Tracy LaStella comes to us as the coordinator for youth services from the Middle Country public library in New York. She is a very fresh 2015 library journal mover and shaker for her great work in nature-based spaces. We're really excited to have you here today, Tracy. Welcome. >> Hi, thank you so much for having me. Very excited to be presenting. And today, we're going to be taking a look at the development of spaces within our Nature Explorium and also take a look at some nature-based activities that you as librarians might want to put together for outside or for bringing inside to your library. So many of these activities can be brought inside, as well. The Nature Explorium is a 5,000-square-foot area. It's right outside our children's department at the Middle Country public library in New York. We're located on Long Island. And we opened in 2010, June of 2010. So we're preparing right now for our sixth season, and we've been having a great time putting all of these spaces together and also, you know, putting together different programs, too. So on the nature explore website we actually are certified nature explore classroom. We were the first public library in the nation to be certified which we're very proud of. And on the nature explore website, it's natureexplore.org, which I think they're going to be moving -- actually the nature explore website helps to design and train staff and showcases different materials that you can purchase for your spaces or for your programs. So our space was developed in collaboration with the dimensions education research foundation, which is part of nature explore and our local collaborative, Long Island nature collaborative for kids, which is also referred to as LINC. The Nature Explorium contains a variety of areas and they're all geared to connecting children and families to different aspects of nature and really trying to get families back outside and playing and learning. So back in March of 2007, dimensions was invited by LINC, our nature collaborative, to conduct an introductory seminar. This seminar was brought about to think about creating outdoor nature environments for children on Long Island and it was during this session that they were all speaking about bringing these spaces to schools and to churches and youth centers and all these other different community spaces and we at the library, it was being held at the library because we had community space for the people to meet. We were saying okay how about libraries? It would be wonderful to have this in public libraries. And so since then, we really just pulled it together and I'll go through how we did that and everything and, you know, really wanted to be a part of this movement. So we also serve as a model now for libraries around the country as part of the family place libraries initiative and we also from the very beginning knew that, you know, this was going to be a collaborative effort. So in 2008, we had a workshop here that was conducted by dimensions and it was for landscape professionals and architects and LINC members and library staff all to come together to learn about the different guiding principles and recommended areas for exploration. And these areas have all been developed and promoted by nature explore and the dimensions foundation. So in the workshop, participants created idea boards and plans and that's what resulted in our initial concept design for the library in nature Explorium and the initial design came from a participant at the USDA forest service, which is located in Manhattan, New York. And so from that concept design, which I have to say was like the best piece that we got as we started the Nature Explorium, was this concept design so people could really visualize what we were talking about. We weren't just saying we want to bring nature education to the library and we want to develop a space outside. We, you know had a picture to show them and to show them the different areas within the Nature Explorium. So it really helped us to begin the fundraising to share the concept art with our partners and with our previous funders, it was really something that was very valuable to us. So we did raise about half of the funds that we needed in order to build the Nature Explorium and we did start building in March of 2010 and completed in June of 2010 but each year, we add a little something to the Nature Explorium. And I have to say that -- I have to say that the -- the funds that were, you know, put together and everything, if you are thinking of building something like this, it doesn't have to be done all in one sweep. Our Nature Explorium partners, our school behind us, they are building their nature explore classroom in phases. And so they have volunteers helping them, parents and families, people from the community, and they are using, you know, community members, boy scouts and girl scouts, to create their space and they're doing a wonderful job. We also have naming opportunities within the Nature Explorium as part of our fundraising. And the funders are all recognized inside the library. So we have a book path that people can choose their favorite children's title or favorite quote from children's literature and there's a brick path that shows all the titles that people have chosen. We also have read quotes that either have to do with reading, exploration, adventure, or discovery and those quotes also gave us an opportunity to do some fundraising, too. Okay. So many people ask us, you know, why at a library? Why would we want this outdoor education space at a library? But