Happy Earth Day! Teaching STEAM and Nature's Lessons on Grandfather Mountain

Happy Earth Day! This week we ascend a very windy Grandfather Mountain in Linville, NC. At the top of the mountain, we meet a dedicated team of informal educators whose passion for STEM and STEAM shines as brightly as the natural beauty around them. Listen in as they share their unique methods of sparking curiosity and fostering a sense of environmental stewardship among school-aged children and adults.

From outreach programs to interpretive park guides to zoo educators, discover how each member of the informal education team plays a pivotal role in connecting visitors to the wonders of nature, and how they turn everyday natural occurrences into unforgettable teaching moments. This adventure is not just about learning; it's about experiencing the magic of the environment through the eyes of those who know it best.

As we continue our journey, we delve into the personal career paths that led these educators to their roles at Grandfather Mountain. Explore the benefits and challenges of environmental careers, including the transitions from fieldwork to management and the nomadic lifestyle that often accompanies these positions. Hear heartwarming stories of caring for the mountain's elderly bears (want to try a bear-approved smoothie?) and learn how the intense winds shape the trees that form the symbol for the park. 

Plus, we reflect on the power of individual actions in conservation, celebrating Earth Day with personal habits that inspire collective environmental change. Tune in for a heartfelt discussion that not only educates but also inspires action towards a healthier planet.

(00:01) Informal Educators at Grandfather Mountain

Nature's wonders are brought to life through STEM and STEAM learning, inspiring conservation and stewardship at Grandfather Mountain.

(13:14) Educational and Environmental Career Paths

Career paths in environmental education and wildlife care, staying curious, specialized animal care, and the story behind Grandfather Mountain's logo.

(18:26) Conservation Efforts in North Carolina

Nature's unique conditions on a mountain in NC, individual actions in conservation, and celebrating Earth Day.

Special thanks to our guests from Grandfather Mountain:
Lauren Farrell: Manager of Interpretation and Education 
Michelle Malalang: Education Specialist
Leigh Ann Wilson: Interpretive Park Guide
Eva Bohne: Zoo Educator
Hannah Rudick: Environmental Educator 
Lauren Niedzwiecki: Environmental Educator 

Transcript

00:01 - Dr. Diane (Host)
So this is Dr Diane and you are in for a treat on today's Adventures in Learning podcast. We are getting ready to go up Grandfather Mountain and we're going to be talking to some amazing informal educators who make this mountain attraction come to life for people. So join me today as we explore the concept of STEM and STEAM learning in nature. Let's go Wonder Curiosity Connection. Where will your adventures take you? I'm Dr Diane, and thank you for joining me on today's episode of Adventures in Learning. 

00:39 - Dr. Diane:
I'm Dr Diane and, as I said, we are here on Grandfather Mountain and we get to talk to the most amazing team of educators and naturalists. So I am going to step back and let each of them introduce themselves and tell us a little bit about who they are and what they do. So I'll start with Hannah

00:57 - Hannah:
My name is Hannah, I am an environmental educator here at Grandfather Mountain and I work with school-aged groups, most commonly teaching them all about educational things relating to the environment that meet their school standards. And we also do some interpretive educational things here on the mountain, including up at the peak and then with our habitats,

Michelle:
My name is Michelle and I am the education specialist, which means I bring the mountain to school. So I'm outreach and I do everything that Hannah does, but outside the mountain. 

Leanne:
Hi, I'm Leanne. I'm an interpretive park guide here. So what that really means is I help a lot with the daily programs and also with guest engagements. I'm a bit more going around the mountain and roving, talking to people. 

01:50 - Lauren:
Hi, I'm Lauren. I'm an environmental educator here and, just like Hannah, I do all of that stuff, and I also help Michelle with some outreach as well. 

02:00 - Eva:
My name is Eva. I'm a zoo educator, so I give our daily programs that are called Keeper Talks at the Animal Habitats, where it's just a short educational spiel about the animals we have here, as well as planning and prepping enrichments for them and also helping out with our programs that we do that are typically animal-based. 

