By guiding students to learn by hands-on, inquiry-based, group activities that foster a connection to the local environment, we help students build a connection to and an appreciation for the world around them. It’s important that we help to create a space for students to learn about the environment in the environment and not just in the classroom. This allows students to apply what they are learning and make connections outside of text books to their physical environment.

When a child plays outside in the world around them, learns the names of common trees and birds, or finds a special place in nature, an amazing thing happens. It’s in those moments that an individual begins to move from initial awareness to curiosity to appreciation to eventually caring. At the caring stage, whatever it is we’ve begun to care about holds a real value, and we may begin to feel that small creek behind our home, or a glimpse of a giant salamander or a soaring eagle holds an experience of great value and needs to be preserved.

How do we create these connections?
• By providing opportunities for exploration and for play in these non-human dominated environments.
• By creating for them weird interactions, like interviewing a rock, or imagining themselves as a spider;