Heart Before the Head

Today was chock-full of introductions.  We met our facilitators and each other some more, we went to the site and interacted with our workspace for a couple hours, and we met Bonnie Strawser, the US Fish and Wildlife director of visitor experiences at Alligator River and Pea Island-- 2 of the 8 refuges located on the coast of North Carolina.

The goal of our project is to provide spaces for children (in families or classes) to have meaningful experiences in nature.  As our communication technologies advance and become more prevalent in homes, young generations of children become more and more out-of-touch with nature.  And with a quickly expiring Earth passing into the hands of this generation, how can we expect them to conserve spaces they feel no connection to or value in?  Programs at local (Brookfield Zoo, Chicago) or national (Children & Nature Network) levels are working to counter this disconnect at an emotional level.  Play programs like those viewed in these examples are child-focused and child-directed, less like the educational structure we often think about when designing childrens programs at nature and science centers.  And with play as the main component, an emotional connection is fostered, inspiring compassion for wild animals or curiosity about creepy crawlers or thirst for climbing new trees... Education occurs along the way, but not before engaging the heart.

When we visited the site today, we cleared the trail to our main work base at the future site of the "Gateway" Visitor Center.  This center will serve as a starting and central point, where individuals, families, or classes will come for information about all of the wildlife refuges in the area, and perhaps be inspired to travel to certain ones to see them.  Our work site is separate from the location of the actual visitor center (currently under construction), but not far.  It's still pretty wild--snakes and box turtles abound!-- and it is the location of a future environmental education pavilion.  With 20 sets of hands and some tools, we did fast work!

The new trail entrance appeared!