02:19 - Lauren Farrell:
I'm Lauren Farrell. I'm the Interpretation and Education Programs Manager, so I get to manage this awesome crew. Plus, it's about twice as big when we have a whole crew together. I don't get to teach as much anymore, but I do get to hang out with fun teachers.

02:35 - Dr. Diane
 So what is a typical program like? What kinds of things are you really hoping that schools and visitors get when they come to the mountain? 

Michelle:
For me, it just sparks curiosity about the world that they live in, and then hopefully, that curiosity will translate over into taking care of the environment. So, branching out to embrace the mission statement that Grandfather Mountain has Our vision and that's really just to preserve this wonderful ecosystem that we have, this habitat that is quickly disappearing because of things like climate change yeah, how about the rest of you? 

03:19 - Lauren
They just hope, kind of building upon what Michelle said, we hope that they get some sort of inspiration being a grandfather, and sometimes that can be standing there and looking at the beautiful view. Or the funny thing that often happens up at the top at Linville Peak is that there's this epic 360 degree view but everyone's on their hands and knees looking in this little vernal pool, looking at the different things that are living inside of that pool, so it can be something like awe-striking, inspiring, or just the simplest, coolest little thing that if you get on your hands and knees and look at. We're just hoping that people will get excited about that, either want to come back here and help us preserve our grandfather or go back home and be like, oh my God, I have a puddle too. I want to come see that puddle. 

04:12 - Dr. Diane
We were talking earlier about as informal educators, we look for that aha moment. We look for the moment where kids' eyes get wide, where we know that we've made that connection with them, we've made the inaccessible accessible. Can you share sort of a favorite moment you've had where that's happened or some techniques you've used to bring that out? 

Michelle:
Okay, so I'm going to show what I did today, which was making that cloud in the bottle for our fifth graders and sometimes it's hard to make weather interesting. When I made that cloud in the bottle it made that whooshing sound and that pop and magically in that bottle a cloud appeared. So I made the atmosphere for them in my hands. Fifth graders, who are normally too cool for age whatever 10, 11, is amazing to me and we can just keep bringing that out. So to me that was a ha-ha moment for me and a ha-ha moment for them. So everybody won. I like that. 

05:19 Dr. Diane:
Other ha-ha moments or wonder moments? I know you guys have all had them. 

Hannah:
One of the first classes that I taught when coming to Grandfather Mountain was a class about soils to first graders and going into that I was concerned about oh, am I going to make soil and dirt super exciting for these super small children, and one of the things that I found to be the most helpful and like made it click in my brain was you've got to be just as excited as you want them to be, and so you know getting tactile with it and feeling different types of soils and doing interactive exercises where we are soils and other people are water, and you know having so many things for them to interact with and to work with and showing them that it's not just you know our typical writing notes on a board and writing them down and drilling information to them. It's really getting out there and just having fun with it and experimenting and learning through the process. 

Dr. Diane: Exactly. And I love the fact that you all bring the wonder, because that's a huge part of informal education. You know they're in school, they do the standards, they're doing all of the things that a good teacher does, but an informal educator finds that way to make it magical, and I think that's something that you all do here on the mountain exceptionally well. 

06:39: Dr. Diane:
And so I'm going to ask you guys kind of backing up for a moment how do you get to have a job as cool as the jobs you guys have? What kind of training. What kind of work did you have to do to get up here to the mountain, because there might be a kid out there listening and goes. I want to be like Lauren. What do I have to do to get to be up here, or how do I get to work with animals like Eva? 

07:06 - Lauren
Yeah, I mean I can go. So whenever I first got into college I really didn't know what I wanted to do. I was very lost. But I always had a fascination towards nature and I have a lot of mentors and teachers that have helped me get to that point where I have so much curiosity about it. I have so much curiosity about it. So I started off from that point and I was like, well, I've always kind of liked it, so I'm going to try to go into it more and see how I feel along the way. 