we all know, we're a local community institution, we bring together early learning, family centered practices, we bring nature literacy and we also are able to share sustainable resources. So we made sure that we were using resources from our local community in order to build the space, too. And also libraries are always looking for -- looking to create appropriate spaces that are developmentally and educationally appropriate for many different age groups and also just looking for spaces for families to spend time with their families and their children. So actually on Long Island where we are locate, we're right in the middle of Long Island, we're not that close to the water, although we're not too far from it, either. But we really don't have any open spaces, the parks that we do have are not well maintained and so I have to say that our community really supported us through this whole project and they continue to really support us with it. And we also at the library have all the resources to answer all of the "why" questions that curious kids always ask. So we can go right into the library and use our collection to help support programs, any questions that may come up. So it really gives us a chance to really showcase the, you know, whole library. So as we begin talking about our teams and committees, just wanted everybody to think about who you may call upon to partner within your communities to create an outdoor space or even to do some outdoor programming. If you could just use the chat board to respond, and then we'll come back to those thoughts in a moment. So partnering with our other organizations broadens our perspective. It helps change the image of the library and integrates the library into a larger community of similar interests and over the years, this has really helped us to create a dynamic community center within our library. The Nature Explorium provides us with an opportunity to partner with environmentalists, landscape professionals, nature enthusiasts, and educators to achieve a common goal of getting the families back outside. The library convenes a team, a design team, and so we did work with the USDA forest service to create our concept art, and then we worked with RBA group, which is landscape architects and they really, you know, fine-tuned our concept art to make sure we had a clear vision of what we wanted in the Nature Explorium encompassing many different aspects from nature explore classrooms. And then we also worked with an interior design firm, because our entranceway is from the children's department. A lot of nature explore classrooms you're entering from the outside so they have these beautiful wood trellises with flowers growing over them and everything. So we had to make sure that we had a dynamic design that also integrated within the library. And so ours is, you know, glass doors that have the Nature Explorium logo on them and then also has a really nice sign above it to invite children and families outside. We also create an advisory committee. We worked with our local school district, educators and administrators from the local school district. Like I said before they also are building a nature explore classroom and so it gave us an opportunity to bring them together and work together. We worked with our coalition for smart growth within our area and we made contact with a garden writer. She was really valuable to this team. She had done a lot of traveling, she had a wonderful binder full of pictures from many different nature education places around the country and so it really gave us some really wonderful ideas. And then we also had someone from our local nature collaborative. And actually the woman that came from there helped us to create the naming of each of our outdoor areas which we will go over. So as an advisory committee and the library staff, we also all worked together to think about different policies which I just want to point out to everyone, really an important thing to think about, what policies you're going to have in place if you do create an outdoor space. In the end, we ended up trying to stick with our regular library policies, taking place outdoors as well, so we do require that, you know, people wear shoes, we do have a water feature and I have to say the first couple of summers we had many children out there in their bathing suits and we were like no, no, no, everybody has to wear their clothes! So it was definitely an interesting learning experience for us but we do make sure that everybody has upper and lower body coverings now and that everybody's wearing their shoes, there's no food allowed outside as well, just because we're very conscientious about allergies the children have. So that was one of the things that came through, through the advisory committee, that was all those questions that we didn't quite think of. So Jennifer, can you share with me some of the thoughts that people had of who they could partner with? >> Excellent yes. There were some really great ideas shared. The corporate extensions, parks and rec, state parks, local businesses, 4H, boy scouts and girl scouts, especially those that have eagle or gold award projects. >> Oh, wonderful. >> The national wildlife refuge, certainly garden clubs, local farmers, USDA, I thought that was a great idea. And other museums and zoos. So lots of excellent ideas and some of them sound like they're already working in partnership with those folks. So a great way to extend the partnership. >> That's wonderful. I did see that somebody just wrote in master gardeners we will and