On this week’s podcast I talk with marine scientist and educator Lacie Ownbey of the Indianapolis Zoo. We talk mostly about a specific kind of learner engagement: one that is authentic – related to real-life science concepts. Engaging with content directly gives students, especially young ones, an emotional – or...

On this week’s podcast, I talk with Minnesota naturalist Claire Dobie about the job of a nature-based educator. It’s an interesting gig and one I know well, as I did some version of nature-based education for more than a decade before switching over to classroom-focused work. We naturalists, interpreters, rangers, and...

Fox tracks and coyote tracks are really hard to tell apart – especially in the snow! For our Fun Fact in this week’s podcast, naturalist Claire Dobie described how she helps kids determine the difference. Want to find out yourself? Well, I won’t leak the secret here, but ur-ine luck! Make a pee-line – I mean, a...

In his memoir, E.O. Wilson writes of trying to lure a giant ray to the Florida seashore as a seven-year old boy. His parents were divorcing, so he had been sent to stay at a coastal boarding house. There, he spent long days alone, exploring the beaches and bays near Pensacola. After a brief glimpse of a huge ray off a...