New Mississippi River Explorers Program
Screen capture of Tamara Few presenting to MRE students during a virtual session.
By Johnna Miller, Park Ranger, Mississippi National River and Recreation Area
Ranger Johnna Miller reflects on building a new partnership program with Wilderness Inquiry.
When we started our season last spring, like most people, our combined education team from the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area and Wilderness Inquiry was unsure what the summer would look like for the many kids we normally serve each year. To meet this need, our team met virtually twice a week to brainstorm new summer programming ideas. We wanted to mirror our normal programs, but safely from home, which is tricky because we usually spend the summer in voyageur canoes. We wanted to make the program as hands-on and interactive as possible. We decided to create a virtual summer camp, which would include games, crafts, activities, and solving mysteries related to the Mississippi River. We wanted the program to be fun, social, and informational, all while connecting students to the Mississippi River from their home. What began in the summer as a remote-learning camp for kids became by the fall a whole new, innovative program for schools called Mississippi River Explorers (MRE).
To make the program as interactive as possible we used Zoom. Most of the lessons were taught to school groups at large, but we also went into breakout rooms to make smaller groups for the activities. It was decided to have four different topics at four different locations within our park corridor. We had two ecology days: Floodplain forest ecology at Crosby Farm Regional Park and prairie ecology at Coldwater Spring. We also had two historical days: Cultural history at the Bdote and geological history at Saint Anthony Falls.
There were many aspects of the Mississippi River Explorers virtual program that made it successful. One aspect was to send each student an education kit, intended to help them complete daily activities, and to encourage them to go outside on their own after the program was over. The kits included tangible items such as floodplain forest leaves for tree identification and cottonwood sticks to keep students engaged as well as to mirror what we would be doing if we were on the river together in person.
Our education team also arranged to have a park ranger or partner in the field, live-streaming on-site from within the park. We had many talented people participate in the on-site live-streams, including park rangers, our wonderful River Educators, and staff from Mississippi Park Connection (MPC), as well as people from the US Forest Service (USFS) and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR). This turned out to be a very popular addition to the program because it made it feel like we were all on location together, and inspiring students to visit these places on their own.
The summer program received great reviews from summer school educators and parents. One parent commented that the program was an excellent example of how to run an online camp program. Teachers commented on how the programs helped to expose their students to local ecosystems. One teacher aptly summed up our efforts with the following statement:
The Mississippi River explorers program was a great way for our students to explore a river that runs through our own backyard as it winds through our state and country. The programming offered by MRE was a high quality experience for our students filled with meaningful content, prepared materials, active participation, and addresses cross-curricular standards. It provided a virtual step out of our classroom in these times when in-person field trips are not possible. The presenters were great with our students, and their energy and field knowledge showed through to their audience.
With the encouragement from these comments and the overall success of the camp program, we decided to offer Mississippi River Explorers to school groups in the fall. Over the course of the fall starting in October, we facilitated thirty-seven programs and served almost 3,000 students. Although Mississippi River Explorers is a virtual program, I think it will have a life after the pandemic since it’s a very fun way to learn about the river. It also helped connect people to one another and the Mississippi River from wherever they were located.
I loved working with Wilderness Inquiry and other park partners. I think it would be really cool to expand and coordinate with even more partners in the future. My favorite part was connecting with participants from all over the United States. Normally we would not have students from Florida and Alaska on our programs, but this year we were able to connect even these distant students to the Mississippi River! Overall, this was a super successful program for engaging students.
The Mississippi River Explorer program will continue this spring. For more information, see the Programs & Registration section of the Educators Newsletter, or keep a watch out for upcoming announcements on our MPC online education page.