Girl scouts earn paddling patch after 'floating classroom' experience on Detroit River
Friends of the Detroit River teamed up with Wilderness Inquiry Canoemobile to take children aboard for a unique, canoe-bound education. The Girl Scouts of Southeast Michigan's Girl Empowerment Program and Friends of the Detroit River, Huron-Clinton Metroparks, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and Wilderness Inquiry Canoemobile partnered to create an educational day of adventure at Lake Erie Metropark in Brownstown Township, Michigan. The day was part of a "floating classroom" aimed at teaching grade school children about the Great Lakes from the outdoors, rather than a traditional four-walled classroom. The girls were joined by dozens of eager young girls from various organizations, including the Girl Scouts' Girl Empowered Program. The adventure earned each Girl Scout a paddling mini patch, one of 28 outdoor skill patches specific for specific outdoor skills and experiences that will stay with them throughout their Girl Scout careers.
Veröffentlicht : vor 10 Monaten durch Kylie Martin in Science
What better way is there to learn about Michigan's waterways than to be on them?
Friends of the Detroit River, Huron-Clinton Metroparks, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and Wilderness Inquiry Canoemobile partnered up to create an educational day of adventure, partly aboard a canoe, at Lake Erie Metropark in Brownstown Township. The idea is to teach grade school children about the Detroit River and Great Lakes from the outdoors instead of a typical four-walled classroom.
"It's getting kids outdoors and getting them new experiences that they might not have ever had, like canoeing, and driving home the messages of being good stewards of our lands, whether that's through not littering, being kind to the wildlife, how to incorporate ourselves out there," said Mckenzi Waliczek, stewardship director of Friends of the Detroit River. "But it's really exciting to see how much fun they have out there."
On Wednesday morning's adventure, the organizations were joined by dozens of eager young girls from the Girl Scouts of Southeast Michigan's Girl Empowerment Program.
Split into two groups, the girls went through training provided by the Wilderness Inquiry Canoemobile before boarding their "floating classroom:" First, the easy "zip-and-clip" method of securing a life jacket, followed by a quick lesson on how to paddle a canoe and how not to paddle a canoe.
The girls wiggled into their life jackets, which sported animal nicknames on the back like "blue iguana," "river minnow," "Cuban crocodile" and names of many other finned or furred creatures, and practiced rowing their oars alongside their canoes from the bank of the Detroit River. Finally walking up the loading docks to board three 10-person canoes, they giddily waved to one another.
As they took their first steps into the rocking boats, many let out excited — and maybe a little uneasy — squeals as they tried to balance and find their place.
Each Canoemobile captain pushed away from the dock and the girls began rowing up the Detroit River on the lookout for wild creatures.
"It's like an interpretive paddle, so they'll go and opportunistically, if an eagle passes by, or a blue heron, or an egret, they'll talk about that," said Waliczek. "They've seen an eagle so far today and a fox snake, so they were excited about that."
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Over on land, the other half of the group participated in activities led by the three other organizations: a quick hike on Lake Erie Metropark trails led by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service rangers; a musical chairs-inspired game led by Friends of the Detroit River to simulate how invasive species negatively impact ecological relationships; and a hands-on lesson from Huron-Clinton Metroparks about marshland animals, complete with pelts and furs.
Even though some of the lessons may seem difficult for the younger kids to understand, Waliczek says that teaching them in such an interactive way usually allows children to get a good grasp of the concepts.
"We're sort of giving them the tools so they can do the learning," said Waliczek. "Better than talking at them or presenting to them, it's more like having them piece the puzzle together, and then we're there to answer any questions or 'guide the hand of the puzzle-maker.'"
Within each organization's expertise, their subject matter always came back to the kids' time spent on the water. For example, when the first canoeing group returned to land and attentively watched as Kevin Arnold from Huron-Clinton Metroparks held up different marshland animals, one girl pointed to the red-winged blackbird and remarked that she'd spotted one while out on the river.
As if the adventure couldn't get any better, their canoe trip earned each Girl Scout a paddling mini patch, one of 28 outdoor skill mini patches specific to the Girl Scouts of Southeastern Michigan that brings them into nature to learn skills and live experiences that will stick with them throughout the remainder of their Girl Scout careers.
"Hopefully this is a memory that lives on and sparks a new hobby or passion that they might not have known they were interested in to get them outside and enjoy nature," said Paige Wigren, lead outdoor education program specialist of the Girl Scouts of Southeastern Michigan.
Friends of the Detroit River, detroitriver.org, will be hosting a similar educational experience during the Detroit River Water Festival on Sept. 25-26, 2024. Visit detroitriverwaterfestival.com for more information.