Museum Releases New "Nature in the City" Guide
The Cleveland Museum of Natural History has released a new educational guide titled Nature in the City: A Guide to Leading Nature Activities with Young People.
The guide helps adults — from teachers and homeschool educators to scout leaders and youth program directors — to lead a variety of activities that engage grade-school-age children in observing and appreciating the natural world around them, whether that’s city or suburb.
“The most meaningful way to learn about nature is by getting outside and being in it,” explains Renee Boronka, associate director of the Museum’s Natural Areas Program and one of the guide’s main contributors. “This guide is all about making that possible by providing the plans for lessons at a field site, where kids make observations, record them in field journals, talk about what natural processes are at work, and even play fun games that tie in. They’re learning the science, but with nature providing the classroom.”
The current edition of Nature in the City — available on Amazon.com — builds on the legacy of the original guide, published in 1979 and developed by longtime Museum trustee and nature artist Mary Lou Ferbert, Museum Curator and Head of Botany Jim Bissell, L.H.D., and other Museum staff and volunteers. The new edition of the guide is dedicated to Ferbert, whose watercolor artwork graces its cover.
“In the 1970s they already saw that nature was being cut out of kids’ lives,” says Boronka. “These days, it’s even worse — kids are spending very little time outside, less than 30 minutes a day on average, when being out in nature has been shown to be so beneficial to mental health in general and kids with attention issues specifically.”
Nature in the City provides 21 lessons (called “Adventures”) for adults and children to work on together. These cover a range of topics relevant to today’s science curricula, including mapping, observation skills, food chains and food webs, and life cycles. Each Adventure includes activities that encourage observation and critical thinking, and prompts for discussions and journal entries about what was observed and learned. Activities can be held in outdoor areas of any size, from a suburban backyard to an apartment courtyard.
“Our goal was to rejuvenate the original curriculum while staying true to its intent, and reaching a broader audience, recognizing that learning takes place in many different contexts,” says Boronka. “You don’t need to have any particular science expertise. This guide will help you lead nature experiences that are informative, but also engaging and a lot of fun.”
Above: The cover of the newly released update of Nature in the City: A Guide to Leading Nature Activities with Young People features artwork by Mary Lou Ferbert, who led the creation of the original guide in the 1970s.
If you'd like to buy a book directly from the Museum, please send a check made out to "CMNH" for $15 ($9.99 + shipping/handling) to: Natural Areas Program, 1 Wade Oval Drive, Cleveland, OH 44106.
Wholesale buyers may contact Renee Boronka for pricing at [email protected].
Go back to all announcements