So I got my bachelor's degree in environmental science and I was like I really want to be like a park ranger or something like that. And I found this job and I never really thought of myself as an educator, but I know that I do like to problem solve and I like to help people problem solve and I feel like even in this, people have, you know, confusion about things that they're trying to learn or don't even know what their question is. So to be able to help guide them through that, I think, is so beautiful. To be able to have a job where you're not only guiding somebody else but you're guiding yourself as well and you're giving yourself the permission to not know things and you know to. I don't know how to end that. No, that was really good yeah. 

08:35 - Michelle:
I like that, the idea that you're you're basically helping people be able to find the question, because sometimes we don't know what we want to know and if we've got somebody who can listen to us and be patient with us, then we have a space to learn the rest of you. I just love if I can just jump out of you and then I don't even. Why don't you go ahead and go?

08:53 Eva
 Oh, okay, yeah, are you sure? Yeah, yeah, okay. Um, I'm just gonna say, as for me, I have a slightly a different background. I uh, before this, I had taken care of all sorts of different kinds of animals typically domestic animals, animals like goats and cows and things so I was always very passionate about the care and keeping of animals, but I've also always been very curious about our native animals here, and especially the Appalachian Mountains have such a biodiversity here. It's crazy.  So I've always been really curious about that and I've learned on my own about that as well, and so I wanted to kind of move to a place that had the opportunity for me to learn and also share all the information that I was learning about animals that we have that are native to here, because all of our animals that we have at Grandfather Mountain are originally native to this area, so I think that's really cool. 

09:50 - Leanne
Yeah, so I had a bit of a different experience going to college than Lauren did.  I knew exactly what I wanted to do, and I was wrong about it. I went to Lees-McHare College, which is a local college just about 20 minutes away from here and I said I was going to be a wildlife rehabilitator.  And I said that for about three years because I went there for summer camp when I was in high school. And then, after my first year, I realized that I couldn't even get my cat his insulin shots without crying. So I'm probably not cut out to be a wildlife rehabilitator. So I pivoted to wildlife biology. I got really interested in research. I'm very curious about the natural world, similar to Eva, and I just love thinking about all these questions to try to look into and try to answer, but I realized that part of what appealed to me about trying to find these answers is I really love to share them with people.  So then that brought me into the education world, where I got really passionate about just sharing everything that I know about nature with anyone who would listen, even though those who are not willing to listen. Yeah. So then I did a few other jobs outside of college and then I eventually found my forever home here with my partner and found grandfather and have been here for about two years since 

11:25 - Hannah
Um, I mean, yeah, I just graduated from Appalachian State University. I got a bachelor's in science and sustainable development, so my undergraduate was more focused on the effects of climate change and how to sustainably build a future that supports all people and not just some people and all animals and all environments and not just some of them, just some people and all animals and all environments and not just some of them, but also how to communicate the importance of nature to different people and to different types of people and really just understanding at the crux of how have we gotten here, what's important, what do we need to focus on and how do we go forward without damaging our planet more. So, yeah, I recently just graduated and I knew, like Leanne, that I love informing people about the environment. So even before my undergraduate, whenever I was in high school, I helped co-found and served as president of our environmental club there and really just getting people involved with the environment and knowing that you can make a difference and that if all of us share the same mindset and if all of us work together, that we can do something really, really good. So, hoping that I can really make a difference to your grandfather and influence other people to think the same way. 

12:49 Dr. Diane
I feel like we could do an entire podcast about your major the sustainability aspect of it, absolutely. That is so cool. 

Hannah:
Yeah, and the major was based off of the UN Sustainable Development Goals that were released a few years ago, so we were basically all just focusing on how do we get our planet to those goals by 2050. 

