Medford-area students learn survival skills to spark a lifelong love of nature.
In the grass of a Medford Elementary schoolyard is an unusual sight: Students are practicing primitive hunting techniques by throwing long sticks at stuffed animal targets. Next, they’ll take on roles like mountain lion and rabbit, linking ropes to represent predator-prey relationships.
Just don’t tell them they’re learning about the food web—they’re having too much fun.
Leading this unique lesson is Coyote Trails School of Nature, an organization that taps into kids’ primal connection with nature to create lifelong learners.
“We are different than nature education. We’re about nature connection,” says Joe Kreuzman, the organization’s founder and director.
The project, called Finding Home, teaches survival skills such as building shelters and tracking wildlife to spark kids’ interest in nature and forge new brain pathways to retain science concepts.
With support from the Gray Family Foundation, Coyote Trails has extended its unique programming beyond its 12-acre nature center to eight classrooms at Medford-area Title I schools. In 2014-2015 alone, Coyote Trails served more than 200 students who might not otherwise get outside.
Coyote Trails visits each class eight times during the school year. Then the program culminates in students taking a daylong field trip to the nature center—something the kids look forward to all year.
Teachers rave about the results. Their students are not only more interested in nature but also retaining more science concepts when they get back into the classroom.
“When the kids get outside, their absorption of the material has been scientifically proven to increase. That carries over into other subjects,” Kreuzman says.
Lynne Reardon, Coyote Trails’ office manager, says support from the Gray Family Foundation has been essential to build the project and also leverage support from other foundations.
“They’ve been a wonderful supporter for keeping the program going,” she says.