Lula Lake Expands Environmental Education Program
A new school year means hitting the books. But if you’re Holley Roberts, it means hitting the trail. The 31-year-old Americorps VISTA is busy writing outdoor education curricula for Lula Lake Land Trust. While LLLT has always opened its gates for school groups, Roberts’s work will ultimately take it from “cool fieldtrip” to “outdoor science lab.”
We’re trying to make it a more formalized process,” she says. “Right now I’m writing curricula that can be tailored to any program a class wants to do, while also meeting state standards.
Children may dig for plant fossils at the Durham Mine site, scour Rock Creek for macro invertebrates, learn what color flowers butterflies prefer in the pollinator garden, or how to protect the property’s hemlock from the invasive Woolly Adelgid.
The goal is to have the same group of students out to the property two or three times during the school year, and build long-term relationships with teachers so it happens year after year. Since starting in May, Roberts has personally reached out to local public, charter and even home schools. So far the Chattanooga Girls Leadership Academy, Charlotte Mason Homeschool Group, Stone Creek Elementary and Heritage High School have signed on.
“We’re trying to reach out as much as we can, but my problem is overextending,” admits Roberts. “We’re still figuring what a program like this can accommodate, but I think ideally we’d like to partner with 7 to 10 schools.”
Lula Lake’s efforts are part of growing movement to take school outside. Several area schools have built outdoor classrooms to incorporate environmental or “place-based” education. Walker County schools recently hosted an Environmental Education Summit that included every school administrator in the system, and Gilbert Elementary in Lafayette is the first public school in the country to launch a forest kindergarten.
I’ve been super impressed with the local reception,” says Roberts, who previously worked in the New Orleans school district. “It’s exciting that both teachers and parents are buying in to the idea that tangible experiences outdoors are good for not only a child’s formal education but also development.
An important piece of the puzzle for LLLT is a partnership with the Tennessee Aquarium Conservation Institute, who recently sent biologists to inventory the aquatic life of Rock Creek. The synergistic relationship helps both groups with their conservation and educational outreach efforts.
In fact, education and conservation seem inextricably linked for any land trust. People are far less likely to protect a place they don’t love; and it’s difficult to love a place you don’t understand, says Roberts.
We would like more kids to have a Lula Lake story,” says Roberts. “The property already has its own personality or character. It’s not just a patch of woods…it’s that, but so much more. Our goal is to share that as best we can with future generations.
Roberts knows that relationship first hand, growing up in the shadows of the Smoky Mountains. She has worked for the United States Park Service, served in the Peace Corps in West Africa and spent nearly a decade teaching indoors and out in both New Orleans and her hometown of Cookeville, TN.
Robert’s position is a year-long commitment (ending in May) but the program allows Lula Lake to employ a VISTA for 3 years through federal grant money. The ultimate goal would be to hire a full-time environmental education coordinator.
