Looking to get your kids away from their electronic gadgets and into the great outdoors? Get them to use cameras – even their camera phones – for a new perspective on nature.
Using digital photography to bring together kids and the natural world is the goal of Focus on Nature (FON), a Guelph non-profit organization that rolled out a full workshop program this fall with help from U of G volunteers.
“We’re using the camera as a tool for building interest and appreciation and for enhancing observational skills,” says Shirley Hunt, FON program director and mom of two. The former U of G staff member started the program in 2008 with Guelph photographer and U of G arts grad Trina Koster.
Having run several pilot programs, they hope to reach more students (mostly Grades 5 and 6) through daylong workshops run by volunteers at local schools. Hunt says the program has been designed to fit Ontario’s visual arts curriculum.
About 10 of the program’s 15 volunteers are U of G students interested in photography, the outdoors and teaching – or all three. Those combined interests have also led University staff and faculty to get involved.
Chris Earley, interpretive biologist and education co-ordinator at the U of G Arboretum, helped organize a one-day session last spring for about 10 youngsters ages nine to 18. “This can link you to your kids and nature,” says Earley, whose 10-year-old daughter, Skye, took part that day.
He credits the program for showing kids how to look anew at the ordinary – a tree reflected in a puddle, raindrops on a flower, rhubarb shoots bursting from the earth.
Referring to her budding camera buffs, Hunt says, “We see a lot of pride in their work. A sense of achievement comes quickly. They all have creative eyes and ability. They’ve blown us away with the way they look at the world.”
Youngsters can bring their own cameras to the session or borrow one from the organizers. Also available are laptops for the kids to download, edit and share their images.
The program teaches students visual language, or the elements of design, says Hunt, who works in FON’s downtown office. “We’re helping them see the beauty in things they might normally pass by.”
Helping with marketing as a member of the group’s advisory board is Kian Merrikh, marketing and communications manager with U of G’s Centre for Open Learning and Educational Support.
“The goal is to expose young people to nature and connect them with the natural environment, and we’re looking to do this through the medium of photography,” says Merrikh, a long-time photographer.
In 2010, FON and Transition Guelph teamed up with students in a U of G course taught by English professor Ajay Heble to run a conference on environmental education and the arts.