Empowering Land Lovers
At EarthLab, we aim to empower learners with the naturalist skills and relational knowledge that foster a lasting connection to our local flora, fauna, and ecology. Our expertise in place-based, experiential education is designed to reconnect mind, body, and community through authentic encounters with the natural world, creating lasting impact across classrooms, grade levels, communities, and beyond.
Approach
No matter the audience, all our programs:
- Are place-based, rooted in and relevant to local ecology
- Cultivate awe, wonder, and a sense of exploration
- Are interdisciplinary, connecting art, science, literature, and social studies to the natural world
- Foster personal connections to nature that last, by spending time outdoors in every program
- Incorporate mindfulness, movement, and sensory activities
Ready for your educational community or organization to get off screens and outside? Learn more about our services and reach out to see how we can support you.
For Youth
In addition to our public programming, we offer custom one-day programs, multi-day series, and after school programs for public and private K-12 schools and homeschool groups, with a focus on 6th-12th grades. Beyond simply a guided hike (although we can do that too!), our programs take an exploratory approach and build a foundation of skills that participants can use to continue engaging beyond our time together. Sample past outings include:
- Making Birding Cool: Not Just Your Grandma’s Hobby!
- Biodiversity in the Schoolyard
- Awe Walks: Cultivating Mindfulness in Nature
- Native Gardening and Compost Club
- Naturalist Club: Creating a Field Guide to Your School
For Educators
Integrating environmental education into your class is possible, even with everything else on your plate. We offer practical professional development rooted in ours years of experience teaching and coaching. All our sessions include a field-based component and provide you with tools and ideas you can start implementing tomorrow. Sessions can be customized for all types of educators (including homeschool families) and our tailored consulting can support your bigger picture projects. Sample topics include:
- Schoolyard Ecology to engage learners in community science and finding awe in nature, right on campus.
- School Gardens to help your school establish and utilize the garden for community building and instruction across subject areas.
- Cultivating Mindfulness in Nature to strengthen students’ and teachers’ mental and physical wellbeing
- Building Community Partnerships to enhance experiential pedagogy and foster real-world connections
- Environmental Education in Any Subject to make learning outside part of the culture, not just part of science classes
- Educational Consulting to support environmental project-based learning, family engagement, program development, and more.
For Teams
Skip the screens and the cheesy icebreakers and get outside to meaningfully connect and re-energize your team! We support business, non-profit, or organizational teams looking to connect with each other and the land through nature-based team building. In addition to working with you to create a custom offering, sample past adult programs include;
- Forest School for Grown-Ups: Get to Know Native Trees
- Intro to Nature Journaling
EarthLab 