we did work with master gardeners, as well. They do have to do a certain amount of community service when they're getting their certification so that really helped us out, too. Those are all wonderful ideas and, you know, anybody who can get onto the team would be a benefit, definitely. Okay. So our next slide we're going to take a look... We as part of our planning process we did visit a lot of different spaces. We went to children's nature gardens, exploration areas, we went to some of our local botanical gardens, the children museum that's on Long Island is a very popular space, they had a nature explore classroom and so we went to visit there, too. There was some childcare centers. Actually, this Five Towns childcare center is just like a beacon I have to say because it's surround by very low to middle class area, so it was this really amazing little childcare center with this amazing backyard basically. So it was really wonderful to go visit them. And so our advisory committee members tried to visit with us to all of them and almost everybody made it to at least one or two of them. And it really gave us some thought when we came back about what we wanted to add into the Nature Explorium. And so one of our plans was not to have a water feature in the Nature Explorium. And as I said before we do have one. But we were really convinced of that when we went to the children's museum on Long Island, because they were saying, you know, that it was so popular, there was so much learning happening, and then it just really became something that we felt was really important for us to be able to teach children about the water cycle and such and also just give them a great experience just to play and learn with water. So before we get started looking at the different themed areas of the Nature Explorium does anybody have any questions thus far? >> I haven't seen any specific questions come through yet so keep on going. >> Okay great. Okay. So this is a little illustrated map of the Nature Explorium. Actually, this map was created from our original concept art but it's really, really close. Everything's placed exactly where it is but, you know, just a little shifting here and there. But you can see, you know more pictures of it as we go through our slides here. But the Nature Explorium is really targeted to preschool and school-aged children. We do have teens come in and use the area. We also have the adult department use it at times and we even had our local civic group use it for a luncheon and they had a band and everything. So it is really targeted to preschool and school-aged but a lot of different ages using it. So we, you know, we have a lot of different outdoor learning activities, almost everything is hands-on. There's opportunities for families to engage and become more knowledgeable about nature and their surroundings and then also just learning about the sustainability of natural resources. It's one of our main goals when doing programming and creating these outdoor spaces. We're teaching them about the natural resources surrounding them. So the Nature Explorium offers a unique way to connect literacy, learning and appreciation of nature, as part of the regular library visit. We are open over the summer, basically almost all the hours that the library is open. So we are open about 60 hours per week, maybe a little bit more than that for the summer. And maybe a little bit smaller than that for the spring and fall. In the winter months we're open just for programs basically. We tend to get some snow. So we try to make sure that when there is snow out there, we're doing some different snow activities and I'll go through some of those as we go through the presentation. So some key features of the Nature Explorium is the entry feature which you can see on the center left, top piece is a little red ring. That's where you would enter the Nature Explorium from the library and there's a create it area, a splash area, that's the water play, play it area is a stage, the build it area is the spot where they build with natural items. There's the grow it area, which contains a planting area within it. There's climb it, which has some, you know, tunnels and decking and stuff and you'll see all pictures of these areas, too. And dig it is another very popular area. It's basically just a pit for them to dig in. It looks a lot nicer than what I'm explaining. And we also have a read it area, we have a space for children to read outdoors, too. So we really thought about within this area when we were creating it, the visibility of it, it does run alongside the library on a busy street. It's right behind a shopping center. And so we wanted to make sure that people could see it but also not linger too long seeing it, if you want to just make sure that there's privacy, too. We thought about durability and also just the regional significance. Within the Nature Explorium we've bench between the splash it and create it areas and we call it our friends bench because it has all the etchings on the stone that creates it of animal friends that you can find on Long Island. We also targeted some local garden supply stores and lumber companies so we could produce products, the wood was coming from our local area. We weren't bringing it in from another part of the United States. And then also just making sure that we were creating these resources for other people that wanted to build these spaces on Long Island so that they would also be able to reach out to these people. Okay. So in the create it area, we have these Buddha boards. They're