Beetles Project Tales from the Field Archives

Tale from the Field: A Regional Network in Maine

October 5, 2022: Tales from the Field

From Drew Dumsch, Executive Director at The Ecology School, Saco, Maine. The five programs in Maine that do outdoor science school year programs (The Ecology School, Chewonki Outdoor Classroom, University of Maine 4-H Camp & Learning Center at Bryant Pond, and the University of Maine 4-H Camp & Learning Center at Tanglewood, and the Schoodic Institute […]

Tale from the Field: Setting a Tone: How We Develop a Learning Culture Among Staff

August 30, 2022: Tales from the Field

From Ray Cramer, Senior Faculty for Teaching Practicum at Islandwood, Bainbridge Island, Washington. As a graduate program, Islandwood has been focused on developing a culture of learning within their instructional staff for many years. Here’s a brief synopsis of how they do it. Challenge people’s ideas of what science looks like and how we talk […]

Regional Networks Tale from the Field: Minnesota Collaborative

August 30, 2022: Tales from the Field

Minnesota is home to five accredited residential environmental learning centers (RELCs) that host overnight field trips for students from Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, and more. Our centers are independent entities that have no financial ties to one another. But despite this, we’ve long had a collaborative approach to projects, grants, fundraising, and reaching broader audiences. Therefore, […]

Building Regional Networks: Lessons Learned in Collaboration and Community

December 9, 2021: Tales from the Field

In January, 2020, the BEETLES team sent out a request for proposals for a new funding opportunity designed to strengthen the field of environmental and outdoor science through regional capacity building. With the support of the National Science Foundation, BEETLES offered six small grants for region-building efforts among environmental and outdoor science organizations. In part, […]

Regional Networks Tale from the Field: River Cities

December 9, 2021: Tales from the Field

By Jen Schnakenberg, Amanda Schuster, Camila Rivera-Tinsley, Heather Berenson, Eva Barinas, and Kim Smith-Woodford How does a group of 20 near-strangers in a Zoom room become a community of learners? How does a diverse group of practitioners in environmental education and allied fields begin to confront bias and center racial equity in their work? In […]

Regional Network Tales from the Field: Forming Community Partnerships to Inform Curriculum Design with the Native Voices Project

December 9, 2021: Tales from the Field

From Rob Wade, Plumas County Office of Education, Quincy, CA. The Native Voices Project is a regional collaborative in the Upper Feather River Watershed between local educators and leaders from the Mountain Maidu community. The Mountain Maidu, the native inhabitants of this landscape, have suffered centuries of devastation due to American Colonialism. This project is […]

Regional Network Tales from the Field: San Diego

December 9, 2021: Tales from the Field

In San Diego, there are over 50 environmental education nonprofits that work with school districts to provide outdoor science programming. As most of the organizations are non-profits, staff are busy managing their programs and often have limited opportunities for interactions with peers from other organizations despite sharing similar goals and challenges. Although there are a […]

Regional Network Tales from the Field: Alabama Environmental Education Summits

December 9, 2021: Tales from the Field

Alabama Environmental Education Summits (AEES) – Building bridges and breaking down barriers in Alabama In our effort to strengthen the quality and quantity of environmental education in Alabama, AEES convened 1 statewide and 3 regional summits. Our initial thoughts were that leaders of informal environmental education were our primary audience, and our goal was to […]

Regional Network Tales from the Field: Philadelphia

December 9, 2021: Tales from the Field

By Erin McCool Philadelphia is home to a complex tapestry of neighborhoods, each with its own challenges and strengths. Philadelphia students represent some of the most diverse in the region. While we are surrounded by nature, with 400 community gardens, 80 neighborhood parks and acres of federally protected open space, there is still great need […]

Working with Large Groups: Interview with Korena David

February 19, 2021: Tales from the Field

Some program activity groups have 30+ students in them, plus chaperones. We’ve heard some folks say, “The groups I work with are too large to do student-centered BEETLES stuff.” We’ve heard other folks say, “Working with large groups forces you to make things student-centered, because it’s too hard to make it instructor-centered.” We interviewed Korena […]