13:11 - Lauren F.
Thank you, I can share. So I graduated with a degree in environmental science and didn't really know what I wanted to do, kind of wandered into a facility all over the country just driving from nature museum, residential, environmental education facilities made my way to california and spent that some time there. Um, it's a really, really cool field to be able to travel, and not all places provide housing, but a lot of them do provide housing and some of them even provide food, so you can travel and eat and live for free while working and gaining experience. And then eventually I realized I had to get a real job and buy my own food to provide my own housing. So, yeah, then I started managing the people that do the fun education well, that sounds amazing. 

14:20 - Dr. Diane
So you've been all over the country. What was your favorite place? 

14:26 - Lauren F.
um a place called westminster woods in northern california, in the redwoods oh wow, and it was beautiful. It's also very dark and foggy in the Redwoods, so it was nice to get out of there, but it's also amazing to live there. 

14:45 - Dr. Diane
That's really cool. All right, so, michelle, you're wrapping it up.

14:53 Michelle:
 Well, I just want to bring that full circle back to this Lauren. . So just a quick question about my background is I'm a formal educator Fifteen years. I have my master's in Montessori education and if you know the Montessori philosophy, it lends itself to the whole child and connection with nature and connection to each other. So that was an easy tie in to this job. I actually came up here for a job, fair, to get a job for my child. I was trying to bribe to come live with me. I could work at this amazing place. And then I stopped to talk to Lauren and at that time, cassie, and we'll try it. You know I just moved up here. This is a gorgeous place. I'll do it for a year and now I think I want to do it for the rest of my life. 

But jumping off of you is like when you ask a child, because I think your original question was what do you want? How do you want to inspire the young generation to maybe aspire to this job? You don't have to know what you want to do. When people ask you, what do you want to do when you grow up. It's okay to say I don't know, because I came to this job in a very roundabout way. And as long as you follow your curiosity, you keep pondering what ignites that spark within me and you keep pondering what, what ignites that spark within me, and you keep that spark alive and you follow that, you'll end up where you need to be. So that's all I wanted to say. 

16:07 Dr. Diane
I think, as I'm listening to all of your stories and I know, as I think about my own story, it none of them were linear. You know, all of them have sort of those beautiful twists and turns and it's all about building connections and figuring out what it is you want to do. So I love that. Um, I wanted to ask you guys a couple other questions. Um, I'm going to start by asking eva a question. Um, so I was wandering around and walking through the habitats today and I noticed that you have some just amazing animals here. Um, you know, you've got bear, you've got the eagles, there are elk and otters and cougars. What goes into the care and keeping of these animals?  I was so impressed with the space and sort of the educational signage and everything else that I saw. 

16:53 - Eva:
Yeah, I would like to make a disclaimer that we have a wonderful crew of full-time animal keyverts that really that is. Their job is taking care of animals and since I am a zoo educator, I assist them with that and I do work with them a lot on that, but they do kind of the meat of that job. But also our animal curator, christy Tipton. She puts in a lot of work into designing the animal habitat and making sure that they are just perfect for the animals that we do have here. But, yeah, we feed our animals diets that are specific to what those animals need. 

Some of our bears are older, so we call them our gummy bears. Because of their age, they no longer have their their teeth, which is pretty normal for older black bears. So we uh will make what we call bear mush and, um, pretty much blend up all the food together and not all their food, but all the stuff they can't eat without their teeth, and we'll just make different exceptions like that for all the animals to make sure they're getting, uh, what they need. 

17:55 Dr. Diane
So the bears get a smoothie. I love that and I learned a lot from you all when we were talking and sort of talking about education earlier. Um, I learned about the trees and I'm wondering if you guys could talk a little bit about. If I look at your logo, you know the grandfather mountain. The tree has the branches on one side and there's nothing on the other. Can you explain to folks who are listening why that is because that's really cool? 

