Inspiring Children to Care About Conservation
By Megan Malaska Medley
April 20, 2016
When we think of what to teach children (how to walk, talk, dress, read, etc.), valuing wildlife and wild places may not make it to the top of the list. But it should. By exposing youngsters — especially those raised in cities like New York — to nature and teaching them about wildlife, we prepare them to become adults who value and respect the environment. It’s something that’s important not just during Earth Month but every day of the year.
As conservation educators, we have our work cut out for us, in particular in urban environments. Today’s kids are increasingly distracted by smartphones and other devices. We’re always working to “unplug” children and adults so they can enjoy their local parks, zoos, aquariums, and even their own backyards.
As they learn about wildlife, children and adolescents may become inspired to pursue a future career as a conservationist.
Zoological parks can play an especially important role. From simple interactions with zoo and aquarium animals to the experience of families discovering what creatures can be found in the Bronx River as a part of the Nature Club at the Bronx Zoo, where I work, every little bit helps.
As they learn about wildlife, children and adolescents may become inspired to pursue a future career as a conservationist. They will also begin to grasp concepts in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), helping them become future innovators, researchers and educators. The Wildlife Conservation Society’s Education Department provides programs for more than 200,000 students (they participate in our camp, classes, field trips, internships, parties and overnights) and 2,400 teachers each year in our five parks in New York City.
Our Bronx Zoo education programs reach children as young as 10 months, as well as adults. Whether through the Bronx Zoo’s Summer Camp, an Overnight Safari, or our school programs, we provide participants with an amazing opportunity to connect to wildlife, learn science skills, and — where possible — make a difference.
I have seen firsthand how our zoo programs build upon the natural curiosity and willingness of young people to learn about nature and also provide practical ways to practice skills like arithmetic by counting the number of animals they see.
Zoo and aquarium exhibits present the opportunity to conduct an animal census or use students’ observation skills to provoke questions and deeper discussions, just like scientists. Small four- and five-year-old students can use magnifying glasses, binoculars, and other scientific tools to explore the wildlife that surrounds them.
Elsewhere at our parks, youngsters learn how we are connected to animals, both directly and indirectly, and how their own actions and behaviors can affect wildlife in their natural habitat.
At the Urban Assembly School for Wildlife Conservation in the Bronx, we’ve worked with teachers to design a special program to give sixth-grade students the opportunity to hone their STEM skills as they study the behavior of animals.
After being given information about our bird species, students created special “enrichment” activities designed to create a challenge for the animals to solve in order to access treats. They then kept an inventory of behaviors or actions exhibited by an animal called an ethogram.
Elsewhere at our parks, youngsters learn how we are connected to animals, both directly and indirectly, and how their own actions and behaviors can affect wildlife in their natural habitat. These experiences provide a foundation for more complex scientific exploration as they grow older.
Conservation education can also be generated within a school setting. WCS was pleased to work with a group of fifth grade students at a public school in Brooklyn who were so inspired by the plight of elephants that they penned a book titled “One Special Elephant: The Story of Penelope Petunia,” inspired by a real baby elephant living in the rainforests of Central Africa.
With guidance from WCS scientist and elephant expert Andrea Turkalo, the students developed a self-published book following the life of a baby forest elephant, her social attachments to other animals in her herd, and the dangers these magnificent animals face across Africa as a result of poaching and other threats.
The idea that early conservation education has lasting effects is not theoretical to me. Like many of the kids we teach, I began to appreciate wild places and wild animals as a child. Growing up in Ocean Township, New Jersey, I spent hours in my backyard climbing trees and exploring. At Rutgers University I majored in natural resource management and became a teaching fellow at the Bronx Zoo Summer Camp, combining my love of animals with teaching.
My colleagues and I have noticed that our work with young children has a ripple effect through the involvement of siblings and parents, who are often likewise inspired to become guardians of nature. Through citizen science projects like an eel monitoring project in the Bronx River, families collect data for scientists tracking the number of juvenile, or “glass,” eels making the long trip from the Atlantic’s Sargasso Sea to New York’s estuaries.
In an era of limited resources for a growing world population, conservation educators have their work cut out for them. To create a new generation of ecologically conscious citizens dedicated to protecting the natural world that sustains us, early science education may be just the thing we need.
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Megan Malaska Medley is the Manager of Education at WCS’s Bronx Zoo in New York City.