Outdoor In-Person Learning: Partnerships in the Pandemic Spotlight Series

January 28, 2021: News | Tales from the Field

By Cristina Edwards and Emilie Lygren Over the course of the past year, the BEETLES team has heard many stories about how the environmental education community is adapting to the Covid pandemic. From Zoom classrooms to widely spaced outdoor stump circles, this community has shined with its creativity and flexibility in continuing to teach––both in-person […]

Partnerships in the Pandemic Spotlight: Santa Cruz Outdoor Science School

January 26, 2021: News | Tales from the Field

By Cristina Edwards and Emilie Lygren Heather MacDougall Molloy directs Santa Cruz Outdoor Science School, a residential outdoor science program located in Santa Cruz, CA. She is also an active participant in efforts to develop and implement an environmental literacy plan focused on increasing outdoor learning opportunities for students across Santa Cruz County. We talked […]

Partnerships in the Pandemic Spotlight: McCall Outdoor Science School

January 26, 2021: News | Tales from the Field

By Cristina Edwards and Emilie Lygren Karla Eitel (right) is the Director of the McCall Outdoor Science School, a residential outdoor science program located in McCall, Idaho. She also teaches a place-based education class to graduate students at the University of Idaho College for Natural Resources. Beth Kochevar (left) is the K-12 Residential and Outreach […]

Partnerships in the Pandemic Spotlight: Portland Public Schools

January 26, 2021: News | Tales from the Field

By Cristina Edwards and Emilie Lygren Brooke Teller is the STEM Coordinator/Science Coach for Portland Public Schools, a school district in Portland, Maine. After 21 years as a high school science teacher, Brooke shifted to a role as the district’s STEM Coordinator. During the pandemic, she has taken on the role of Interim Outdoor Learning […]

Partnerships in the Pandemic Spotlight: Sierra Nevada Journeys

January 26, 2021: News | Tales from the Field

Sean Hill is the Vice President of Education at Sierra Nevada Journeys (SNJ) in Reno, Nevada. He shared advice on getting the attention of school districts when there wasn’t an established partnership already. We spoke with Sean about Sierra Nevada Journeys’s Fall pilot of an outdoor, in-person weekly program at Incline Elementary School, located in […]

Partnerships in the Pandemic Spotlight: North Cascades Institute

January 26, 2021: News | Tales from the Field

by Cristina Edwards and Emilie Lygren Jeff Giesen is the Associate Director at North Cascades Institute (NCI), a conservation organization focused on transformative learning experiences in nature in Northwest Washington State. Although NCI is predominantly a residential outdoor learning program, during the pandemic, they have partnered with several partner organizations to offer in-person outdoor learning […]

Partnerships in the Pandemic Spotlight: Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center

January 26, 2021: News | Tales from the Field

by Cristina Edwards and Emilie Lygren Joe Walewski is the Director of Naturalist Training at Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center on the North Shore of Lake Superior in Finland, Minnesota. We spoke with Joe about the ways his organization has partnered with two local charter schools to offer outdoor, in-person education during the pandemic. These […]

Offering I Notice, I Wonder, It Reminds Me Of as a Tool for Social Emotional Learning

June 29, 2020: Tales from the Field

By Emilie Lygren At the North American Association of Environmental Education (NAAEE) Conference in fall 2019, BEETLES team members met Brianne Blom (Bree), a naturalist and educator with the Clay County Conservation Board in Iowa. Bree attended a BEETLES workshop at the conference in which she was introduced to the routine, I Notice, I Wonder, […]

Tale from the Field: Designing a Custom 4-Day Curriculum with BEETLES, Part 2

April 27, 2020: Tales from the Field

By Emilie Lygren, Kevin Beals, and Jedda Foreman In the spring of 2019, Waskowitz Outdoor Education Center hired BEETLES to develop a curriculum for their 4-day residential outdoor school program. The curriculum was to include BEETLES activities connected to the theme of Ecosystems, Matter, and Energy, that would engage students in science practices while building […]

