Earth Day is only 3 months away!
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Most of you are probably not even thinking about how you are going to spend your Earth Day, but I sure am!
In the spring, Cascadia has several events and campaigns geared toward local youth. One of our attempts to get kids thinking about the value of our natural world- and the importance conserving it- is the Earth Day Essay Contest. Last year, we asked 6th through 8th graders in Chelan County to write about the question:
"What does nature mean to you and what do you do to protect it?"
We had some wonderful essays; read the winning essay in Cascadia's Spring 2011 Cascadia Quarterly newsletter (page 3)!
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Photo by Julia Leach
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I think this is a great, all-encompassing, age-appropriate topic, and am having a hard time coming up with something similar (dare I say better?) for this year's contest. So I've sent an email around to my Cascadia co-workers for their help. Here are their suggestions:
"Why is it important to take care of nature, and how do you help?"
"How does nature care for you? What will happen if we don't care for nature?"
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"Why is it important to be a friend to nature, and in what ways do you show your friendship?"
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Photo by Julia Leach
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"As a part of the local ecosystem, I play which role (farmer, logger, recreationist, etc.)? What measures do I take to be a good neighbor to nature?"
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Photo by Gerald Tapp
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"Finish this sentence: 'If I could spend one day in nature, I would...' Why would [what you do] be important to you?"
Now I'm asking you! (Is anybody out there?...)
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- Educators- what would students be excited to write about?
- Parents- when you talk to your children about nature, what in particular seems to provoke thoughtfulness?
- Everyone else- are you simply interested to know what our community's children think about a certain, conservation-related subject?
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Photo by Owen Lloyd
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Contribute to the conversation by clicking on the comments link at the bottom of this post.
Vote on one of the above topics, or add another to the list! It can be broad (perhaps not "the meaning of life" broad), or locally-focused. It just needs to be related to conservation and/or nature-based experience. And please alert others who might be interested in being part of this discussion. I'm very interested to hear your thoughts!
Thank you for your input, and for reading!
Your Friend in Conservation,
Julia
1/26/12: I've received feedback from readers that commenting on our blog was a rather long, laborious process. I've changed the blog settings, so now comments can be posted anonymously, which I hope will help. Thank you to those who alerted me to this problem!
How about: "What have you learned from nature?"
ReplyDeleteThere may be better/more leading wording for this idea, but what I'm envisioning is an essay that describes an experience in nature (therefore requiring the writer to actually venture outside...important!) and a reflection upon this experience - observation, connection, convictions, etc.
For example, while watching chickadees and nuthatches fighting over my bird feeder recently, I thought, wouldn't this make a great children's story about taking turns? That's a simple example, and I'm sure middle school students would come up with much deeper metaphors than mine.
I can also see this question being more appealing to creative writers than a question like "what are you doing to help protect nature?" because of the potential for metaphor and storytelling. More straightforward essay writers would do fine with it too.
You could also alert students to great nature writers like Aldo Leopold, Edward Abbey, Barry Lopez, Rachel Carson, Annie Dillard, Henry David Thoreau, etc, for inspiration..
Thank you Anngirl! I like the idea of a question that might provoke more creative answers from students, and would be interested to see how the different ages (6th versus 8th graders) would tackle this topic. I will mull over wording, but like the open-endedness of what you have come up with. Thank you again, I greatly appreciate your input!
DeleteGlad I could help, and good luck with the contest! Thanks for offering such a great opportunity for young writers and naturalists.
ReplyDelete(P.S. It's much easier to comment now!)