natural slate and children can just walk up, there's buckets there, and paintbrushes, so they can just paint with water right onto the Buddha boards. Within this area we also have a collaging table, a discovery table, and we conduct art journaling programs, we always put out supplies for nature rubbings and we also have activity stations about art and color in nature. We bring out bubbles and prisms and also do flower stamping. Jennifer, was there any questions? >> Actually, yes, there are a few questions now. >> I thought I saw a lot coming through so I thought I should pause. >> Yeah, so terms the space there was a question about whether or not it's fenced in? >> It is fenced in. We felt like because we're on a busy street that it was for safety reasons really to keep it fenced in so that parents are nearby but they don't need to hover the entire time that their children are out there and also just keeping it secure during nights and weekends that we're not open. >> Okay. And sort of related to that. Are adults without children allowed in the Nature Explorium by themselves? >> No. I should have mentioned that before when I was talking about policies. We actually came up with a new designated space policy because of this. So within the children's department and the Nature Explorium, on adults that have pre-approved business are allowed in those spaces. Adults can set up a tour for me to take them around the Nature Explorium but they can't sit outside and be in that space without a child. We do have a space outdoors like a small little courtyard on the adult side that they can be outside but not out in the Nature Explorium. >> Excellent. And then there's a question about the staffing. Did you need to hire additional staff or how do you manage the staffing for the space? >> So the Nature Explorium is provided all times that it's open. We have some paging staff that's outside, we pull from our clerical staff, as well. One of the things that we did, you know, as we were starting to open was kind of surveying the staff and seeing who liked spending time outdoors. And so it is staffed all the time. I was able to hire two part-time staff for the summer and I do that each summer for library assistance. We try to get somebody that has an educational background, that has an interest in nature and so when we are doing drop-ins and regular programs there's somebody out there that's really excited to be outside and really engaging. >> So do you provide a little bit of training then for staff that work in the space? >> We do yes. Actually, we're getting ready for that right now. We do a little training with the staff, just you know, how to kind of model for parents and families, and then walk away, we also go over our regular policies and procedures outside. If there's an incident for any reason they do have walkie-talkies as well since there's no phone outside. There's a lot of things that you learn after doing it for five years! [ Laughs ] >> Right, right. Can I ask you a small technical question? Do you have a head set on? >> I actually have a phone. >> Sometimes, if you just facility it up a little bit so that it's not at the bottom of your mouth, sometimes, there's a little fuzz noise. >> Okay. >> Then there was a question about funding. Someone asked specifically about the budget for the project and then another person asked if there were grants used for the project. >> Okay. So it cost about $300,000 to build the entire space. And that was building it, you know, from everything all at once and like I said before you can definitely do it in stages and it doesn't have to be this amount of money, of course. It can be much less. A lot of that budget went to the splash it area which we're showing right now and you can see that it's a tiered water feature. And so it did cost quite a bit of money. And what was other question? Oh, so the grants that we went to. So we did try just some regular environmental grants, educational grants and, you know, specifically we went to Walmart, we went to a few others. But because we didn't have like a connection to those places, we didn't know someone there, of course, we didn't receive those grants. So when we were doing fundraising we really went back to the people that have been funding us and giving us grants for many years and it was like a special, you know, plea to them like, you know, we're trying this new thing, and it's going to be great and wonderful and we were able to, you know, encompass the Nature Explorium and some of its programming into grants. So each year, some of those grants are still happening and we're still having those funders attached to certain events and programs that happened in the Nature Explorium. >> And then there was one more question about whether -- is the space closed when it's raining? >> No. So if it's thunder and lightning yes but if it's raining, we do have ponchos. We have ponchos that we let patrons borrow and we have ponchos for the staff and some staff are really into being outside in the rain and some aren't, which is completely fine. If it's really pouring, generally people don't hang out there too long but if it's drizzling or something, you know, the kids really love being outside no matter what the weather is, though. We do try to encourage our staff to keep, you know, supervising the space and doing programming. We also have a space within the doors that we kind of move some shelving around, they're all on wheels right in that area so that we can create like an indoor program space if we can't be outside for a program. >> Excellent