18:18 - Lauren F.
 go ahead, you can add on anything. If I missed it, leanne spends a lot of time at the top of the mountain, probably more than me these days, um, but uh, during the winter we have some pretty, pretty insane winds. The highest recorded official recorded um wind speed we've ever had is 124 miles per hour. That was, um in february of 2018, my first winter here, so that was kind of fun. Welcome to north carolina, um, but yeah, so we get really strong winds and they're coming from like the north northwest um, and it's pretty, uh, relentless um, so the trees have to deal with that. You know, every pretty much every cold winter day, that cold, brutal, icy, rhyme, icy, cold wind coming at them. So it kind of chips off the branches and doesn't allow much of a good habitat or a good environment for that side of the tree to grow. So all the trees are kind of flagged in one way. The branches all grow in one direction and we love those trees so much that it's our logo here. I like that. 

19:39 - Dr. Diane
So, Earth Day is coming up, and I kind of wanted to wrap this up by having you all think about if there were a message of conservation or a message from your time on the mountain that you would want our listeners to hear what would that be? 

20:01 Hannah
One thing that I first had trouble with and again, like through my degree, I basically talked about conservation and the weight of that for the past four years is that there can be some like climate doom or some anxiety that comes with conservation. There's a lot of weight that goes on to it. But just knowing that you yourself you can make a difference, and that just going out and picking up you know a little bit of trash or you know not using plastic water bottles, you know whatever you can do yourself, I think is such like a great first step and it definitely helps get rid of some of that anxiety and fear that comes along with understanding the ramifications that do come with our changing climate and just knowing that you know there are obviously greater things at play. But if you can make a change within your personal life, then it'll make you feel better and it'll make the environment happier too. 

20:58 Michelle
Right, absolutely, because I get a lot of people, even some of my friends, say I'm only one person. What can one person do?  One person can do a lot, even if it's just and I'm learning this because if you come from a place with an HOA and you have to have everything looking just right. They don't want any leaves, any grass clippings, any of that. That's habitat for fireflies, so if you leave the leaves. So instead of picking up the trash you shouldn't pick up trash, but you can leave the natural things. You can leave the leaves, you can leave all of that, because that becomes prime um habitat for um smaller insects, more buzz, things like lead, that to overwinter and then in the spring they blossom and create beauty for you. So leave some things. It doesn't. It doesn't work for you. You can read a book. 

21:50 - Leanne
I think, seeing individuals you know changing some of their lifestyles too, like it can carry over to other people, like in your family. If they see you picking up trash they might think, oh, maybe I should do the same thing. And I feel like it's just a snowball effect and it helps to just be that one person that's trying to make a difference. 

22:15 - Lauren
And we like to talk about individual effort a lot too, but I think it's really important to emphasize you know, you shouldn't hold yourself up to an impossible standard of being a perfect environmentalist, because really, what does that mean? But, like, what we encourage people to do is just like, if there's one small action that you can take, take it like do the best that you can every day and that's all we can ask. 

22:43 Dr. Diane
Yeah, I love the signage that you had all around that was sort of encouraging what's the one step you can take today? And I thought that was a really nice way to get people, that little nudge, to start thinking, okay, I can do one thing You know, and maybe I'm not doing everything on that one infographic that you know you weigh your points from one to four on your different actions. But you know, maybe I'm doing a bunch in the one column and maybe I can move to the fours. Maybe there are more things I can do and I liked the way that you just kind of naturally included that in everything that you do. So last question who's been to the top of the mountain? So it's unanimous Everybody's been out there. 

23:30 Dr. Diane
Well, thank you so much for joining me on the Adventures in Learning podcast today. I am so excited that we have had this time together and happy Earth Day from us at Grandfather Mountain. 

23:44 - S(Host)
You've been listening to the Adventures in Learning podcast with your host, Dr Diane. If you like what you're hearing, please subscribe, download and let us know what you think, and please tell a friend. If you want the full show notes and the pictures, please go to drdianadventurescom. We look forward to you joining us on our next adventure.