Connecting Kids To The Nature Of Wyoming: A Rural State Model
Even in rural communities, kids are increasingly losing their connection to the outdoors. Like their urban peers, children in rural settings are heavily scheduled and spend significant time indoors – perhaps even more so than city kids, during the cold winter months.
In Wyoming, one ambitious project hopes to demonstrate how the leaders of a state can consistently weave nature directly into the daily lives of rural kids. “Connecting Kids to the Nature of Wyoming,” a proposal by Teton Science Schools, centers on collaboration by the state’s departments of education, game and fish, transportation, agriculture and parks, among others, working in tandem with congressional leaders and the office of Governor Dave Freudenthal.
Together, this team has the power to engage teachers, community leaders, parents and kids themselves. Among its goals, the team hopes to ensure that:
- Every kid in Wyoming has an outdoor overnight experience
- Kids in grades K-12 learn nature-based school lessons - outdoors
- Youth leaders from all 23 Wyoming counties participate in a Wyoming Youth Summit, creating action plans to implement projects in home communities
- Through state-wide surveys, coordinated efforts and a public awareness campaign, Wyoming becomes a model for rural states that seek to reconnect kids with nature
This new effort shows how the leaders of a single state—from the state government to local communities, teachers and parents—can together redefine how kids experience nature.
To Learn More
Teton Science Schools
info@tetonscience.org
700 Coyote Canyon Road,
Jackson, WY, 83001
307.733.1313
www.tetonscience.org/support.shtml
