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Westside Weekly, October
22, 2000
Featured in "Mother Nature Teaches Her Children",
by Denise Carson
Westside volunteers lead nature walks for inner-city
students who rarely venture outside their neighborhoods
A horse dropping is hardly reason to get excited
- unless you didn't see it in time.
But the fly-infested dung was a site to behold for 30 first-graders from Sunrise
Elementary School in East Los Angeles, who rarely cross paths with horses.
Docents gathered children around to show them a deer print and how to make
their own impressions of animal tracks. Their attention however, was quickly
diverted to a hawk soaring high overhead. The children's eyes widened to the
size of saucers and they were stirred with excitement as they saw the bird
of prey.
"The key is to open their eyes to discovering what you see in nature,"
said Nancy Berk…of West Los Angeles, who trains the institute's nature
walk docents.
At a trail head, the Sunrise Elementary students, many of whom rarely explore
beyond their concrete-covered neighborhoods, were bursting with questions as
they moved through the canopies of oak trees that shed acorns on the ground.
But the first lesson of the day was respect and appreciation for nature.
"We are walking on the roofs of many tiny critters' homes," docents
told the children. "So let's all walk softly like a deer."
"The animals live under the ground?" Alexis Morales, 6, asked as
he looked inside a burrowed hole along the trail. "Is this their front
door?"
Throughout the two-hour hike, the outdoor learning environment invited the
children to be free from the contained walls of the traditional classroom setting
and open their minds to ask questions and make comparisons in a natural environment.
CNI's outreach program provides transportation for elementary school children,
which is the obstacle most inner-city teachers face when planning a field trip
for their students. One field trip can cost the school $250 for a bus. More
than half of the students in the school must be on the free lunch program in
order to receive transportation aid from the institute.
"Many of these students have never seen the ocean and they think hills
are mountains," Berk said. "They come from a very violent, concrete
environment. They learn better when they've held it, smelled it and heard it
in nature."
Near a swampy stream, docents shared a story of how a tadpole, swimming in
the water, evolves into a leaping frog found on the mossy rocks.
The nature walks aid learning in a number of ways.
They improve the children's vocabulary as the nature walk leader answers questions
using new words such as "prey," "predator," "habitat"
and "nocturnal." There are Spanish translators on the walk to improve
children's language arts and break down barriers. The children also apply their
math skills when counting the eyes of insects or legs on a spider.
Reading the signs of nature builds the children's awareness and perceptions
of the environment surrounding them, said Monica Rosales, the institute's naturalist
and environmental educator. "Nature walks are live applications of traditional
learning, but it's driven home because it is fun," she said. "Teachers
teach by the book, but we focus on hands-on learning for the children."
Rosales drives the institute's Wondermobile, which is filled with exhibits
of natural wonders, to inner-city schools. She spends time exploring the campus
and training the teachers on how to bring the exploration of nature into their
schools.
"Interesting nooks and crannies of the classroom and playground can be
utilized," said Gwen Newman, a docent nature walk leader and first-grade
teacher at 92nd Street Elementary School in South-Central Los Angeles.
Newman's class recently planted an "insect safari" and built a bird
sanctuary after a visit by the Wondermobile. They also mapped out a mini-nature
walk right on their playground.
"Nature can break down those barriers and walls that children growing
up in rough neighborhoods have," said Newman…."They learn how
to respect nature and one another. Instead of squashing an ant, they put it
on a card and release it outside."
"These children are literally prisoners in their own communities,"
Newman said. "We need these children to get out and discover and wonder
with a sense of freedom and love for nature. We will eventually prosper from
a whole generation of environmentalists."
Back to: In
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