Back to School with NatureBridge!
We are so excited to welcome students back to NatureBridge campuses for the 2022-23 school year! Over the past few weeks, educators at every campus have been hard at work with training, orientations, preparation work and so much more.
In Olympic National Park, new educators shadowed returning educators as they led 7th and 8th graders from the Portland-area on orienteering and water quality investigations. For the returning educators of the team, the word of the program was "joy" and for the new educators, it was "casual wonder." They also implemented new programs such as a fungi enrichment seminar and exploration, much to the excitement of the students who agreed that the most anticipated activity for the outing was “mushrooms!”
In Golden Gate, new and returning educators are focusing on how we are connected to all living things in the ocean, no matter how small. Students are using microscope labs to see oceanic plankton, talking about the marine food web and what we can do to protect the ocean creatures that help us survive. “I’m so excited to help students understand global climate change through lessons about the carbon cycle, sea level rise, ocean acidification and increased wildfires,” said one Golden Gate educator.
“I want to empower students to be the environmental stewards and be the change in their communities.”Golden Gate educator
Over in Yosemite, educators are looking forward to teaching students about watersheds and fire ecology in addition to giving them a quiet space to connect with nature. Said one of our Yosemite educators, “Now more than ever, it’s really important for students to connect with nature and step outside their comfort zone, which is what we provide here at NatureBridge.”
Stories
Fall Reflections from NatureBridge Yosemite
As an environmental science educator, I spend a lot of time teaching about nature, but this season I’ve been finding that as it turns out, nature has a lot to teach us, too. Sometimes I can let the trees, the meadow, and the lichen teach for me. They show us how to respect each other’s boundaries, how to celebrate differences, how to work together, and how to lean on each other’s strengths in order to exist in a new place. These lessons felt incredibly relevant to me heading into the first week of November, a notoriously busy time at NatureBridge Yosemite. I wanted to focus on messages of kindness and inclusivity with my students, I wanted them to feel a sense of belonging in this new space, and I also hoped that they would share those messages with others.
An Incredible 10th Anniversary of Evening on the Lake
On October 25, the Amazon Meeting Center in downtown Seattle buzzed with celebratory energy as over 300 NatureBridge guests and supporters gathered for the 10th anniversary of "Evening on the Lake," our signature Pacific Northwest fundraising event for our Olympic campus.
"Science became fun" at NatureBridge for Alum Laura Lomeli Russert
Laura Lomeli Russert is a NatureBridge alum who grew up in Groveland, CA and now calls Washington, D.C. home. Laura’s journey with NatureBridge began when she attended the Golden Gate campus as a young student with her class from Tenaya Elementary. Laura credits NatureBridge with shaping not only her love for nature but also her passion for education and science. "Science became fun,” she recalls. “You weren’t learning from a textbook anymore, and it became so much more real." Her hands-on, scientific experiences at NatureBridge laid the foundation for her eventual pursuit of a Ph.D. in psychology. “I feel like I owe a lot to NatureBridge."