GRAFTON-The Nature Museum is using new grants to run an expanded pilot program to collaborate with local schools to transform their programs into immersive nature experiences like those found in nature camps.
As described in a news release, the schools, which include Saxtons River Elementary School, Grafton Elementary School, Central Elementary School in Bellows Falls, Westminster Center School, Chester-Andover Elementary School, and NewBrook Elementary School in Newfane, are now running longer outdoor programs, “giving students more time to explore and build strong, lasting connections to nature that are essential for wellness and growth.”
The museum has long collaborated with local schools to integrate nature-based education into class curricula, and a 2025 Nordlys Foundation grant allowed the museum to expand those programs.
It recently received another $15,000 in grants to support this program expansion, significantly reducing or eliminating the cost for schools.
One is from the Crossroads Foundation, which gave $10,000 to support development and implementation of the school pilot programs.
“We recently received another grant from the Vermont Community Foundation through a specific program for $5,000 to support the pilot programs as well,” said museum Executive Director Nikolas Katrick.
The museum received another $5,000 grant from the Nordlys Foundation to support the first iteration of the program last year, he said.
“While a traditional 45-to-60-minute program has value for students, it doesn’t provide enough high quality, outdoor, hands-on education that makes a lasting impact,” museum officials wrote in the announcement. “Now that program is expanding.”
The programs are tied to required curricula, and the classroom teachers participate in the creation of the programs. Programs have already increased to several hours, and the goal is to eventually run half- and full-day programs.
“A key part of our pilot project is working directly with teachers to support their goals and curricula,” said Katrick. “Teachers already have a challenging job balancing real-time classroom needs and required topics, and we want to be their partners in this work.”
In doing so, the museum’s educators talk with teachers and design the programs to be relevant, as well as actively nature-focused.
“While the activities change based on need, there are some common themes,” Katrick said.
Such themes include “hands-on outdoor learning, time for exploration and questions, and some unstructured outdoor play time — which is really crucial for healthy growth and development,” he noted.
Lessons have included exploring what amphibians live in nearby wetlands or ponds by going out with nets and specimen jars and collecting live animals to observe and release.
A lesson on animal homes had the classes build their own shelters to better understand how natural materials and even snow can be an effective insulator, Katrick said.
Not just for fun, but vital for growth
Katrick and others involved in nature-based education said that experts have become increasingly concerned “about how our current culture has encouraged this disconnection from nature.”
Museum board member Cheryl Charles, an educator and organizational executive, chairs the Westminster School Board and the Windham Northeast Supervisory Union (WNESU) Board. She is also co-chair of the Minnesota-based Children & Nature Network’s Founders’ Council, and the co-chair of the #NatureForAll campaign launched in 2016.
#NatureForAll is a program of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, which operates on the principle that the more people experience and share their love of nature, the more support and action will coalesce to conserve it. The global coalition numbers nearly 600 partner organizations and individuals across roughly 70 countries.
Charles said that the evidence is clear: Children raised with constant use of digital devices, who consume large amounts of time on screens and social media, are in danger of a serious disconnect from the natural world.
“Equally clear,” she added, is the growing evidence “about the many benefits to children and youth from the kind of immersive, experiential, nature-based education approach that the Nature Museum is offering to area schools.”
This approach was considered so vital that the WNESU board, in its Vision, Mission, and Goals statement, made clear that teaching in the district had to include nature-based experiential education.
“Our collaboration with The Nature Museum on this new immersive pilot program is consistent with our schools’ core values and priorities,” Charles said. “Another aspect of our approach in Westminster, and to some extent other schools within the WNESU and the region, is our support for the Farm to School [food] programs. Those are relevant, too.”
Jay DeGregorio, senior educator at the museum, said that “most students genuinely engage with the natural world and natural sciences when they have opportunities to be immersed in the content and the natural environment thoughtfully and consistently.”
He said that there has always been notable impact from the museum’s school programs, but “we really have seen the deepest impact from our summer and seasonal youth day camps.”
In those camps, students experience hands-on environmental education learning, but they also experience space and opportunities to play, explore, be creative, rest, and be in community, DeGregorio said.
“We wanted to bring more of this to our school programs to provide even more impactful learning experiences to students, teachers, and their school communities,” he said.
Katrick said that kids really tap into a special engagement when outdoors and can be outdoors consistently.
“I feel there is something innate in all of us when we’re outdoors, can feel safe, can feel supported, and are encouraged to be curious,” he said.
He noted that this exposure to the natural world “is something many of us experience less and less these days, especially kids.”
Kids, Katrick observed, “often embrace these experiences and look forward to them. We make the most of this through thoughtful program development.”
Goals: more nature in education
Katrick said that one of the primary goals with the pilot program “is to be curious and experiment.” He noted that different teachers and schools have different needs, so the program will look a bit different for each classroom.
“For instance,” he said, “some schools have easy access to natural areas, and we take advantage of that resource by traveling to them.”
Others, he continued, come to the Nature Museum, “or to one of any number of amazing and unique natural spaces in our region.”
“Getting kids outdoors will look different in every town, and in every classroom — and that’s OK,” Katrick said. “We’re not going for a one-size-fits-all solution.”
He said that another important goal at this stage is relationship building.
“We really value working with teachers in the region, and our own staff really loves collaborating with them because we each bring a lot of experience to the table that ultimately benefits students,” Katrick said. “The more we collaborate to get kids outside to learn and fall in love with nature, the more we all benefit.”
Another museum educator, Kellie Hallock, is a board member of the Nature Museum and teaches at Westminster Center School.
“Kellie is an outstanding educator,” Charles said. “She has been instrumental in expanding our nature-based education work in Westminster.”
With the support of the Rowland Foundation, based in Burlington, Hallock and her colleague Mandy Walsh “are currently being supported as Rowland Fellows this year, working to learn more about how to integrate these approaches within the schools,” she said.
While they do so, the fellowship pays for substitute teachers for them during this school year.
Hallock and Walsh will return to teaching next year and will also be providing professional development for other educators, Charles said.
Katrick said that getting out into the natural world is not just beneficial and vital for children.
“I really can’t emphasize enough that lack of unstructured outdoor time is not a youth-specific problem,” he said. “Every day, I hear friends and neighbors talk about how much they wish they could spend more time outdoors and with their beloved communities, but they simply don’t have the time.”
Katrick noted that social media, screen time, and digital media are “a challenge for all of us, and what we model as adults has a real impact on our youth, too.”
“If we want our upcoming generations to understand, respect, and build a future where the wellness of the natural world is a core value, then we need to demonstrate that actively and right now,” he said.
This News item by Robert F. Smith was written for The Commons.