Nature journaling for all ages—Vail school kids rock it

Field Arts

Sep 17

Since COVID bombed our spring, summer and now fall, with so many kids going to school virtually, I have been in touch with several groups of middle school students and their science and / or art teachers. They have been using (free) electronic copies of my book Nature Journaling for a Wild Life as a textbook for bio-art classes to learn how to observe and record what they see—and hopefully learn a little about what’s right out their back door.

Three hundred students in four bio-art classes in a Boston science magnet school worked through the eight chapters in April and May, and currently a middle school class in Vail, Arizona, is doing the same with teacher Jana Dawson.

Jana recently shared with me a few pages the kids have completed (one entry a week)—and I’m blown away! The metadata (! yay for metadata!), the excellent observations, and the great sketches—so inspiring.

I’m hoping to meet this group online—which I did with the Boston kids—and hear more about their experiences.

Well done guys! [Pages shared with permission; locations greyed out.]