and there's lots of good rainy day picture books to read once you come in from outside. >> Yes, there is! >> Excellent. Thank you. >> Okay. So like I said before, this is the splash it area. It's a tiered water feature. Within the space we also have a water pump and buckets. I have to say that we almost never have to water any of the potted plants in this space because the kids all water them for us. They love learning about sinking and floating and like I said before we also do a lot of programs about the water cycle. The play it area is a stage that we leave out a lot of percussion instruments, we have outdoor marimba in the space that is outside all the time. They have rain sticks and we use the stage for special events, we do our summer reading club party out here and also our civic association does a luncheon where they have a band. The build it area is a really special building area. It's not just your regular blocks. They're mead from tree trunks and branches. These two young men come to the library all the time and you can tell that they really love building and getting things as tall as they can but we also have little small bricks that kids can build with and then bamboo pieces, too. And just last summer we had teens work with little kids on building birdhouses and so we had small hammers and nails and they got to paint them, also. The grow it area is a really special area and I'll also go over the slide that has a lot of the featured programming that happens in the grow it area. We have two raised planters and we always make sure that they're themed each year. We just recently added a composting drum and a potato tower in there. So you can grow potatoes vertically. So that was very fun. The climb it area allows children to use their large body movements, there's these you through logs that you can see and there's also a multilevel decking piece. It's not too far off the ground. It's only about eight inches off the ground but the kids still love it no matter what. This is our dig it area. Like I said before it's really popular. You can see that it has a wood feature in the middle there. And we provide the kids with shovels and rakes, trucks, and actually even a child-sized wheel barrow and we conduct a lot of programming about life underground, we've done a program creating wormeries and we used one using a box, newspaper, tea leaves and water and we talk about the benefits of worms and a lot of great stories to share about worms. And then there's the read it area. The read it area we leave out laminated comb-bound paper back books so they can stay outside. We can put them away when it's raining. And then we also gather in the space for outdoor storytime, as well. Okay. Any questions before I move on to programming? >> There was just a quick question about your composting, just the general yard compost. Does that occur on site? >> Yeah, so our staff, last year was the first year that we've done it so I think it will develop a little bit more but we really went out -- we have a teen environmental club that does a lot of programming with the younger ones and so they worked with the composting, a barrel of sorts, and then they -- we also -- they put together a list for the staff of what could go in there and, you know, all the different things that would go into there so it was successful but I think it could be even more successful, especially with our staff lounge area. So we do have that. >> Excellent. And here's another question. Can you tell us the dimensions of the space for the project? >> So it's 5,000 square feet. I don't know -- I don't know the feet of it offhand but I can definitely get that information. But it's a very long, narrow space. >> That's great. 5,000 square feet helps for sure. >> Okay. Excellent. All right. So at this point we're just going to delve into the programs and activities that we've found successful conducting outdoors and then indoors bringing the outdoors in and like I said before, before we opened the Nature Explorium, we made sure that we had staff that wanted to work outside and, you know, it wasn't just me out there. And so we did some of our regular programming outside for the previous summer, just to see how it went and think of, you know, anything that could happen. And so some of the things we did outside, we would have a program that is themed after American girl and it's the mother-daughter projects that they do and they created stepping stones. And so that's one of the pictures there. We also collaborated with our local Cornell cooperative, we had their llamas at the library. And so that, of course, was very successful. And then we do a pet parade each year and families bring in their pets, they could be dogs, sometimes, we've had chameleons. We even had a goldfish in a bowl in a little wagon getting pulled. So various animals but they all parade around and then go into the center to show off their special trick if they have one. And everybody gets ribbons. So we also did something really simple. We had this slate that was on the ground out there which was used for the read it area and the Buddha boards, we used a lot of the things that were already out there but we have these slates outside and we put out chalk and we have the sidewalk art program and I can't tell you how many parents were like why don't I give my children chalk and just set them free on the driveway? And so you know, it was interesting to see, you know, families saying why don't I send my kids outside? So that was eye opening to us also and like okay we're doing the right