Nature and education are connected
With school out for summer, we wanted to take a second to talk about one of the most valuable and interactive classrooms in the world - the great outdoors!
Research has demonstrated that time spent outdoors positively impacts a child’s physical, mental, emotional, and intellectual development.
It is because of this that Pease Park Conservancy strives to conserve and program Austin’s first and oldest park. Pease Park itself is a world class park and our hope is that you consider it a space for exploration, outdoor learning and hands-on teaching, just as we do at the Conservancy.
encouraging Environmental Leaders of the Future
Our commitment to this idea is what founded the Ecologist School Field Trip Program.
This service-learning opportunity is a joint program between Pease Park Conservancy and Families in Nature. Excursions are facilitated by Pease Park Conservancy’s Community Engagement and Park Operations Teams, and are based on the educational training and curriculum content provided by Families in Nature.
The Conservancy leads learning experiences and volunteer activities for visiting classes to match classroom instruction in an effort to create accessible environmental and STEAM education.
Our goals with this program are to:
provide a unique learning opportunity
inspire the future generation of environmental leaders
promote environmental learning and literacy for all
engage students in an outdoor setting
encourage the exploration of and care for the environment
give students the agency to create positive change
looking back and ahead
Ecology is the study of relationships between organisms and their surroundings and observation and curiosity are fundamental skills in this field. At the end of the day, everyone has an ecologist within them, no matter their background or experiences.
Over the course of the Spring semester, just over 300 students from 5 schools in the Austin-metro area came to Pease Park to engage with nature as part of the Ecologist School Field Trip program. Kingsbury Commons turned into an outdoor classroom for ecologists from Hillcrest Elementary, Graham Elementary, The Rawson Saunders School, Cedar Creek Elementary, and Blanton Elementary.
To promote equity, the program has no associated costs and Pease Park Conservancy secures funding to pay for transportation and lunch for Title 1 schools. No matter a school’s categorization, each teacher receives a take-home copy of the Ecologist School Pocket Guide at the end of the field trip.
Though summer just started and we are taking a break from field trips, we are working to recruit more schools for the Ecologist School Field Trip program this fall. We strive to host 8 Title 1 schools and over 400+ more students over the course of the 2023-2024 academic school year.
“The Ecologist School Field Trip program is The Conservancy’s commitment to free, equitable, programming. With a focus on conservation-learning we hope to inspire the next generation of environmental leaders and foster interest in our local greenspaces.”
Ecologists in the Wild
Students (our young ecologists) come to Pease Park and participate in lessons aligned with in class instruction, topics, and TEKS as well as a service project that helps The Conservancy’s Park Operations and Conservation Teams. Of course, lunch and free-play are an important component of their visit to Pease as well!
This semester, young ecologists experienced lessons related to:
Watersheds
Changing landscapes
Weathering & erosion
Native landscaping
Biodiversity
Pollinator species
Plant & animal life cycles
Human environmental interdependence
And much more!
Ecologists also got their hands dirty and participated in several projects to conserve and protect Austin’s first and oldest greenspace. The Conservancy’s Park Operations team led students in trail mulching, garden bed mulching, litter pick-ups, weed removal, and planting activities.
After these excursions to Pease Park we hope students feel inspired and empowered to learn from and care for the environment that is so integral to our wellbeing.
join or support the ecologist school field trip program
To participate visit the Ecologist School Field Trip webpage to learn more and submit a request by filling out the form.
To support the program and allow us to continue providing this opportunity to the ecologists of the future, consider donating to Pease Park Conservancy.
