More Farm Based Education

This time near my hometown in Connecticut, Granby's Holcomb Farm gets folks outside.

Find out more here.

Sierra Club Leadership

The Sierra Club has been a leader for some time now in connecting kids and the outdoors.

Check out their website here.

Unplug

We've linked to other Lowell Monke articles in the past. Here's a link to his first article in Orion. Worth considering.

Computers not only divert students from recess and other unstructured experiences, but also replace those authentic experiences with virtual ones. According to surveys by the Kaiser Family Foundation and others, school-age children spend, on average, around five hours a day in front of screens for recreational purposes. All that screen time is supplemented by the hundreds of impressive computer projects now taking place in schools. Yet these projects—the steady diet of virtual trips to the Antarctic, virtual climbs to the summit of Mount Everest, and trips into cyber-orbit that represent one technological high after another—generate only vicarious thrills. The student doesn’t actually soar above the Earth, doesn’t trek across icy terrain, doesn’t climb a mountain. Increasingly, she isn’t even allowed to climb to the top of the jungle gym.

Noble Work in Texas

Some good programs at a Texas State Park.

Operations have been on an upswing since fall at Guadalupe River State Park, where new staff and a series of family-friendly nature programs are attracting tourists from around the state.

“The turnout really has been wonderful,” said GRSP official Joan Nitschke, “and I think the biggest success that we’ve had the most fun with are the afternoon programs with the children.”

With titles like “Fun in the Summer: Bountiful Bugs” — that ran last week, in fact — the hands-on series has proven to be a draw for children as well as parents, and there’s plenty on the schedule to satisfy all ages and interests.

There’s also “‘Kids in Nature Water Wonder,’ where they actually get in the river with dip nets and buckets and search for aquatic bugs and tadpoles,” Nitschke said. “The kids absolutely love it, and before long the parents absolutely do too.”

Texas has been a leader in getting kids connected to nature and programs like this show it.

Read more here.

National Parks

Along the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Sure gas is $4.25 a gallon, so driving to that National Park could be costly, but Forbes has a new article out that reports on what the Park Service is doing to get people out.

WebRangers allows users to rack up nifty-looking badges while completing 47 different educational games like a lesson in how to run a dog sled team, a tutorial on civil war history and a primer in Arctic artifacts.

Though it may seem counterintuitive, the agency is using the site to stoke interest in the outdoors. Mayo says the online games encourage children to prod their parents into taking them to a nearby park. It helps that each WebRangers session begins at a personalized "ranger station," where children can easily view Webcams located at national parks like the Grand Canyon, Yosemite and Denali.

Between Aug. 29, 2005, and Dec. 31, 2007, according to Mayo, WebRangers had 440,000 unique users, with an average of 35,000 to 40,000 page views a month and participants from 87 different countries.

Time For Recess Again

The end of the school year is rapidly approaching, so this post would be more relevant for the Fall. But, it is still worth reminding all that recess continues to be a casualty of the mandates, "school accountability", and time limits many schools face today. the Buffalo News looks at this issue today.

“We don’t have recess on our schedule where students will go outside and experience activities,” Principal Silvia Baines said.

Fortunately, those who speak out on the value of recess for kids are getting the word out. And some states are listening. New Jersey is considering making recess mandatory.

Schools feeling a budget crunch or pressure due to mandated tests have whittled down time for kids to relax and take a break, said bill sponsor Sen. Robert Singer, R-Ocean. Singer, who has two elementary school-age children, said, "In a structured world, we don't allow children to be children enough."

Here's what some researchers think.

Schools Can Make A Difference

The NY Times had a column a couple of weeks ago that looked at the state of school environments in the US and in other countries. The problem is what the author calls cubicle culture.

School design, particularly public school design, is often lumped in with the design of other institutional structures like jails, civic centers and hospitals, to detrimental effect. My high school, for example, had the dubious distinction of having been designed by the architect responsible for San Quentin. (The convicts got the better building.) Schools fulfill a practical function, to be sure, but shouldn’t they be designed to inspire?

This problem is also described in a couple of documentary films that have come out recently, including Radiant City: A Documentary About Suburban Sprawl, and Where Do the Children Play (we're considering both films for this year's American Conservation Film Festival).

But there are some good examples of schools out there that get kids connected with the outdoors, to their great benefit. We met with a group of fourth graders on Friday from one such school in Virginia. We asked them a series of questions about what they do after school and what they though nature did for them, and the answers were surprisingly hopeful. These kids talked to us about roaming the fields and woods around their homes, and only 10% of the group even mentioned video games. Many saw nature as an important place in their lives.