thing by building this space and we had a lot of staff that were interested in working outside. And so thinking about that, I want everybody to like maybe put into the chat board, if you already offer some indoor programs that you think could go outside, what would they be? And if you don't want to think of that you could also think about what part of the outdoors could you bring inside your library? It could be what you're offering indoors, move it outdoors or what you're offering indoors that you could bring a piece of the outdoors into. And if you could just share that on the chat board, and then we can revisit those in a moment. So our programs have evolved over the years. We've also hired some outside programmers, too. One of them that continuously provides programming to us is a former science teacher and she does many different things, some of her most successful ones are on seeds and birds but she does a lot of different things. But we also had staff that were able to share their interests in doing outdoor programming so we had someone that was interested in astronomy and knows a lot about it, they were able to provide a program. We've provided programs on butterflies and moths that first year, and then we even just had an evening of campfire stories and songs and we had a staff member actually create a little fake campfire with a fan and some cellophane and wood around it. So we had a good time that first summer trying to think of things we could do outside. And then we also provided gardening programs with our local community educational forum and our teen environmental club assists with those programs and runs programs for young children and we also have developed some school visit programs for our local school district and making sure that they fulfill their curriculum requirements for about preschool up to 5th grade and actually, our universal pre-k classes, all of them come for about a month ½, it takes us to go through them but they all come in the fall for a visit to the Nature Explorium and a visit to the library. So we combine those two together. Another one of our very popular programs that we run every year, it's called go inside, for children grade k through 3rd grade and they're allowed to bring their older or younger siblings, and it's actually a family program, that the parents would stay at, as well. And so we really work on engaging the families with outdoor activities. We encourage them to explore nature, and it's offered all through the summer, at least two to three times a week. And each session focuses on a different theme, life cycles, water exploration, seashore, rocks and dirt, art and color and life underground. And many of these stations are available within the resource book that's available in the Nature Explorium website. And so it's www.NatureExplorium.org. And it's available right into the resources which I think WebJunction also has it listed under this slide presentation. And so even when the weather's bad, we do have to bring this program inside because it's a registered for program, people show up no matter what the weather is. So if it is, you know, thundering and lightning and we can't do it outside, it also gives us an opportunity to try things inside so that we can tell other people to try that, as well. So some of the stations we just bring inside by using shallow plastic storage bins like under the bed bins and we set those up around a room or a space within the library. We also just put tables right on the floor for families to work ought and we also use tarps. We use tarps all the time making sure that everything is, you know, kept neat within the library. So a wonderful resource for creating programs and receiving training is from project learning tree, and that website is tlt.org. They offer many different free trainings. Sometimes, our local DEC, the department of environmental conservation, they provide those trainings to us and they also offer online training. So some of the programs and ideas that we've come up with are through those trainings. So the next slide shows you some of the different programs. We do this for each of the areas of the Nature Explorium. We come up with a whole continuum of programming and curriculum to go along with these specific areas so this is just an example of one of the areas, the grow it area, you know, we work on science skills, language and literacy skills, music and movement, art, math. There's just so many different skill developments to happen within growing plants and fruit and vegetables. So we also created a program called sense it. And so the children learn about their five senses within a sensory garden. They help them to understand the world around us and so within the sensory garden when we planted it we had lamb's ear because it's very soft to the touch, we had lavender for smell and touch. We had marigolds because they're really bright, so that is the sense of sight. And we also put in tall grasses so they could hear it swishing around, that was the sound. And then there was a lot of different things for taste but we mostly did herbs, different types of mint, basil, cilantro, oregano and sage. And then we've also done pizza harvest gardens or a salsa garden. And so the next two programs are pulled from that. So the let's salsa program garden is a project learning tree garden and we have our team partner up with younger school-aged children. They make salsa together and they teach them to salsa dance. And another popular program is the pizza harvest. We plant a lot of the things that you need to make