Emily has been an environmental educator for over 10 years, six of those at the Urban Ecology Center. She loves the opportunity to share nature with urban youth and is amazed by how a simple thing like taking a group of students for a walk in a local park can be a new and exciting adventure. When she is not sharing nature with kids she likes to create crafts from upcycled material, hang out with her dog Cooper and spend quality time with her nifty husband.
When I was first hired as an Environmental Educator seven years ago the Washington Park branch was just getting started. I had spent the last four years teaching in a variety of environmental education centers where my outdoor classroom had been a forest.
My new outdoor classroom was not a forest but a city park that had a lagoon with a very distinct “stinky end,” some nicely spaced trees and grass. All I could see were the challenges in not having decomposing logs to roll over, undergrowth to play camouflage or a gully of rocks; in short, all the things I was used to having when teaching a class.
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