In this conversation, Liz Glynn, the Education Lead at Matthaei Botanical Gardens and Nichols Arboretum, shares her passion for growing environmental stewardship through education. Liz highlights the transformative power of nature-based field trips, the barriers that often prevent access to nature, and the collaborative efforts underway to ensure that all students have the opportunity to explore and appreciate the beauty of their environment. 

Liz, could you start by sharing a bit about your role at the Matthaei Botanical Gardens and Nichols Arboretum and what inspires your work in education?

I am the Education Lead here at MBGNA leading a team that develops and activates educational and nature-focused experiences for all ages, from early childhood Nature Play & K-12 engagement to UM student and faculty engagement and adult education. Specifically I develop and implement the K-12 Place Based environmental education curriculum & adult education and train and work with an incredible group of volunteer educators. 

The children and teens who take part in field trips and nature programs are an inspiration. The ‘Ohhhh’ moments of understanding, the wild explanations about how nature works from a 3rd grader and the joy of discovery in all students are motivating.  I believe in the resiliency of nature and humans and I have hope for the future when I spend time with young people. I believe that if we develop relationships with the land, plants and animals and geography of a place, we develop a sense of belonging and care for a place.  Nature is a patient teacher.

I’m inspired by the numerous field-based learning experiences I’ve had throughout my life and want others to have access to similar types of experiences. The commitment of the docents, who give their valuable time and energy to share nature with children and help develop future stewards, keeps me motivated.  

You’ve done significant work with Title I schools to make nature education accessible to all students. What are some common barriers that prevent students and communities from engaging with nature-based learning, and how are you and MBGNA working to address these challenges?

Our experiences with students, teachers and families from T1 schools have been amazing. For many of the students and families, the field trip is their first experience with MBGNA or any botanical garden. They are excited and ready to learn, explore and share their own stories about nature.  

Field trips are essential learning experiences. Students learn to navigate new spaces, gain knowledge and explore new interactions with people and new types of environments..These experiences help children manage other new experiences and prepare them for problem solving.  Lack of funding and accessibility that limit or prohibit field trips is a loss of foundational experience for children. 

Common barriers to nature-based learning in many communities include dedicated green space that is prioritized and funded, transportation to sites, equitable access and the signs and signals of welcome and belonging.   Field trip funding  is a major barrier, buses might cost anywhere between $350-600 per bus depending on distance. A field trip with 80 students requires 2 buses and can cost the school over a thousand dollars. MBGNA has been able to lower the barrier through low cost or free field trips, however, the cost of the bus and the program is often still prohibitive and may present a barrier to even inquiring about a potential field trip. When talking with teachers or when tabling at community events, we make sure to mention our field trip support.

We have many T1 partners that return every year, and the visit is an important part of the children’s school experience. We hope to build additional capacity to offer more field trip opportunities and cover more costs to more schools & children. 

Meeting classroom curriculum demands and challenges in taking youth out of the classroom for 2-3 hours are also barriers. MBGNA works to address these challenges through a nature-based curriculum aligned with grade appropriate science learning goals. We work closely with teachers to co-create the field trip experience based on the needs of the students.  We are active partners with other UM units, regional schools and communities, and we have plans for expanded outreach.   Funding for educational staff and volunteer training programs are also essential to meaningful nature and place-based education. During MBGNA field trips, immersive experiences in biologically rich ecosystems provide lessons that no book can provide.  Programming informed by and led by community members with rich cultural ties to plants and places is important and helps make learning relevant.The experience of feeling welcome and valued at MBGNA, one of the signature UM sites, is meaningful and a sense of place and belonging begins early. We see how early and repeated experiences support children on their educational journey. Many of the youth we’ve shared field trips with in pre-college programs took part in MBGNA field trips or other visits as children.

MBGNA Education team members collaborate with UM students, partners and regional teachers to create meaningful field trips and programs. We participate in community outreach efforts that promote nature-education and well-being & we try to make it easy for teachers to learn about our  T1 School support by featuring it prominently on our field trip page on our website and through conversation with teachers.  We’ve been working with Wolverine Pathways from the inception of the program to engage pre-college youth in immersive and fun nature education experiences and we have a great working relationship with the Greening of Detroit Green Corps program which connects regional highschool youth with land stewardship.  The work of building trusting, collaborative relationships with community partners and partners across UM is the joyful K-12 work at MBGNA.  

Our mission at MBGNA emphasizes the role of equity, justice, and sustainability in the work we do. How do your efforts to expand access to field trips and nature education align with this mission? 

We understand that the work of equity, justice and sustainability are entwined. Early and repeated experiences in nature lead to connection and better understanding of the natural world, and our lives as part of nature, not apart from nature.These experiences can strengthen youth’s feelings of agency and action in an increasingly complex and climate change impacted world. However, not all children and youth have access to ecologically rich  expanses of land or conservatories with rich stories to tell such as we have at MBGNA. Our T1 funded field trips help overcome some of the barriers of inequity and provide access. Our field trips center the students and honor their identities and experiences with nature. We use this as the basis to  explore complex ecosystems, which can help students build their own meaningful relationships and imagine small and large actions they might take.  

