New York Launches Outdoor Magazine for Kids
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle – December 19, 2007
By Dan Osburn
- Share:
-
-
-
-
-
-
Fourth-graders at Albany's Thomas O'Brien Academy of Science and Technology were energized Tuesday by a wildlife-watch and snowshoeing adventure in a snowy city park.
The children were being supervised by Environmental Conservation Commissioner Pete Grannis, who was at the school to unveil the Department of Environmental Conservation's new publication, Conservationist for Kids.
The new magazine, designed for fourth-graders, is packed with photos, stories, and activities designed to "get children across New York state outside and connecting with nature," Grannis said.
The more children enjoy the outdoors, the more they will preserve it for future generations, Grannis said.
"In a world full of iPods, Xboxes, and multi-channel digital cable, our youngsters are spending more and more time indoors on the couch, disconnected from the natural world," Grannis said.
The magazine is an initiative of the state's No Child Left Inside program — a program designed to help children reconnect with nature, according to the DEC.
People active in the outdoors are "the great stewards of the natural world," Grannis said.
"This new magazine, written with the learning standards in mind, will nurture developing readers while it taps into a love for the outdoors," state Education Commissioner Richard Mills said in a statement.
Gina Jack, environmental educator for the DEC, got students stimulated as she showed them how to make homemade binoculars out of toilet-paper rolls.
"You don't have to spend a lot of money to enjoy the outdoors," Jack said.
Jack helped set the students up for their snowshoeing romp and bird watching.
Teachers should do their part by helping students set up a journal to track their discoveries in the natural world, Jack said.
Thomas O'Brien Academy of Science and Technology, one of Albany's three magnet elementary schools, specializes in hands-on science education, said school principal Rachelle Salerno.
The school has an outdoor garden for learning about the natural world and an educational partnership with the nearby New York State Museum, she said.
About 250,000 copies of the magazine will be printed three times a year and be delivered to classrooms across the state, along with instructional supplements for teachers, according to the DEC. The annual cost will be about $120,000.
The premier December issue will be distributed to 500 schools across the state, according to the DEC. By September, all 8,500 public-school fourth-grade classrooms across the state will be receiving their copies.
The DEC's flagship magazine, Conservationist, has also gotten a facelift.
The updated magazine will be expanded from its current 32-page form to 40 pages. It will be more timely and modern, have more high-quality photos, and a new guest author section, according to the DEC.
Conservationist for Kids will be added as an insert to Conservationist for its initial issue only.
Conservationist has been in print since 1946 and has 95,000 paid subscribers across the country.
As of this month, the entire Conservationist magazine is available online at www.theconservationist.org.
This site contains copyrighted material. Click here for more information on C&NN's Fair Use Policy. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
As part of our ongoing efforts to build the movement, the Children & Nature Network has published two new resources for leaders, organizers, and participants at the local, national, and international levels:
An annotated bibliography of 20 premier studies focusing on the children and nature connection.
