The Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore (SBDNL) has a message for educators kicking off their brick-and-mortar and remote classes: Rangers are offering free webcam lessons to help support in-class and virtual learning for fall.

The curriculum — with content ranging from adaptation in bears, the Anishinaabe connection to Sleeping Bear Dunes, and ways kids can combat climate change — is geared to pre-K through 8th grade (with high school programming in the works). Students interact directly with a SBDNL ranger during the 30-to-45-minute sessions.

Several new distance learning lessons have just been added for this 2020 school year.

“We are anticipating a greater need from teachers — and since our rangers are not facilitating as many in-park fieldtrips, our focus has shifted,” says SBDNL’s Emily Sunblade, who was Montessori classroom teacher before joining the National Park Service as an education and interpretation ranger in 2017 to lead this program.

“Developing the student programming has been through a lot of behind-the-scenes work with the experts here at the National Park,” she says. “We align the programs with Michigan learning standards and Next Generation Science Standards, to help support teachers and give them extra incentive and help in working with their administrators.”

She adds, “These programs are interactive, and we use a treasure trove of props from the natural world, videos, and images to engage students.”

Yet according to an educator from Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, who first participated in SBDNL distance learning with 5th graders last spring, for kids, it’s all about getting to meet a “real, live ranger.” Among them, Ranger David Fenlon, pictured top left.

Kim Schiefelbein is the Universal Design for Learning coach for the Oconomowoc Area School District. She tells the Leelanau Ticker, “when were in an emergency remote situation, we were looking for ways to engage our learners in a different way. Our instructional technology coach was already doing ‘virtual field trips’ to the Sleeping Bear Dunes with her second graders and planted the seed to do more with the National Park.”

Schiefelbein says SBDNL's “Water Those? Aquatic Invasive Species at Sleeping Bear” content dovetailed perfectly with their 5th grade curriculum, and she was impressed that she was able to work directly with the ranger to fit the session to their unit.

“I anticipate many opportunities for more ‘real live ranger’ visits this fall,” she says.

Sunblade adds that she was surprised that the virtual curriculum is often making deeper connections with students than in-park visits. “Nothing replaces a visit to a National Park, and we look forward to welcoming students back,” she says. “But on field trips the groups are large, and it’s ‘go, go, go,’ and then off to do the Dune Climb. We have had some really great conversations with students talking to park rangers with distance learning. It’s a better back-and-forth.”

She adds, “Part of our mission is to preserve parks for future generations, and I don’t know if there is anything more important that we do at the NPS, than to reach kids.”

Sunblade says interested teachers can get in touch with her on SBDNL’s distance learning page for more info and registration.

Meanwhile, in Suttons Bay, Inland Seas Education Association (ISEA) has also been working hard to stay ahead of a rapidly evolving educational landscape.

With school field trips and ISEA’s Schoolship-based programming remaining largely up in the air, ISEA has been developing plans B and C, including an educational video to offer directly to the teachers who would have otherwise been going out on a Schoolship program with students this fall.

Juliana Lisuk, volunteer coordinator at ISEA tells the Leelanau Ticker, “It has been important to us to stay flexible and be creative about what we can offer as an educational organization to support teachers through this period of uncertainty.”

She says they filmed the video on the water throughout the summer with help from Gavin MacDonald, their marketing and communications intern, and Logan Waggoner, their education intern. The content is aimed at a middle school audience. 

“As educators at ISEA we work from a teaching philosophy of place based, hands-on, experiential learning,” she says. “This is hard to do virtually. In crafting the videos, we use sensory language to describe what we are seeing, smelling, and feeling with the samples.”

She adds that while the new videos are offered specifically to teachers who have signed up for field trips, ISEA also produced a “Going to the Water” video series over the summer that is a great resource for local teachers wanting to connect their students with Great Lakes ecology and share a message of Great Lakes environmental awareness. The series, available now on YouTube, features community leaders such as musician/activist Seth Bernard, who shares his favorite swimming spot and why water is important to every aspect of life.