Chattermarks

Students in the M.E.d Graduate Program celebrated the start of winter break with the Strait Talk, Sound Ideas Conference on Bainbridge Island from December 11th through 13th. As part of a series of three Instructor Exchanges aimed at sharing ideas and experiences between Environmental Education graduate programs in Washington, this conference kicked off the set hosted each by Islandwood, the Wilderness Awareness School and the North Cascades Institute.

Strait Talk, Sound Ideas brought together naturalists and outdoor educators at the Islandwood campus for keynote speakers, workshops and breakout sessions. The three-day event began with an evening of sharing songs and skits and served as an introduction to each other and our programs. Participants took advantage of one of the most beneficial parts of a gathering like this, the informal conversations and discussions about each other’s work in the field of Environmental Education.

» Continue reading Graduate Students Attend Environmental Education Conference

Practicing natural history requires us to be consciously aware, to be intentional observers of our surroundings. To be a naturalist involves surrendering what we know about a place in order to learn from it. Slowly we will make notes of patterns and similarities, notes of how things are connected and how and when these connections occur. When we become familiar with a place, that familiarity is grounded in our first efforts to identify and name individual pieces of the landscape.

In my dalliances so far into the naturalist world and into the North Cascades, I have made attempts to name what I see, collect these pieces as parts of a whole, and better understand this place as my home. Learning and pulling from the experiences of the naturalists of our community is a special part of the M.Ed. Graduate Residency at North Cascades Institute I have been inspired by words and experiences about what it means to identify something by name, to understand the patterns of place, to see the connection between recognition and reverence, and to cultivate that curiosity that pulls us more deeply into relationships with the places we call home. Here are some thoughts I’ve gleaned and some experiences I’ll share about the art of naming in the practice of natural history.

» Continue reading Naming as Knowing

It’s the second day of Mountain School and our group, the Flying Squirrels, sits spread out along the Sourdough Creek Trail at the Environmental Learning Center with journals and pencils in hand. The forest is seemingly quiet, Fawn Creek tumbles softly along its path in the background and the occasional douglas squirrel rouses student attention with his yapping alert call. Angelyna is writing tirelessly, attempting to take in all that she’s seeing around her. Ben has his head to the sky, perhaps noticing the wind playing up in the tops of the giant western red cedars. I notice Maxim with his face right up to a lichen, alternating between intense moments of observation and quick strokes of the pencil as he sketches in his journal. The first notes of my wolf howl to round up the students are immediately echoed by nine voices, and promptly followed by nine pairs of feet padding up the trail. “What have you been wondering about?” I ask.

Developing sensory awareness and the desire to observe and learn from the natural world are critical components to the Mountain School experience. Sit spots, like the ones that the Flying Squirrels were practicing, are opportunities for students to be still for a few quiet moments in the woods, engaging all of their senses while taking note of what is going on in the world immediately around them.

» Continue reading Sitting with Nature