Olympic

Over the next few months we will be introducing you to the places that make NatureBridge so special - our national park classrooms. First up, we invite you to explore Olympic National Park! From the shores of the coast, through old-growth forests to alpine peaks, Olympic National Park (ONP) in Washington state presents students with the unique opportunity to investigate and understand complex ecosystems in an example of a temperate rainforest.

With the rise of anxiety and depression about young people today, social emotional learning (SEL) is also on the rise. SEL a holistic educational framework that focuses on building mental, emotional and interpersonal skills that lead to positive outcomes for students and the community as a whole. We spoke with National Director of Education Meg Jakubowski to learn more about NatureBridge’s unique role in furthering SEL.

When she was a child on the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe’s reservation, Cameron Macias would listen to her grandmother tell tales of 100-pound salmon swimming up the Elwha River. Read on for our interview with Cameron, a NatureBridge alum and graduate research assistant at the University of Idaho studying wildlife on the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe reservation.