Nature Detectives Engage In Classified Training Program

After the school year ends next Monday, Netwalking nature detectives will return to the trails on Tuesday in search of clues. During spring break vacation week, a total of 77 children (ages 2-14) and their parents came out to meet new friends and learn the basics of Netwalking. Sponsored by the Biomes Marine Biology Center, the program provides stories and lessons for nature detectives and activities like scavenger hunting for clues.

Parent and Scout Leader Leah Lowell commented, "The kids were so invested each day we walked with you. Each day when I went in their rooms to wake them up, I left it up to them. I said, 'Do you want to go agin? If so, get up and get moving.'  And, believe me, each day they popped outta bed and were ready in record time.  It was so nice to have something to do with them that was interesting, fun, and exercise all in one."

This unique method of "intelligence" learning is delivered through a series of casual morning walks. It is a fun way for children and adults to learn tidbits of Narragansett Bay history and ecology, while walking and exploring different trails around the Greenwich Bay area. 

Looking to our children's future, private sector jobs relating to the environment will present many opportunities to lead Rhode Island’s economic growth over the next 30 years. Through storytelling and investigative learning, this introduction to human  ecology – our relationship with the environment – seeks to invoke a curiosity for the miracles of nature. The goal is to increase our understanding about how we can responsibly preserve and nurture life in the surrounding bay area, without infringing on individual rights.
 
Each walk begins with a story to help to teach observational skills. Before the first walk at Goddard Park on Tuesday, participants will listen to a ten-minute story about Lil Hoot, a baby owl who naps safely inside a magical sycamore tree. The sycamore tree is the stout warrior of the woods, characterized by its camouflage bark and other warrior-like features.

I am the trail leader and storyteller, and my name is Wendy. Think Peter Pan! As a children's author, born naturalist, health economist, and 21st Century Experiential Learning Educator certified in RIPQA, I'm helping lead the new age paradigm for education. This paradigm employs experiential engagement and play, in a way that people hardly realize they are learning when they are actually learning and retaining more. I visualize this paradigm incorporating Health, Arts, Math, Social Studies, Technology, Environmental Science, Reading/Writing, and Spirituality – ameliorating the serious cold clinical acronym STEM with the playful warm cuddly acronym HAMSTERS.

Metaphorically speaking, I have formulated Netwalking as a generic prescription. I believe it can help cure our ailing educational, environmental and economic woes. The favorable side effects of this prescription for walking are weight loss and a long list of other health benefits. Netwalking qualifies as affordable care, because walking is free, and it serves as both curative and preventive medicine. Furthermore, Netwalking supports an ongoing expansion of social engagement that is active, outdoors and intergenerational... an emerging trend which will put a fresh new spin on the term "quantitative easing."