a pizza within the garden and show the children the different ingredients they would need and we purchase extra supplies so that they all have a chance to make a pizza on a piece of pita bread, and then they take it home to bake it and eat it. We also make nature prints from the different things we're growing around the Nature Explorium. They use leaves and pine cones, they use pine tree branches to paint with and rollers and papers, too. They learn about the plant life cycles, they learn new vocabulary in reading. With math they measure the size of the tomatoes or peppers and then music and movement, we have the let's salsa program. With art, we have the colors and shapes and also, the nature prints that we're creating. So we try to make sure that we're hitting each of those areas of learning and skill development as we're doing our programming. Jennifer, was there any questions before I went on? >> Yeah, there were a couple of questions. There were some great ideas shared as well when you asked your question. There was an interesting comment that a library has a sensory garden and that it's been open for a while, since 2007, but the audio tour for the blind was never created so they're working with some OTP and T students to create that tour but also thinking of other ways to promote programming in interactive parts of the garden for children. Then you also started talking about the sensory piece. Do you have any tools for folks that have disabilities? >> So we don't have an audio tour. That sounds amazing. It's really wonderful. We did make sure that all of our planters are wheelchair accessible so they're very low to the ground and they also have a ledge so they can kind of get closer to the plants and be a part of them. The entire Nature Explorium is accessible. It's a very flat surface, a very open walking space and very level. That was one of the things that we considered as we were building it, though, is that we wanted it to be very natural but maybe not have a brick path around it but in the end that was like the safest and most accessible thing to have. So I can't think of anything else, any programming-wise. >> That's great, that's really interesting. Let's see. There was a great question about the size limit of programming or when you have a program, do you need to limit the size, number of people in the group? Or are they mostly drop-in type programs? >> So we do a mix of going to. The go outside program is a family program and we don't really limit that too much. So there's times -- I mean, it's a big space, 5,000 square feet and we have activities all around the Nature Explorium for them to drop into within the program. And so there's been times where we have about 100 people in that, where, you know, that's the beginning of the summer, they're all excited about being outside honestly, and then in August there's probably like 40 to 30 people in it. So it does dwindle down because we offer it all summer long. But there's some specific programs like our wormery program, we definitely limit it to 30 kids because, you know, it's a very sensitive program, you're making sure that they're treating the worms correctly and nobody's squishing anybody and, you know, just it's a very educational one-on-one type of thing. And then we do have special events which I'll talk about next and that's just open to anyone. And when we're not using the Nature Explorium for a specific program, it's open for drop-in. People can just come in and like I said before there's people supervising the space and even sometimes, you know, modeling some different activities that can happen outside. >> Excellent. So related to people, there was a question about who maintains the weeding, planting, grass cutting, sweeping, winterizing and water feature maintenance? >> So we have an amazing maintenance staff. Actually, our head of maintenance takes care of the water feature every year, winterizing and everything. We do have three maintenance people on staff and so they take care of when the water feature is not working for some reason or the quick cleanups but we do contract with a landscaper to come in weekly to clean up the space and do any weeding. And the planting, you know, the shrubs and trees that are in there were planted when we built the space but any annuals and vegetables and things that are planted are planted by our patrons, by the children and teens that are in that space. So they, you know, and like I said before, they almost do all the watering for us, too. So even all the potted plants, we put our peppers in pots around, they water everything. So... >> Excellent. There was a question about the material that's in the dig it pit. What's the dig it pit filled with? >> So we went through a lot of different ideas. I think nature explore said sometimes people put sand in there but we do have a large cat population in the area so we didn't want sand. And we didn't want dirt either because it gets very muddy and we were trying to be conscientious about mud getting tracked into the library then. So it's a mulch -- I can't really explain. So it's like a mulch but it's not dyed in any way, it's actually provided to us from our town. And it also absorbs water so that it doesn't get muddy and, you know, very, very messy. It's still messy but not very, very messy. >> Excellent. I know that you've got a little more to cover but there's some great questions. One, you mentioned the cost of the space but can you talk a little bit about your ongoing costs towards programming. Someone asked about are seed purchases part of