December 30, 2007, St. Petersburg, FL

Think about what you did when you were a kid, what you did when you weren’t in school? Can you remember “Go outside and play” being mom’s daily mantra? Translated, that meant, “Get out of my hair,” but for most kids, such an edict was a win-win! I remember sneaking over the fence to explore the woods surrounding a seminary hear our house, the wonder of finding fossil treasures at home construction sites and idyllic days spent at my grandfather’s summer camp on a lake in the Berkshires.

Now think about how our children spend their days; video games, TV, the Internet, the mall? According to Richard Louv, the author of the book "Last Child in the Woods”, kids across all ages and socio-economic groups no longer have a connection to nature, beyond what they might see of it on the Nature Channel. One example: a 2002 study found that 8-year-olds could identify 25 percent more Pokémon characters than wildlife species. According to the Kaiser Foundation, children between the ages of 8 and 18 spend an average of 6 1/2 hours a day with electronic media; that would not seem to leave much time for “Go out and play.” Here’s another alarming statistic: according to a University of Maryland study, between 1997 and 2003, the proportion of children ages 9 to 12 who spent time hiking, walking, fishing, playing on the beach or gardening declined 50 percent. Fifty percent? From low to incredibly low? Yikes!

These statistics suggest an even deeper problem. If we have surrendered our kids to technology, and perhaps surrendered ourselves as well, how can we hope that this next generation will embrace the cause of restoring and preserving an environment to which they have no connection?

Sustany’s first “field trip” addressed this problem. This afternoon, a group of two dozen adults and kids “went outside” with Dana Lawson, the President and Education Director of Nature’s Academy (www.naturesacademy.org). This organization provides educational nature experiences to Florida kids in many locations. Ours was Fort Desoto, on a gorgeous, windy day. First up, a nature walk, to examine a cross-section of habitats on a barrier island. Seeing an area where a prescribed burn had taken place led to a discussion of fire ecology. The Australian pines and Brazilian pepper provided examples of invasive species, and we talked about their effect on native species. Of course, the kids were thrilled to see a kiteboarder taking some air when we reached the shoreline; it looked like lots more fun than a theme park ride!

Next up: a kayak tour of the mangroves. Many of our group had never been kayaking but quickly got the hang of it. The teens paddled in perfect synchrony, trying to overtake each other and having a blast. We rounded up at the edge of the mangroves to talk about the significance of barrier islands in storm protection. Dana showed us the mangrove varieties and explained the significance of coastal vegetation and oyster reefs for water filtration. We could taste the resulting saltiness of the black mangrove leaves. Then, a wonderful surprise: our group was joined by a pod of dolphins! They were all around us, and we quickly surmised it was dinner time by the churning of the water and airborne acrobatics of panicky mullets. Few of us had even been that close to those amazing creatures; they were breathtakingly beautiful, arcing out of the water.

The big finale was our own version of CSI Fort Desoto; at the picnic tables, we dissected spiny dogfish sharks that magically appeared out of Dana’s big cooler. It was another first for most of the kids – the first time they ever had an opportunity to peer into the innards of a vertebrate of any kind. We learned firsthand how sharks have skeleton made of cartilage rather than bone, the adaptations that permit them to live in the ocean, and how their “form fits function”. The kids looked into their stomachs and intestines to analyze their last meals and wrestled with the sharks to remove the lenses of their eyes. They were totally immersed in the whole process and listened intently to Dana’s descriptions of shark life. They even helped clean up!

The mission of Nature’s Classroom is to educate individuals about the complexity of Earth’s ecosystems and inspire them to become better stewards of our limited resources. We applaud Dana’s initiative and encourage you to utilize their programs with through your own school or Scouting group. What better way to follow that Mom edict than to go outside and play…and learn… and become part of the natural world again.