张天启：兴趣和好奇心是探索的源动力
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“学校教育的不仅仅是知识，还有学习方法。”
01少年兴趣
小时候的张天启是个对大自然兴趣和好奇心很重的孩子，也是个很幸运的孩子。他会跟着北京自然博物馆的老先生出野外采集昆虫并且学做标本，也会跟着北京巡天会的前辈们进行野外观测。这样的他在进入多伦多大学时，义无反顾地选择了自己最感兴趣的天体物理系。
学校的时光是幸福的，在知识海洋遨游的同时，他的人生也受到了教导。学校给予的不仅仅是知识，还有学习的方法。只要掌握了方法，很多自然科学学科都是互通的——他也在之后深刻体会到了这一点。
02归国之变
刚回国的那段时间，张天启就职于一个技术公司，但是日复一日的枯燥工作让他最终选择回到了最爱的自然科学领域。
这次他的兴趣是古生物学。在接下来的几年里，就像当年大学时一样，他阅读了众多的专业文献，收集了大量寒武纪的古生物化石，对地球最初生命大爆发时所出现的生物了如指掌。同时，他也走遍了北京各处的化石点，一跃而成为化石圈里有名的“化石猎人”。在他的众多发现中，北京石炭纪晚期的四足动物足迹化石最为重要。经过北京古生物研究所的老师们确认，这是目前中国发现的最古老的四足动物痕迹，这个发现将古地理学中北中国板块何时与大陆产生路桥提前了几千万年，对应的论文也将作为重要发现出现在国际专业期刊上。
同时他又重新开始做起了北京蝴蝶调研，他重新采集并制作了近200种北京蝴蝶标本，研究了不少品种的生活习性，并开始在野外寻找蝴蝶幼虫、进行养殖。在得知小爱好者们缺乏学习资料之后，他将自己的标本照片上传到网上，作为免费图鉴提供使用。
“化石猎人”的精彩科普视频
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/Rk_KoSfz5JGJhN4hEVfuSA
渐渐地，他作为自然科学科普老师开始小有名气。很多机构开始请他去讲课、带夏令营，而他自己也会时常带着几个孩子进山做调研，手把手地教孩子们做标本，一块一块地帮孩子们鉴定化石。由于他的教学极为重视互动和引导孩子们思考，每个孩子都受到了潜移默化的影响，慢慢地每个孩子都自发地从“叔叔”改称他为“老师”。
就像当年带自己的老师、前辈们一样，他希望自己也能激发孩子们的好奇心，让孩子们的兴趣一路引领他们探索未知的自然。他用自己的收藏和发现创建了属于自己的自然科学博物馆，而这个博物馆也会来到清香，成为他教室的一部分。此外，他还会在清香发起自然科学俱乐部，带领同学们进山调研，进行自然探索，走进社会大课堂。
Edwin was very interested and curious about nature when he was a child, and he was also a very lucky child. He went out to the field to collect insects and learned how to make specimens with the old gentlemen of the Beijing Museum of Natural History, and he also followed the predecessors of the Beijing Sky Survey Society to conduct field observations. He chose the astrophysics department which he was most interested in when he entered the University of Toronto without hesitation.
School time was the best. While traveling in the ocean of knowledge, the school also taught him that what the school gave was not limited to knowledge, but the method of learning. As long as the method is mastered, many natural science disciplines are interoperable. He realized this deeply afterwards.
When he just returned to China, Edwin worked for a technology company, but the boring work day after day made him finally choose to return to his favorite field of natural science.
This time his interest came to paleontology. In the next few years, just like when he was in school, he read a lot of professional literature, collected a large number of Cambrian paleontological fossils, and looked into everything about the creatures that appeared in the first explosion of life on the earth. At the same time, he also traveled to various fossil sites in Beijing, became a well-known fossil hunter. Among his many discoveries, the footprint fossil of tetrapods from the late Carboniferous in Beijing is the most important one. It has been confirmed by the researchers of the Beijing Institute of Paleontology that this is the oldest trace of a tetrapod found in China so far. This discovery advances tens of millions of years when the North China plate and the mainland formed bridges in paleogeography. The corresponding paper will also appear in international professional journals as an important finding.
At the same time, he started the Beijing butterfly research again, collected and made nearly 200 Beijing butterfly specimens. At the same time, he studied the living habits of many species, and began to search for butterfly larvae in the wild and raise them. After learning about the lack of learning materials for young enthusiasts, he uploaded photos of his specimens to the Internet as a free illustrated book.
He became a famous natural science popularization teacher over time. Many institutions began to invite him to give lectures and teach summer camps, and he himself would often take a few children into the field for research, teach the children how to make specimens, and help them identify fossils. Because his teaching attaches great importance to interaction and guiding children to think, every child is deeply affected, and gradually every child spontaneously changes his name from uncle to teacher.
Just like the teachers and predecessors who led him back then, he hopes that he can also stimulate the curiosity of the children and let the children’s interests lead them to explore the unknown nature along the way. He created his own natural science museum with his own collections and discoveries, and this museum will also come to THISDL as part of his classroom.
