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Nature From Scratch

“Nature from Scratch” are nature-related workshops designed by Jim Brett for teachers in any setting who want to incorporate nature in their work or in their personal journals while not feeling intimidated by the overwhelming amount of knowledge that may seem a pre-requisite in each subject area. Schools, Intermediate Units, educational institutions, and nature centers should contact PICE to schedule one or more of these programs for their education staff. They address state required academic standards (ACT 48) and may be taken for graduate level credit, however, additional hours of class work outside of these sessions would apply. Cost to be determined upon scheduling and will vary given the following: Location, group size, graduate level credit, overnight accommodations and meals.

Teaching Nature From Scratch

The best way to design your own nature walk or experience is to spend time in the field with a naturalist. Jim is that person having taken to wild places for almost half a century, and he is comfortable in the woods or along waterway and upland fields with students of all ages and interests. It isn’t necessary to know every plant or animal sign to teach nature in the field. What is absolutely necessary is having a keen sense of observation and inquiry and being able to brim with excitement that can occur with a new discovery at every turn on the pathway. Day one will feature a full day in the field taking advantage of various habitats while using special techniques of observation and inquiry. Day two will allow each participant to guide a part of the nature journey into those areas of exploration the day before.

Developing A Nature Journal From Scratch

On Day One of this workshop, participants will travel with Jim to some – not all – of his favorite haunts along secret woodland trails, to hidden waterfalls and along country roads of Jim’s world (can be adapted for any site throughout Pennsylvania). This first day is to gather the ingredients for Day Two, a full day’s writing workshop that will begin in constructing something other than a bone-dry report of one’s observations of nature. What is so missing in traditional nature writing are drama, wit and actual human characters. What we hope to accomplish during this ‘Scratch’ session is to send the participant on his/her own way with something to build upon where thoughts, feelings, ideas, activities, observations and relationships to nature will represent the foundation for an ongoing written dialog using ones personal skills as a thinker.