Tale from the Field: Designing a Custom 4-Day Curriculum with BEETLES, Part 1

March 25, 2020: Tales from the Field

In the spring of 2019, Waskowitz Outdoor Education Center (Waskowitz) hired BEETLES to develop a curriculum for their 4-day residential outdoor school program. The curriculum was to include BEETLES activities connected to the theme of Ecosystems, Matter, and Energy, as well as engage students in science practices and build their sense of place and connection […]

Tale from the Field: Celebrating Black History, Rooted in Plants, at the New York Botanical Garden

February 18, 2020: Tales from the Field

Arvolyn Hill works at the New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) and attended a BEETLES Leadership Institute in August 2019. In the winter of 2020, Arvolyn designed and launched a program Celebrate Black History: Rooted in Plants, focused on the influence of the African diaspora on the plant world. We interviewed her to hear more about […]

The Other Side of the Coin: Supporting Districts to Implement Environmental Literacy at Scale

January 22, 2020: Tales from the Field

BEETLES has now been supporting outdoor science programs since 2012. Since then, we’ve: Published almost 80 resources, including professional learning sessions, student activities, implementation support guides, videos, research/practice briefs, etc. And 15 more documents are currently in publication pipeline, in some form or another. Conducted 10 weeklong Leadership Institutes, working with over 200 organizations across […]

Tale from the Field: Professional Learning at Scale

November 6, 2019: Tales from the Field

Mass Audubon is a nature conservation nonprofit with 20 nature centers throughout Massachusetts. They also have 75 permanent education staff and hire nearly 500 seasonal educators per year. BEETLES interviewed Education Coordinator Melissa Hansen about the challenges and opportunities that come with working with instructors across multiple sites, and how Mass Audubon is building a […]

Tale from the Field: Making a “Destination Hike” Optional to Give Instructors More Flexibility

September 25, 2019: Tales from the Field

by Emilie Lygren We all want high quality student experiences in our programs, but sometimes the policies or structure of our organization can unintentionally get in the way. We all want high quality student experiences in our programs, but sometimes our program’s policies or structure can unintentionally get in the way. This Tale from the […]

Tale from the Field– Connecting BEETLES Approaches and Trauma-Informed Teaching Practices

July 26, 2019: Tales from the Field

written by James Taborda-Whitt, director of Camp Bovey, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Camp Bovey is a traditional sleep away camp for youth who are underrepresented in green spaces. Camp Bovey staff are guided by the belief that summer camp has the potential to improve how children learn and think about themselves as learners. Although we don’t know […]

How Implementing BEETLES Transformed Our Program

July 6, 2019: Tales from the Field

From Jenny McGuigan, School Program Coordinator, Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont, Townsend, Tennessee. The implementation of BEETLES transformed our program in a variety of ways. The discussions within sessions helped reveal where we wanted to be, and the session activities showed us ways to get there. It inspired us to question a lot of […]

The Whole Enchilada: How We Transformed Our Program Through BEETLES

July 6, 2019: Tales from the Field

From Gregory Bahr, Principal of San Joaquin County Outdoor Education program, La Honda, California. Why BEETLES? After many rewarding years in outdoor science schools as an instructor and director/principal, I remember feeling like what we were doing was great, but could be better. I didn’t know how, but I just felt like it could be. […]

How We Changed Our “Tone-Sets” to Inspire Students for Inquiry

July 6, 2019: Tales from the Field

From Seth “Lion” Weinberg, School Programs Manager, Westminster Woods, Occidental, California. At Westminster Woods in the past, we used introductions to our program blocks that were designed to provide a baseline of information, and also to be fun. On our Forest Ecology day, we helped students act out a food-chain skit. For Watershed Ecology, we […]

How Our Two Programs Conducted BEETLES Professional Learning Collaboratively

July 6, 2019: Tales from the Field

From Beth Taylor, Education Program Manager of Expedition Yellowstone, and Jessica Haas, Program Manager of Yellowstone Forever Institute, Wyoming. Our two programs serve the same population in different ways. Before BEETLES, we didn’t collaborate at all and, in fact, were somewhat competitive and territorial with each other. When we learned about BEETLES, we thought we […]

