Environmental Education Programming in a Covid World

When COVID shut everything down in March, our environmental education team was left scratching our heads wondering “what do we do now?” We started tackling our project list of things we never had time to work on because we were always teaching. We learned how to teach virtually through Zoom and Microsoft Teams for teachers and students. And we began brainstorming. What does environmental education look like in a COVID world?

This past summer, we slowly started offering summer camps and a few public programs outdoors only with less people. We learned parents were craving safe outdoor programs for their kids. Many adults also felt comfortable joining us outdoors in small group settings. 

In September we will continue to offer outdoor programs with social distancing in mind. We also are asking everyone to register ahead of time to keep group sizes small. Something new we are trying this fall for at home learners are mini field trips. We want to provide outdoor learning opportunities for school age children that may be learning at home. These mini two-hour field trips will be in a small group setting with a naturalist. Different themed field trips will take place each week. Learn more here.

As we all navigate through this pandemic, we continue to adapt our programming. If you have an idea for our environmental education staff, please reach out to Patrice at Patrice.petersen-keys@polkcountyiowa.gov or call us 515-323-5359.