How We Adapted Our Summer Education Programs For Community Success
For the past 20 years, Forest Park has been proud to offer summer education programs to the community. These donor-sponsored programs have been instrumental in getting students and educators out in the Park each summer to explore and learn together.
This year, the programs looked a little different.
When the pandemic began, the planning of the original programs — Voyage of Learning and Nature Works — was already underway. It wasn’t until late April that the Forest Park Forever education team knew they needed to change their approach for the upcoming summer.
They set all the planning aside and went back to the drawing board, thinking specifically about the main goals of the programs and the safety of the participants. Forest Park Forever’s Education Coordinator, Ellie Stevens, says they started asking themselves, What can we do to meet the same goals in a way that is safe for the participants?
Flexibility was key as the team identified opportunities that perhaps at first appeared to be obstacles. The work resulted in two innovative programs that met the moment.
Nature Works
“My Nature Works experience was by far the highlight of my summer. I felt a sense of purpose.”
The Nature Works program shifted in size from a larger group to a more intimate group of four high school interns. The students spent the month of the July learning about restoration. They were provided with everything they needed for this work: boots, work pants and a Forest Park Forever shirt and hat. In addition, the appropriate COVID-19 necessities such as hand sanitizer and masks were provided. The intern crew members worked each morning from 7:30 to 10:30 a.m. to complete various projects, one of which was the restoration work along the Taylor-Kindle River. Instead of traveling around the Park in a passenger van, this year interns biked from spot to spot, allowing them a special opportunity to experience different parts of the Park.
Seedlings Fellowship
“This experience was the highlight of my life. In a time of anxiety, the Seedlings Fellowship provided an opportunity for personal and professional collaboration, spending time in nature and helping me think about how to teach amid COVID-10 during fall 2020.”
We created a new Forest Park Forever program this year to engage educators. The nine participants, including six classroom teachers, two college students, and one young professional enrolled in this summer’s Seedlings Fellowship helped to develop tools and resources to tackle big questions around engaging St. Louis's educational community in nature-based learning. They examined how to have an impact in the community and how to connect people to nature. The fellows were challenged to find an intersection between their area of expertise and the work that Forest Park Forever does as an organization. Two fellows worked together to write a children’s book about children connecting to nature using specific stories that reflect the diversity of families in St. Louis and that are set in familiar locations. Another pair of teachers created a set of photos and videos for early elementary age children on plants, animals and landmarks.
“All of the programs are funded by grants,” says Stevens. “What was special about this year was that pretty much all of our donors to our education programs made time to connect with us and hear about how we were envisioning our programs. They offered great guidance and support. Just having them take this journey with us made a huge difference.”