3-8 devil rays (Mobula hypostoma) playing in the water and feeding. I spent most of my time the day I was there in the water observing them and just enjoying the feel of having a beautiful and graceful animal swim up close and around me.
Other than the amazing experience of swimming with the rays, I also was able to do some spontaneous education with both my family and some other families nearby about the devil rays. The biggest concern was that the rays would sting them. I was happy to take this opportunity to help educate the tourists to show why they shouldn’t be afraid of them. When I was in the water my brother was nearby and asked me about the rays and what they eat, with him being a little nervous that they might sting or possibly bite. Another beachgoer asked about the sting as well and worried it was dangerous to be swimming near them.
Here is the combined mini lesson I taught to my family and beach goers about the rays: “these are devil (a type of manta) rays which are a little different than what you may normally think of when you think of a stingray. These little guys look to be juvenile or young and are likely migrating through with their school (or fever). They are built to be great swimmers and don’t sit on the sandy floor like their cousins do, because of this they also don’t have a working stinger! When you look at their tail close to the back of their body, they have a small spike that is left after years of evolution that is no longer used for defense. These guys eat small plankton, crustaceans, and small schooling fish through filter feeding.” I loved being able to discuss with non-marine biologists how amazing these rays were and having them be more comfortable around them in the water knowing that they were mostly there to play and feed and have no intentions of hurting or really being too close to people.
Spontaneous education is a large part of informal learning. The learner has a desire to know about or understand the topic which helps cement the lesson into long term memory. The reason I love spontaneous education so much is you get the undivided attention of someone around you, observing you because they WANT to know about whatever it is they are looking at. This impromptu lesson comes straight from the world around that group right at that moment which makes learning about the topic at hand all that much more special and really ties together the lesson they just learned. These people genuinely want to hear what you as a teacher have to say and you can help educate them against some common misconceptions they likely learned from media or other nonfactual outlets. When you get people interested with an experience, they remember they are more likely to want to showcase that experience and what they learned to their friends and families. Tagging a good memory or experience with a lesson, big or small, helps to get people to remember that time in their lives where they swam with the devil rays and why they shouldn’t fear these amazing animals and instead help to better protect them!