This movement really can make a difference.

Mulch is Very Bad

Interesting story today on a study that found reasons why some day care centers don't give their kids much time outdoors. Here's an example:

"Then there was the mulch factor. "The staff members who participated in the groups were really concerned about mulch in the play area,' said lead author Dr. Kristen Copeland. 'Many said that the kids eat the mulch, or use it as weapons, or it gets caught in their shoes. It also requires constant upkeep. It’s certainly not something that we had anticipated as an issue, but judging by the amount of and intensity of the discussions among child care teachers, it really is.'"

It should be noted that the day care center located on the campus I work at has the kids outdoors all the time, and yes, they get dirty.

Students Work to Improve Habitat

Check out the good work these students are doing.

Elyssa Clauson, 10, envisions a desertscape, there in the back, she said, pointing to an off-limits unkempt sweep of tall grass. "Sand and cactus could go there – and some lizards."

She held her ground when the boys pooh-poohed her idea as impractical because the lizards would slither off.

"The fence can have small holes," she said.

Earth Day and Beyond in Nebraska

The Fontenelle Nature Association in Nebraska has a lot going on to get kids outdoors. Here's a summary.

For years, Fontenelle Forest has operated numerous summer day camps spanning from two days to an entire week for toddlers to sixth-graders and are limited to 16 campers in an attempt to keep the student-to-teacher ratio low and provide a better experience. Although the camps can accommodate up to 600 children each summer, on average, only 400 attend.

Get Outside--A List

Here's 15 things to do to get you and your kids outside, from Iowa.

A sample:

Plant specific trees and bushes in your backyard that can provide food and shelter for birds, as well as food for insects. The key is variety, said wildlife specialist Jim Pease. “The greater the variety, the more different kinds of insects it will attract, as well as birds,” he said.

When possible, stick with native plants, the Iowa State University Extension expert said. Avoid invasive plants such as bush honeysuckle, buckthorn and purple loosestrife. Pease suggests:

•Hazelnut

•Nanking cherry

•Chokecherry

•Arrowwood viburnum

•Elderberry

•Ninebark

•Dogwoods

•Wild plum

•Bee balm

•Legume plants

•Purple or gray-headed coneflower

•Brown-eyed Susan

In addition, USA Today had a good article last week on Taking a Cloud Walk.

Take a Cloud Walk encourages children to experience nature firsthand -- to "take a minute to be in it." As the title suggests, the main focus of the book is cloud identification. Readers learn to distinguish and name low, middle and high-level clouds, and there are example photos to test their identification skills. Once cloud identification is covered, readers learn about the different types of precipitation -- rain, snow, sleet and hail -- that come from the clouds. The book also tackles the complex role that clouds play in climate change. Of course, since the book encourages kids to enjoy the outdoors, it also instructs them about when not to take a cloud walk with a section on severe weather safety. While experiencing nature is the focus of this book and the whole Take a Walk series, documenting these experiences in a nature journal or even one's own cloud book is encouraged and writing tips are provided.

Text for Ignorance

Take the current state of disconnect between children and nature, add apparently carefully crafted bamboozles about climate change in a high school textbook, and you have the potential for whole generation of kids who would potentially ignore what's happening with our climate.

From dot.earth at the New York Times:

Talk about a civics lesson: A high school senior has raised questions about political bias in a popular textbook on U.S. government, and legal scholars and top scientists say the teen’s criticism is well founded. They say “American Government,” by conservatives James Wilson and John DiIulio, presents a skewed view of topics from global warming to separation of church and state. The publisher now says it will review the book, as will the College Board, which oversees college-level advanced-placement courses used in high schools.

Matthew started the process rolling by contacting the Center for Inquiry, a nonprofit group in Amherst, N.Y., that says its goal is to defend reason and science. (A PDF version of its critique is online.)

Here's the link. Grist also posts on the issue. You read and decide.

Encyclopedia

Check out The Encyclopedia of Life.

The Concord Monitor discusses its merits.

We have another hope for the encyclopedia. Most of today's children and youth, even those living in the country or where woods separate suburbs, suffer from what journalist Richard Louv dubbed "nature deficit disorder." Parental fear of the outdoors, and lives lived in front of computer screens or on playing fields, have robbed children of a wonder at and love of nature that has been part of the human psyche from the beginning.