Expanded efforts toward community collaboration and co-created educational programs that center diverse ways of knowing is one of our strategic goals.  Expanding efforts to not only provide onsite field trips, but follow-up and extended school-yard or classroom learning emphasizes an equitable approach.  Learning from others, uplifting and sharing those voices and stories about plants, places and the land is essential to honoring children and families in the community. 

How do you ensure that MBGNA’s nature-based programming reflects and respects the diverse cultural backgrounds of the communities we serve?

One of the ways we do this is through partnerships with community members, UM partners and through collaboration with teachers. One of the most important approaches is to listen to community members and to have conversations.   We continually learn, practice and reflect on programming and training materials and ask whose voices are represented and whose are missing.  We work to be better collaborators and co-creators in sharing knowledge from diverse lived experiences.. We participate in environmental education equity and access training and workshops that center diverse voices and approaches to learning. We learn from our school partners and from our UM student staff who want better representation in the EE & ecological sciences field. 

Two collaborations I am particularly grateful for and feel MBGNA has learned so much from are our partnerships in the  Refugee Agricultural Partnership Program In which is a collaboration with Jewish Family Services and Campus Farm x Youth Education and with the Public Education Faculty Fellowship (PEFF)  grant funded partnership with En Nuestra Lengua and JFS. Both of these programs center the lived experiences of the community members, their stories & cultural identities.  The development of the PEFF grant programs have been led by students, faculty & staff of partner organizations who share cultural identities and language with the community members. From these experiences we’ve learned more about what community members want and need from MBGNA to develop a sense of participation and belonging.  Our role then, is to support and help facilitate, to learn from each other and to honor each other’s experiences and relationships with plants, places & people and to share knowledge and spaces.  With our K-12 school field trips, I am very grateful to collaborate with the teachers and program coordinators who share with us the needs and experiences of the students who come from a wide range of backgrounds. We also do this through recruitment of student staff with diverse identities, who bring their experiences to outreach and program development.

Do you have any stories or examples of how these initiatives have positively impacted students and teachers?

Yes! I have 4 examples: 

 A recent experience comes to mind from one of our T1 partner schools; Miller Elementary. Teacher Carla Morrin wrote: “I wanted to thank-you for a great field trip. It is so great to have such an amazing resource so close to our school. My students learned a lot and got to add to their background knowledge and vocabulary. All of your guides were patient with our enthusiastic group. I got a message from a parent last night saying his daughter can't stop talking about the field trip. I appreciate your help in planning this experience.”  

An upcoming group of about 85 students from Kennedy Elementary are able to visit MBGNA because we are able to provide the field trip at no cost, using the field trip support fund.  Without this fund, they would not be able to come. The teacher expressed thanks for finding a way to make this work for the students.  Many other teachers have let me know that without the T1 field trip support they simply would not have been able to visit MBGNA.

Our Hispanic Heritage month celebration culminating in the Dia de los Muertos altar created with children from ENL and JFS is an example of how intentional collaboration, invitation and signs of welcome are so critical to relationship building with children and their families.  These cumulative programs about plants and cultural relevance have led to so much joy, a sense of  community building and we have many more programs planned for the coming year. 

And, one of my favorite examples of the connection moment is from a highschool student who took part in a Wolverine Pathways program a few years ago. He was simply not interested in the water quality monitoring program, he ‘didn’t do science’.   I wasn’t going to insist, but rather let him decide if, how and when he wanted to engage. 

After we all got into the stream and were laughing and picking up crayfish and other creatures, he let me know he would ‘try it’. That young man was the last one out of the water.  As we were climbing up the bank with our nets he looked at me and said ‘So, this is science?’ I said ‘yeah, this is science, a person can become an aquatic ecologist and do this as part of their job’  he then said ‘oh, I didn’t know that, I could do that’.  That’s what inspires me, that moment that youth see themselves as knowing, capable, questioning and curious.  

Looking forward, what are your goals for making field trips and nature education even more accessible and impactful for our community? What exciting plans or initiatives are on the horizon?

We’re excited about opportunities to increase outreach and support to our T1 schools that will offer more programming and increase field trip availability to meet the demand for additional field trips.  We’ve had to turn down a number of field trip requests due to limited capacity. Funding will build that capacity for greater outreach and increased field trip participation. We are excited about developing programs that connect stewardship  and climate change education and action. We are developing relationships with community partners to expand our programs both onsite at MBGNA and building outreach programming toward school site visits for extended learning.   We’re also exploring programming that involves activities such as mindfulness, crafts and the arts to encourage youth wellbeing and connection to nature that aligns with their experiences and identities.