Week of July 7, 2024 – July 13, 2024
by Catherine McLaughlin, Environmental Educator
As we have been preparing for summer camp this week, I find myself looking back on what I did as a kid. From the age of 4 or 5 I was at a summer camp somewhere in CNY or exploring the creek near my parents’ house. A few memories always make me smile. I remember having nets and boots and trekking into the muck to catch frogs (and yes, I learned what types they were and named them before releasing them back home.) Or seeing a great blue heron with a catfish in their beak. When I grew older my neighbors would have their grandkids over and I would show them the best spots to find critters.
I recognize that childhood has changed over the years with technology often being more in the hands of younger and younger children. At Summer Nature Day Camp we disconnect from technology and try our best to experience nature as it is to form those deep connections with the environment around us. Hopefully leading to an appreciation of nature no matter where our campers end up in the world and in their lives.
However, technology can also help us connect to nature. Have you ever come across a neat plant or animal and wondered what it was? Smartphones can help us identify what something is right out in the field, or at least connect us to someone who might know. One way we connect tech to education here at Baltimore Woods is using the free app iNaturalist.
Over the past month, we’ve been conducting a Bioblitz on the preserve, which wraps up this evening! There were over 180 observations this time around (click here to see them!), and even with this more formal Bioblitz coming to an end, iNaturalist still can be used at Baltimore Woods or even in your yard! With campers, I will use the app to help them identify things they find or show them how and why people collect this data. Families can use iNaturalist to help them discover more about what they are seeing and keep track of it like a life list or scavenger hunt. Many people have a phone in their hand, why not use it to connect to what is out there? Of course you should also take the chance to put the technology away and enjoy what nature has to offer this summer, happy exploring!