FAU Pine Jog’s K-5 Program Allows Students to Plug-In to Nature
by Teresa Crane | Wednesday, Feb 16, 2022
Florida Atlantic University Pine Jog Environmental Education Center offers “Teaching Empathy through Nature” to public and private elementary schools and organizations that have out-of-school time (OST) programs for children in grades K-5. Prime Time Palm Beach County awarded more than $34,000 to implement this expanded learning opportunity focused on building social-emotional skills through a connection to nature that consists of five interactive sessions: Respect, Self-awareness, Empathy, Giving to Others, and Magic of the Forest.
“I am thrilled we are conducting this program in person again after having gone virtual last year,” said Greg Goebel, coordinator of educational programs at Pine Jog. “ Now more than ever, with the social challenges caused by a global pandemic, it is important for students to discover a sense of place in nature as they build socio-emotional skills for interacting with each other and other living things.”
Sessions are conducted in-person at 20 eligible sites located in areas that include medium- and high-need targeted zip codes representing underserved communities. The sites receive free materials for session activities, such as breathing buddies for meditation and yoga, containers of potting soil for planting native seeds, and camera journals for recording observations in nature. Sites are also supplied materials for extension activities that youth can participate in after the last session.
More than 400 youth complete a pre- and post-survey that gauges their interests in exploring natural spaces to examine how participants’ attitudes toward nature may have changed over the course of the program.
“Teaching Empathy through Nature” is made possible with support from Prime Time Palm Beach County, Inc., which receives significant funding from the Children’s Services Council of Palm Beach County, Inc. To learn more about this program, contact Greg Goebel at ggoebel@fau.edu or 561-686-6600, ext. 413.
The mission of Prime Time Palm Beach County, Inc. is to help children and youth succeed by strengthening and expanding quality in the out-of-school time field. Prime Time offers support to OST programs through coaching and assessment for continuous quality improvement, as well as program enrichment through its expanded learning providers. For the individual practitioners, Prime Time offers career advising, training, scholarships and financial incentives to increase the quality of out-of-school time programs in Palm Beach County. www.primetimepbc.org
Children’s Services Council of Palm Beach County, a special district created by Palm Beach County voters, provides leadership, funding and research on behalf of the county’s children so they grow up healthy, safe and strong. www.cscpbc.org
Pine Jog Environmental Education Center is a unit of the College of Education at FAU. Since 1960, Pine Jog has been fulfilling its mission of developing, modeling and providing educational programs and services which foster awareness and appreciation of the natural world, promote understanding of environmental concepts and instill a sense of stewardship. For more information, contact Pine Jog at 561-686-6600 or visit www.pinejog.fau.edu .