“UM-Dearborn Natural Area Appreciation” Questionnaire

Greetings, Friends and Lovers of the University of Michigan - Dearborn Natural Area!

My name is Sara Cole, long-time student staff member at the Environmental Interpretive Center, and I am reaching out to you on behalf of fellow students and staff who regularly use the Natural Area for educational programs and wish it to stay accessible as a place of learning far into the future. In order to do that, we need to hear from you. Our goal is to compile a great collection of feedback which attests to the UMD Natural Area's educational value to those who have participated in a program/class there. If the Rose Garden Pond and Natural Area mean something to you, we want to hear about it! 

It would be absolutely wonderful to get responses from the following people: 

1. Students (and Alums) of Field Bio, etc.
2. SEA Members
3. Staff at the Environmental Interpretive Center  
   

   (current and past)
4. K-12 students & the General Public

The deadline for responses is September 12 [edit: the deadline is tentatively extended to October 1st]. 

I'll send everyone reminder email next week, and an update in September.

Bonus: Select responses may be featured on the EIC website. . 

I look forward to hearing what the UMD Rose Garden Pond and Natural Area mean to all of you

Thank you,

Sara Cole sscole(at)gmail.com
EIC Staff/Student Naturalist (2008-present)
RRBO Volunteer Bird Bander (Fall 2010)

“What one does is what counts. Not what one had the intention of doing.”- Pablo Picasso

"Do or do not. There is no try." - Yoda


If you'd like to download the survey, here's the link: http://scr.bi/UMDbrnNatAreaSrvy


###Survey begins here (click on the jump break)###

The Rose Garden Pond and Natural Area have served as an educational setting for over 40 years. The educational value of natural areas is well documented, but we’d love to know what makes our natural place in Dearborn special to you!

On average, over 10,000 UMD, HFCC, and K-12 students learn in this unique “outdoor classroom” every year.  The Natural Area at University of Michigan – Dearborn is a valuable asset for K-12 students, teachers, college students, children, families, and community members.  The Natural Area is also ecologically important, too, serving as a home for a wide variety of insects, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and migrating birds.  Plus, being located upstream of the Detroit river, it helps clean the water that we drink from the municipal tap.  This makes it valuable for environmental scientists, ecologists, local governments, and sustainability researchers, especially those focused on studying the environment in urban settings.

The purpose of this questionnaire is to help understand what the Rose Garden Pond and Natural Area means to those who have used it. Your responses will help convey why it should be preserved and protected as an educational space.

Select responses will be turned into essays for inclusion in the document presented to the EIC in September. Responses can and may be featured on the EIC website or used in future publications.

(Note: Please use complete sentences, feel free to sketch or include pictures too.) 

1. What is your name?




2. What is your affiliation with the UMD Rose Garden Pond/Natural Area? How long have you been affiliated with it?





3. Describe your most meaningful experience that occurred in the Rose Garden Pond or Natural Area, whether it involved you directly or was something that you passively witnessed. (For example: Something you discovered, a program you led, a student you worked with, etc.)

4. In brief, describe why the Rose Garden Pond and Natural Area is important to you as a learner. What kind of concepts did you learn there? What can others learn when they visit the natural area? Be specific. (Tips: If you make a claim, try your best to cite a research study that supports your claim. It will make for a much stronger and more thoughtful statement.)

5. Optional: Attach a picture (e.g.: photo or drawing) that shows that the Rose Garden Pond means to you. Include an informative caption (e.g.: the location of the photo, the circumstances under which the photo was taken, what the picture represents).


Picture description/Caption:

______________________________________________________________

(1)  References: 

American Institutes for Research & the California Department of Education (2005). Effects of Outdoor Education Programs on
Children. [On-line]. Retrieved (June 18, 2008), from http://www.seer.org/pages/research/AIROutdoorSchool2005.pdf

Barnet, Lord, Strauss, Rosca, Langord, Chavez, Deni (2006). Using the urban environment to
engage youths in Urban Ecology Field Studies. Journal of Environmental Education, 37(2), 15-25.

Chawla, Louise (1999). Life paths into effective environmental action. Journal of Environmental
Education, 31 (1), 15-26.

Louv, Richard (2007). Leave No Child Inside. Orion Magazine. [On-line) Retrieved (June 18,2008), from http://
www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/240

Taylor, Andrea Faber; and Frances E. Kuo. “Is Contact with Nature Important for Healthy Child Development? State of the Evidence.” In Spencer, C. & Blades, M. (Eds.), Children and Their Environments: Learning, Using and Designing Spaces. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2006. http://www.lhhl.uiuc.edu/documents/Faber2006Iscontactwithnature.pdf (Volume 1)

Moore, R. C., & Cooper Marcus, C. (2008). “Healthy planet, healthy children: Designing nature into the daily spaces of childhood.” In S. Kellert, J. Heerwagen & M. Mador (Eds.), Biophilic design: Theory, science and practice. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. This book chapter is available online at: http://www.naturalearning.org/docs/MooreCooperMarcus_Healthy.pdf (Volume 3)


Kellert, Stephen R. “Nature and Childhood Development.” In Building for Life: Designing and Understanding the Human-Nature
Connection. Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 2005.


Other Resources about Children, Nature & Learning:

Children & Nature Network
http://www.childrenandnature.org
Click on Research & Publications

Children, Nature & Learning: Research Abstracts
http://naturenotebook.wordpress.com

(2) Ecology & Sustainability Research in the UMD Natural Area

Rouge River Bird Observatory (RRBO) - One of the first and only urban bird research sites in North America.
Research is conducted in the UMD Natural Area in Dearborn, MI.
Julie Craves, Supervisor of Avian Research
http://www.rrbo.org

Importance of the UMD Natural Area as an urban migratory stopover site:
http://www.rrbo.org/conservation-science/research/migration-stopover-ecology/

Partial list of research projects affiliated with the UMD Natural Area: http://www.umd.umich.edu/eic/research/activities.html