Collaboration Spotlight: BEETLES and Social Emotional Learning at the BOOST Conference

June 27, 2019: Tales from the Field

Outward Bound USA first came into contact with BEETLES in 2015, when a team from Thompson Island Outward Bound– the only Outward Bound USA sites with an explicit focus on science– came to a Leadership Institute. They were immediately hooked, and saw potential for wide-reaching implications across the organization nation-wide. Fast-forward a couple of years, […]

Collaboration Spotlight: BEETLES Oregon Leadership Institute

June 27, 2019: Tales from the Field

For some time, BEETLES has been interested in encouraging and helping establish regional “hubs” of outdoor science programs. Part of our motivation is to encourage/promote regional capacity to support professional learning communities for program leaders, educators, and other key stakeholders. We’ve hoped that these regional hubs could collaborate on professional learning experiences, and exchange of […]

Tale from the Field: How Our BEETLES Implementation Was a Learning Experience for Everyone Involved

May 21, 2019: Tales from the Field

By Keith Williams, Executive Director, Richard Garber, Director of Education, and Salena Garber, Education Manager, NorthBay, Elk Neck State Park, Maryland. (Note: This post was originally published in the BEETLES Guide for Program Leaders. Check the Guide for Program Leaders publication out for additional implementation support and Tales from the Field.) When Daksha and I came […]

Tale from the Field: Improving Teaching and Learning Through Shifts in Program Policies (2 of 2)

April 10, 2019: Tales from the Field

Tara Fuad and the San Elijo Lagoon Conservancy in San Diego, California, attended a BEETLES Leadership Institute in the summer of 2017. Tara has done a lot in the year and a half since attending the Institute and has used BEETLES materials and approaches to transform the way teaching and learning happens at her site. Part 1 […]

Tale from the Field: Improving Teaching and Learning Through Shifts in Program Policies (Part 1 of 2)

March 21, 2019: Tales from the Field

Tara Fuad of the San Elijo Lagoon Conservancy in San Diego, California, attended a BEETLES Leadership Institute in the summer of 2017. She’s done a lot in the year and a half since attending the Institute and has used BEETLES materials and approaches to transform the way teaching and learning happens at her site– but […]

Tale from the Field: How We Are Cultivating a Professional Learning Community at Our Statewide Meeting of Administrators

October 4, 2018: Tales from the Field

From Celeste Royer, Director, Rancho El Chorro Outdoor School, San Luis Obispo, California, and State Chair of California Outdoor School Association (COSA). COSA is a statewide association of outdoor school leaders from County Offices of Education and School Districts. We meet twice per year to discuss topics and issues specific to operating residential outdoor science […]

Tale from the Field: Using Regional Networks for Collaborative Fundraising

October 4, 2018: Tales from the Field

From a member of the EarthSense Alliance. The EarthSense Alliance is a collaborative of six residential environmental education organizations in Minnesota. It was formed to open the door to larger funding opportunities based on our collective impact across the state of Minnesota. Since forming the collaborative, we have received funding for capital improvements, curriculum development, […]

Tale from the Field: A Structure for Reflection: How We Organize Our Post-Program Debrief Lunch Meeting Routine

October 4, 2018: Tales from the Field

From Ray Cramer, Senior Faculty for Teaching Practicum at Islandwood, Bainbridge Island, Washington. This is an example of how the Islandwood Graduate Program (Bainbridge Island, Washington) structures their post-program debrief meeting to maximize reflection and learning. Instructors get good food, sit in mentor/mentee groups, and discuss their week. Program leaders ask staff to not “give […]

Tale from the Field: Creating a Culture of Openness

October 4, 2018: Tales from the Field

From Drew Dumsch, Executive Director at The Ecology School, Saco, Maine. I’ve heard from other program leaders about some of the resistance they encountered when introducing BEETLES to their staff, but when we introduced it to our staff, we didn’t encounter any resistance at all. I think that’s because we already had a deliberate culture […]

