Meet a Mississippi River Educator, Jean Buckley!

You are a River Educator who comes with a lot of experience working with environmental projects from your past jobs as a health educator and a public works coordinator. Tell us how that experience lends itself to connecting kids to the Mississippi River?

When I worked at the City of Bloomington, I started the first water festival back in the 90’s to educate residents about water and how our projects protected water, such as retention ponds and restoring prairies. It was a family event so we had many fun hands-on activities. By engaging the kids we were able to educate the adults too. 

When I moved to working at Ramsey County I was on the Metro Children’s Water Festival planning group. This one-day event at the State Fair grounds educates fourth-grade students from several schools about water resources. I believe that making learning fun helps kids understand their role and responsibility in protecting our resources, and may just encourage their parents to help too.

What are some of your favorite resources you can share with teachers to help them connect the river to their students? 

Innovative, quality, hands-on learning activities can’t always be done in the classroom. I love when students get excited by doing an activity where they actually get to touch and see for themselves how things work. I enjoy the resources offered from the Metro Children’s Water Festival. The watershed game, for example, has students put simulated pollutants on a board and then sprinkle water as if it rained to see what happens to fertilizer running off yards, or grass clippings flowing into the street, or drops of oil dripping from cars, or litter washing down sewer drains, and how a lot of it ends up in our rivers. Teachers can then encourage students to participate in the Adopt-a-drain” program to monitor a storm drain near their home.  

Tell us about the other program you work with, Mississippi River Explorers, an education collaboration between Wilderness Inquiry, the National Park Service, and Mississippi Park Connection.

The Mississippi River Explorers program is a program offered to metro schools that puts park educators at various points within the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area where they interact live with students online via Zoom. Due to Covid we went online and took students in grades 4-6 to four places we had them visit. I was often the staff person on the Minneapolis Stone Arch Bridge sharing stories about the beginnings of the city and the importance of Saint Anthony Falls. We would also break-out into small groups and work on activities such as how the fur trading at Fort Snelling impacted Native Americans and the beaver population. Students learn about culture, history, geology, plants, and animals of this area. I remember one student asking me if there were any fish left in the river after having it used for sewage disposal at one point in history. This student understood the impact of humans on the environment and I was proud to tell him the National Park Service worked with other concerned groups to help clean the river, and now it’s once again healthy with many different species of fish and mussels present in its waters. People’s efforts make a difference and empowering students is one of the reasons I love to teach.  

What are some things you personally enjoy doing that connect you to the river and the park?

I have always lived within a few blocks of a river. As a child, I built a “fort” along the Minnesota River where I felt safe and free to explore its banks. As an adult, I explore the Mississippi River and often walk along Minnehaha Creek where I see so much wildlife, which brings me peace and joy. I have done buckthorn removal and now am part of a phenology study at Crosby Farm Regional Park where we will show students how we are studying the trees we planted to discover how they adjust to a warming planet. I also use the dog park where I love to watch my dog play in the river and have peddled many miles up and down the river roads.  

What’s been rewarding for you serving as a River Educator?

I believe the future of this planet is now in the hands of our youth. I know the importance of helping kids learn about our earth will create the possibility they will grow up to appreciate and care for it. I want to help them find joy in discovering the open spaces I have always treasured.