This is a very dear, tender time of year for me. I’m given to wistful feelings when the high Summer, which I love so completely, inevitably turns and changes. One clear signal of this change is the blooming of a dear friend: Ironweed, sometimes called Vernonia missourica. Well, I noticed the very first, shy, single Ironweed blossom opening this week. I tried to ignore her at first, but it was too late; the sight immediately set those feelings in motion: grateful for the Summer light, grateful for the change of pace, grateful for the busy creatures, grateful for this generous, literally delicious, season, and holding the hand of those feelings of grace and appreciation, I recognized a little melancholy, too, for what I will miss when the days shorten and become cooler. I love and accept these complicated feelings because they feel beautiful to me, and I so appreciate my friend Ironweed for reminding me to reflect and appreciate it all. 

My season with MBGNA’s extraordinary Nature Play interns, Ava Meester, and Abry Bledsoe is also transitioning – towards completion. We’ve spent the past three months exploring the benefits of Nature connection, the practices of Nature Play, contemplating art-as-play and engineering-as-play, and play as learning. We’ve made gardens and observed the incredible creatures found in gardens, including children and families, and spiders. So many, many spiders. We’ve also thought about Nature access and play equity. As a part of a reflective community, MBGNA”s Nature Play team has been considering improvements and innovations in Gaffield Children’s Garden, and we have invested our time thinking about better meeting the Nature Play and learning interests of the older age range of children who visit and spend some time in GCG. 

Nature Play interns Ava Meester, recent UM Stamps graduate, Abry Bledsoe, UM Chemical Engineering junior, and I first asked ourselves about what makes for a positive Nature relationship, as scholarship shows us that positive regard for Nature is an important feature in the development of Nature identity and environmentally responsive behaviors. 

We developed some questions to guide our research – What are the best practices for engaging children in this age range? What are preferred modes of exploration for children in these development stages? What conditions make them feel safe to explore, experiment, wonder? How might we learn directly from MBGNA visitors who are 8-12 what they would like to do at MBGNA?  

We then made observations in situ, mined our memories and asked our friends about their memories, thought about 8-12 year olds we know, and researched child cognitive development and agency. Our thinking began to coalesce around the developmentally appropriate interest in real tools, making useful and also imaginative things, self-efficacy, interest in world building play, and an overall more nuanced worldview. Aha, a Making Lab, specifically a Nature Making Lab! 

Having begun to imagine something big, we invited our MBGNA K-12 Youth Ed colleagues, Sarah Carroza Coltz, UM SEAS graduate student, and Austin Melacon, UM EEB senior, to collaborate and bring their expertise to the conversation. Together we intentionally designed a pilot program for children ages 8-12.

On Sunday, August 16, 10am-1pm, MBGNA will host a pilot program, Inspired by Nature: Ancient Pasts & Distant Futures Nature Making Lab in the Gaffield Children’s Garden. Children ages 8-12 are invited to make cool stuff, artistic artifacts, and simple machines using natural and foraged materials, simple tools, and their own naturalist and scientific imaginations. 

This is a pilot program – no registration is required, but please check in at the Coming & Going station at the Gaffield Children’s Garden Tree Tunnel. Youth can also document their Nature Making and offer feedback about what they’d like to experience and do at MBGNA in future programming designed specifically for their age range. Parents and adult caregivers can participate or chill out in Gaffield Children’s Garden.  

Nature Making Labs: 

• Map-making & Paper Arts Making Lab 

• Carving & Shaping Making Lab 

• Garments & Costumes Making Lab 

• Prototyping from the Future & Past Making Lab