Naturalist guide Ann Haverstock gathered nine 3rd graders in a circle around her on a woodland trail in the Morton Arboretum recently.
They had already examined the native wildflowers toothwort and trout lily on the forest floor, and now they were to spread their plastic bags down on the wet trail and lie down on their backs to look up.
There they were, nine children, a teacher and a guide, looking up at the black branches of bare trees set against a gray but dry springtime sky.
They talked about the canopy, asked questions about what trees need in order to grow and sometimes surprised themselves by finding their own answers. One boy looked over at another. ”Hey, this is pretty cool,” he said.
Haverstock thinks so. She was smiling.
”What we`re supposed to do is get you curious and then maybe you`ll want to learn more. Maybe you`ll want to read about this and learn how to take care of the earth,” she told the children.
This is a busy time of year at the arboretum, where the sounds of spring are chorused with the voices of children learning and laughing as they move through the grounds.
But it is not just the arboretum that is abloom with inquisitiveness. Nature trails are well worn by school groups moving through the forest preserves on these days, and organized nature programs and classes are skyrocketing in popularity for children from kindergarten through high school. ”I see more nature education everywhere,” Haverstock said. ”But now parents are more in tune.”
What parents are learning these days is that their children are coming home from school talking about global warming, rain forest issues, recycling and schoolyard prairies.
Science programs are rapidly expanding, field trips focusing on nature fill up fast, and people who make a business of teaching children about nature through presentations are finding their schedules booked.
”I find that I have to go a step farther to challenge the kids when they come here to Fullersburg Woods. They know more at their age than kids did five years ago,” said Tom Pray, naturalist supervisor for the Du Page County Forest Preserve District.
”The goal then is to make a connection to the natural world. If you don`t realize that your water comes from the ground, then you have no reason to watch what you put into the ground,” Pray said.
Dilip Das, curator of youth education at the arboretum, said he sees ”a great convergence of forces happening rather suddenly.
”Number one, there are a huge number of children`s books being published for children, parents and teachers on nature,” said Das.
”Number two, here in Du Page County we have a very successful, enthusiastic recycling campaign going on at all of the schools. The younger children, especially kindergarten through 4th grade, are excited about nature and taking to heart the recycling.
”And being emotional about it is important. We have to give meaning and significance to the outdoors for kids so they do care about it,” Das said.
Das is not alone in his thinking. Jim Walser and his wife, Christine Buik, of Downers Grove started their business, called Chicago Region Interpreters or CRICKET. (her former camp name), in August of 1988, putting on educational and entertaining nature programs for children.
They began with one dinosaur program and have expanded to a selection of four programs, currently totaling about 160 presentations a year for schools, libraries, park district events and private parties.
”Kids have always liked animals,” said Buik, 37, a mother of three and a former naturalist who keeps a box turtle, an iguana, a corn snake and a tarantula in the house for her programs. ”But I don`t think you could have made a living at it. Now parents are always looking for nature programs to take their children to, and school programs with animals are very popular.”
Walser, who is a part-time naturalist for the forest preserve district, said his goal has always been to promote conservation by developing an awareness, an understanding and an appreciation of how nature works.
”If they are aware and they understand, then they can appreciate nature,” Walser said. ”And if they appreciate it, then they`ll take care of it.”
Most nature educators work from a similar approach.
”I think the children who are now kindergarten through 12th grade have a lot of power. They will execute it in more of a political way,” Das said.
About 20,000 students come from schools all over the Chicago area every year for field trips at the arboretum. Das said that because the arboretum has reached its maximum in the number of groups that can be served in a year, naturalists there are encouraging teachers to also conduct nature programs on school grounds.
Some of the arboretum`s 55 naturalists go to schools and teach nature in the schoolyard, not only saving money but also helping children to see that nature is in their own backyard, not just in special places behind gates.
The forest preserve district launched a hands-on habitat program for 4th and 5th graders this year that filled up as soon as word got out to the schools.
”What we find is not only are the schools receptive, but the teachers follow up on what they learn more readily now,” said Pray.
Terry Domkowski, a 4th-grade teacher and science coordinator at Lincoln Elementary School in Glen Ellyn, is one of those teachers.
She has found, she said, that children are willing to stay at lunch or after school to be involved in nature programs, and parents are eager to help. Domkowski has 90 children from 1st and 2nd grades staying after school once a week as part of a voluntary science club.
”The children enjoy the wonderment of nature. They enjoy the diversity. I want them to understand that this was the prairie state, and the beauty of the prairie,” she said.
Domkowski has conducted science club projects for each grade level at the school, and each club has been a drawing force for children and parents alike. ”I really do believe that this is the wave of the future,” she said.
”And the more involved the children get, the more involved the parents get, and the enthusiasm goes home with them.”
Enthusiasm? When Buik presented her ”It`s a Jungle Out There” program to children at a recent park district event in Villa Park, the parents seemed as interested in the pretend trip through the jungle as the children were.
Dressed in safari gear, Buik explained to her audience how some common items such as cars and cigarettes can pose more danger than commonly feared animals such as tarantulas and snakes. And when she reached into her backpack for her lunch, she pulled out an iguana instead.
The crowd roared.
”I wish I could do that,” an enthused preschooler in the crowd said to his mother. ”Maybe it`s magic.”
