{"id":78211,"date":"2026-01-05T11:58:06","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T11:58:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/78211\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T11:58:06","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T11:58:06","slug":"nature-in-philadelphia-taps-kids-creativity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/78211\/","title":{"rendered":"Nature in Philadelphia taps kids\u2019 creativity"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cYou have to be courageous to be creative,\u201d she said. \u201cYou have to be willing to put yourself out there and to show the world something and to share your light. So that takes courage. And I think nature school builds that kind of courage, both physically and emotionally.\u201d<\/p>\n

A need for more equity in nature-based learning<\/p>\n

Students and teachers at nature-based preschools across the country are disproportionately white, according to a 2022 survey<\/a> by the Natural Start Alliance, a coalition of environmental education organizations.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s also true that nature-based opportunities, particularly in schools, are more prevalent in more well-to-do communities, where they may have some great natural resources around them,\u201d Jordan said.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just exposure to nature in school that\u2019s unequal. An analysis by the Hispanic Access Foundation<\/a> and the Center for American Progress<\/a> found that across the country, people of color are much more likely than white people to live in \u201cnature-deprived\u201d spaces<\/a>, or places where more natural land has been disturbed by human activities than what is typical for each state.<\/p>\n

Wells started Tiny Trekkers as a way to bring Black and Hispanic families into Philadelphia\u2019s natural spaces, where, she said, they are not typically seen.<\/p>\n

\"ChildrenTiny Trekkers during a recent nature scavenger hunt at the trails behind the Cobbs Creek Community Environmental Education Center. (Courtesy of Elaine Wells)<\/p>\n

\u201cThings like kayaking, bird watching, fishing, horseback riding, trail walking,\u201d Wells said. \u201cJust outdoors-y things where either there\u2019s a perceived notion that we\u2019re not welcome in those spaces when they are available, or sometimes cost is a barrier and sometimes just being busy \u2014 families being busy surviving.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bartram\u2019s Garden<\/a>, the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum<\/a> and the Cobbs Creek Community Environmental Education Center<\/a> \u2014 which Wells calls \u201csome of Philly\u2019s most amazing green spaces\u201d \u2014 are located in majority-Black neighborhoods of West and Southwest Philadelphia. Tiny Trekkers visits these sites regularly and travels to green spaces in other parts of the city when donated buses are available, Wells said.<\/p>\n

Many schools in Philadelphia work to expose students to nature. The School District of Philadelphia offers students outdoor adventure experiences<\/a> through a partnership with Outward Bound. Some schools have gardens<\/a>, hands-on agriculture programs<\/a> and nature clubs. <\/a>Others are redesigning and greening asphalt schoolyards. <\/a>\u00a0The district encourages schools to plan field trips and extracurricular activities in nature-based environments, said spokesperson Christina Clark.<\/p>\n

But overall, students don\u2019t have enough access to nature, Wells said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cYou have to be courageous to be creative,\u201d she said. \u201cYou have to be willing to put yourself…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":78212,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1482,5091,69,71,70,5206],"class_list":["post-78211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-creativity-sparks-success","tag-nature","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-whyy-news-climate-desk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78211\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}