Daily Run

My daughter was required to run a mile just about every day at her elementary school in Virginia. Here's an article about a school in Mississippi that's doing the same thing, coupled with nutritional lessons, to great benefit of their students.

After seeing studies that ranked Mississippi among the nation's leaders in adult and childhood obesity, Sweeney and Tzotzolas decided to make daily exercise a point of emphasis this year. The easiest way to do that was to take the class outside for a run, with the ultimate goal of a mile.

Cultural Conservationists

I read the above term in this NY Times book review.  This is slightly off topic, but seems relevant to the overall issue.  America is dumbing down, overtaken by anti-intellectual forces that would lead us to a point where we're nothing but a country of idiots.  Business interests dispute well documented facts and theories, merely to maintain short term profits. There are calls that religious dogma be taught in public school classrooms (creationism) at the expense of science, and the continued growing obsession with celebrity culture and instant gratification seems to reject the need to be aware of the world around us.

In a time of climate change, habitat loss and global terrorism, this does not bode well for America's standing in the world.  It also results in less contact with nature and soon perhaps, a disregard for the natural world that could be our undoing.

Ms. Jacoby, whose book came out on Tuesday, doesn’t zero in on a particular technology or emotion, but rather on what she feels is a generalized hostility to knowledge. She is well aware that some may tag her a crank. “I expect to get bashed,” said Ms. Jacoby, 62, either as an older person who upbraids the young for plummeting standards and values, or as a secularist whose defense of scientific rationalism is a way to disparage religion.

Alarmist? Maybe, but I don't think this quote from one of those Fox TV shows is funny:

Ms. Pickler threw up both hands and looked at the large blackboard perplexed. “I thought Europe was a country,” she said. Playing it safe, she chose to copy the answer offered by one of the genuine fifth graders: Hungary. “Hungry?” she said, eyes widening in disbelief. “That’s a country? I’ve heard of Turkey. But Hungry? I’ve never heard of it.”

Homework?

Here's an interesting article that says homework is a factor in nature deficit for elementary school kids.

There is a growing body of research in the U.S. that has found homework isn't all it's cracked up to be, and a growing number of parents who say because of homework and other demands, children have no downtime; one writer has even gone so far as to say today's children have a "nature deficit disorder." Some American elementary schools have cut back or entirely banned homework.

I don't recall doing much homework in the early grades, but my daughter had it piled on from fourth grade forward, taking up a lot of time.

It would be interesting to get a wider view of this issue, across cultural lines, to see if this really is a factor. But based on the reasoning in this article, it sure seems like elementary school homework is a contributing factor to nature deficit.

NH Wilds

The Appalachian Mountain Club sends out the word about their summer programs in the White Mountains. I credit a program similar to this building my excitement for things like backpacking and rock climbing when I was 13 or so.

It’s important for children to get into the outdoors, and the Appalachian Mountain Club has long been committed to helping young people do that. Nearly 10,000 youth each year are directly involved in outdoor activities through AMC’s a Mountain Classroom and Youth Opportunities Program. Another offering that’s especially popular with young people seeking to develop outdoor skills while spending time with their peers is Teen Wilderness Adventures.

The program provides teenagers with instruction in such outdoor skills as backpacking, rock-climbing and paddling as they also gain appreciation for the natural environment, build self-esteem and learn the value of teamwork.

I worked for the RMC rather than the AMC in the Whites, and used to have a little fun at the AMC's expense, but despite that, we think the AMC does a great job...

Once Upon a Wetland

Here's a cool project from CA.

“Once Upon a Wetland…” is a project of Oak Grove School in partnership with the Ojai Valley Land Conservancy, Meiners Oaks Elementary School, and Nordhoff High School. Our goal is to connect these students with their own backyard, their home, their place-- in other words, their watershed-- by engaging them in the restoration and stewardship of the historic wetland located on the Ojai Meadow Preserve, a 58-acre open space directly adjacent to all three schools.

More on this, with an interview, at The Cleanest Line.

Students Step Up

Banner from Deerfield Academy

A group of schools have united under the banner of The Green Schools Alliance to focus on the issues of Climate Change and Sustainability.

They will make a difference.

From VA

Here's a great column.

Thomas Jefferson wrote in his journals that the love of Nature was not “natural” to most people, but an inclination to be cultivated. Sitting on his horse beside a man prospecting for timber, he realized that the beauty he saw in the poplar forest they were riding through was invisible to this man, who only saw money to be made from planks. Jefferson attributed this oblivion to a lack of true education.