Tale from the Field: Focusing on the Long Term: How We Overcame Resistance

October 4, 2018: Tales from the Field

From Heather MacDougall, Director of Santa Cruz Outdoor Science School, Watsonville, California. When we first started implementing BEETLES we met some resistance, but we’ve since made a big leap away from that. Here’s how: We’ve changed the way we do job Interviews. We talk about how we’ve adopted a new curriculum: BEETLES. We let potential […]

Tale from the Field: Inquiry Fever With Students

August 21, 2018: Tales from the Field

What can BEETLES activities and approaches look like with a group of students? Outdoor science education consultant and past BEETLES Leadership Institute attendee Sarah Johnson writes about introducing several foundational BEETLES student activities and Exploration Routines on the first day of a summer camp, and an experience of “Inquiry Fever” and exciting student-led investigations that followed. […]

Tale from the Field: BEETLES in a Day Program

July 17, 2018: Tales from the Field

When BEETLES began hosting Leadership Institutes, we focused on Residential Outdoor Science Schools. Over later Leadership Institutes, we have expanded our audience to other outdoor educational programs including nature preserves, day programs, nature centers, garden programs, and other types of programs. Luana Rivera Palacio of the Guadalupe River Park Conservancy attended our December 2017 Leadership […]

Oops! How I Wish We Hadn’t Introduced BEETLES to Staff, and What We’re Doing Now

June 28, 2018: Tales from the Field

From Paul Raia, the Director of Caritas Creek Environmental Education Program, Occidental California After attending a BEETLES Institute, I was extremely excited about implementing BEETLES, and my work partner and I decided that we wanted to completely transform our program to being BEETLES-based as quickly as possible. During our next staff training, we attempted to […]

BEETLES Strategies in History Programming

June 25, 2018: Tales from the Field

The Ocean Institute Outdoor Education Department attended the BEETLES August 2015 Leadership Institute in Santa Cruz, California. The Ocean Institute has a well-respected outdoor science program, and they also run a large history program for 4th graders in California. The Ocean Institute has used what they learned at the BEETLES Leadership Institute to strengthen their […]

Tale from the Field: Engaging and Managing Students Applied to Teen Outdoor Experiences

May 23, 2018: Tales from the Field

Xander Tartter, a former field instructor with San Joaquin Outdoor Education and Walden West Outdoor School, now runs BOLD & GOLD, an outdoor leadership program for the San Francisco YMCA. Here, he shares how some of the key concepts and strategies in the BEETLES Guide to Engaging and Managing Students in Outdoor Science apply to […]

Tale from the Field: Inter-Institute Collaboration on Professional Learning for Elementary School Teachers

April 6, 2018: Tales from the Field

Sarah Johnson of Wild Rose Education and Sara Monson of Walking Mountains Science Center are both based in western Colorado. They attended two different BEETLES Leadership Institutes– in August and December 2017, and had heard of each other prior to the Institute. Sara Monson had grant funding from the EPA to facilitate a daylong workshop […]

Tale from the Field: Shifting Program Policies to Support Teaching and Learning

April 4, 2018: Tales from the Field

From Tara Fuad, the Nature Collective, San Diego, CA. Before implementing BEETLES, our programs used to be 1.5–2 hours. [We changed them all to be] 2–5 hours. I still don’t feel like it’s enough time, but it’s a great start and big improvement. You need that much time to get the students warmed up, get […]

Paige Marley, Jamee Puccio, Camp Tyler Outdoor School

Tale from the Field: After a Leadership Institute

January 15, 2018: Tales from the Field

When Jamee Puccio and Paige Marley returned to their organization after participating in the BEETLES August 2017 Leadership Institute, they got right to work using some of the resources they’d been introduced to. Jamee wrote to us to share her experience and we thought she so perfectly articulated the combination of excitement for improvement and […]

Tale from the Field: Birding on the Trail

December 2, 2017: Tales from the Field

By Ian Gledhill At Shady Creek Outdoor School, it is not uncommon to have a kid screaming with delight when they identify a bird. Birding is fun because birds are pretty, it’s science, a competition, and just like Pokemon, you gotta catch ‘em all. We teach that birds are nature’s storytellers, and we give kids […]

Tale from the Field: A Regional Network in Maine

October 5, 2017: Tales from the Field

From Drew Dumsch, Executive Director at The Ecology School, Saco, Maine. The five programs in Maine that do outdoor science school year programs (The Ecology School, Chewonki Outdoor Classroom, University of Maine 4-H Camp & Learning Center at Bryant Pond, and the University of Maine 4-H Camp & Learning Center at Tanglewood, and the Schoodic Institute […]

Tale from the Field: Adapting our Pre-Program Classroom Visits

October 4, 2017: Tales from the Field

From Olga Feingold, Program Director, Outward Bound at Thompson Island, Boston, Massachusetts. We realized we wanted to change our pre-program classroom visits to shift from a prior emphasis on memorizing facts toward our current goal of instilling students with a scientific mindset of making observations and asking questions. To accomplish this, we started using the […]

Tale from the Field: Engaging Staff in Creating New Site-Based Activities and Improving Existing Activities

October 4, 2017: Tales from the Field

From David Gardner, Director of Environmental Education at Barrier Island Environmental Education in South Carolina. Our organization had a lesson we offered regularly on marine mammals. We offered the lesson on our site because sometimes dolphins could be spotted offshore. But we realized that because the students couldn’t really explore and investigate actual dolphins other […]

Tale from the Field: Celebrating Black History, Rooted in Plants: Putting Community at the Center of the Design Process

October 4, 2017: Tales from the Field

From Arvolyn Hill, Coordinator of Family Programs at the Children’s Everett Museum at the New York Botanical Garden. I am the coordinator of family programs at the Everett Children’s Adventure Garden where we focus on science and the environment. Every day that the garden is open we have drop-in programs for families, and I come […]

Repost: One Teacher’s Journey Towards Implementation

September 12, 2017: Tales from the Field

We couldn’t help but share this inspiring story from Kirsten Franklin on the Ten Strands website. Kirsten has worked with several projects at the Lawrence Hall of Science, including BEETLES, BaySci, and our most recent partnership with ChangeScale to create Environmental Literacy Plans with school districts that offer every student cohesive opportunities to learn in […]

Tales from the Field: Letting the Messy In

April 21, 2017: Tales from the Field

By Claire Maguire (Note from BEETLES: We’re incredibly grateful for the feedback provided to us by SCCOSS Naturalists and others as we were developing this activity. The story below illustrates some of the potential pitfalls of engaging students in investigations, but also the magic when one can “let the messy in”. It also illustrates the […]

Tales from the Field: How We Adapted Existing Activities

October 4, 2016: Tales from the Field

From Jill Begin, Assistant Director, and Becca Gjertson, Director, at Outdoor Environmental Education Camp Seymour, Gig Harbor, Washington. (See blogpost for a more complete account) Jill and Becca were excited about implementing BEETLES but were in a quandary. They had a set program for their instructors to use with learners. If they started off their […]

Tales from the Field: How YMCA Camp Seymour Started Revising Curriculum

May 4, 2016: Tales from the Field

Jill and Becca left the BEETLES leadership Institute in August of 2015, inspired, full of ideas, and ready to implement new professional learning sessions at their staff training only two weeks away. Jill had an immediate opportunity to implement BEETLES with students herself, loved the results, and became even more excited. For two weeks they […]

Getting Better at Letting Go as an Instructor

July 5, 2015: Tales from the Field

From Amelia Rosenman, formerly lead naturalist at San Mateo Outdoor Education (SMOE) in La Honda, California. Currently a Teacher Educator and Instructional Coach at the California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, California. The first time I led NSI: Nature Scene Investigators, it was a total flop. We were studying a piece of scat on the […]