the budget or donated? So is most of it donated or is a lot of it out of pocket from the library's budget? >> So we have ongoing grants that we use for the go outside programs and special events and the teen environmental club is also covered by a grant. But yearly we probably spend about close to $100,000 a year with those grants built into it. And that's for yearly maintenance, the salaries that go into it, the programmers, the supplies for all the, you know -- for the upkeep of it and then also the supplies for the program. So it probably is close to $100,000 a year. >> Okay. All right. And then there was a great question about how -- since you've opened the Explorium, what sort of connections are there to the collection? Did you observe changes in borrowing behavior? In terms of learning about nature for those collections? Did you see changes in the collection rotation? >> Yeah, so we always make sure that we're putting up a display of books to go along with the theme and so you know, that went up definitely. But one of the biggest changes we saw was that people, we have our picture book collection in themes so people were asking us for a nature theme to go along with the Nature Explorium so we have created a section of our picture books that's just nature related books. And that's the closest to the Nature Explorium and so people do, you know, browse through there and take things out. I don't have any hard numbers but that was one of the things that came out of the Nature Explorium and directly related to our collection. >> That's excellent. I just want to give a plug for your resource guide. There's a whole set of bibliographies by age group as well as resources for libraries researching this important work, so just know that the bibliographies are really great in the guide. >> Thank you. Okay. So we're going to take a look at the special events that happen within the Nature Explorium. Each year to open in quotes the Nature Explorium we have our spring jubilee. It does open before that. It's just a celebration of it and honestly, we used to do it the exact day that we would officially open for a full week but it was a little too cold and people were coming but it wasn't a great celebration so we've since moved it back to late May, early June, and in this picture you can see children catching paper butterflies with nets and we made those nets, they're bamboo sticks with embroidery hoops and the plastic netting that comes with fruit and veggie bags or potatoes. And so we got those on there and the kids are catching butterflies that are thrown into the area. So at the bring jubilee we have a performer, generally somebody that's really interactive with the kids, and then around the Nature Explorium we set up activities, float your boat in the splash it area and so they create boats with aluminum foil or clay and to see whose boat can float and we add weight to them. We also a ladybug release on that day usually because it's early spring and we talk about the benefits of ladybugs to our environment and the plants that we grow and all of that. So we do that on that day, and then we also have these things we call tree cookies and they're just little slices of trees that we've put strings on them and they decorate the trees and shrubs within the Nature Explorium. They paint them and put them up and they stay there all year. So lots of fun things happening at the spring jubilee. And then the apple festival is a festival that we do in the fall each year and we celebrate everything about apples. This young guy is showing off his apple print that he made and that's actually a print from one of the apples that we grew from our only apple tree in the Nature Explorium but this past year we happened to get a ton of apples, it was awesome. Patrons were leaving with like bushels of apples from this one tree, which is amazing. But we have an apple stacking contest there. The kids do apple tastings and we chart you know, which ones are their favorite and we also do math and measurement with the apples, so they weigh their apples, they measure their apples. Everything and anything that they can collect data from. And then with outdoor learning, these are some tips that we've learned over the years that I think would be valuable to everyone. First off, overcome your own fears. Make sure you're holding that bug or worm that you're teaching about. You don't want to make another child or even a parent like think that it's disgusting or something. You just want to make sure that you're in it completely, completely in it. Getting over those fears, too. And then just letting children explore, let them get dirty, you know, let them, you know just be children. And then engaging the parents and preparing them, too. When we do have family programs, we kind of go over with the families and direct it to the parents, you know, we're going to be making wormeries and everybody is going to hold one and, you know, everybody's going to learn about them and what benefits they have. And then also just getting involved and brief the weather, like we said before it could be really hot, it could be really very windy, and then it could also be raining. And we just always try to bring the outside in, too. Some of the sensory programs that we do within the library we now make sure that we are bringing in some things from outside. We have, you know, sensory program in the fall and we're making sure that we're bringing leaves inside so the kids are seeing the textures and the colors of them and having, you know, just this interaction with nature. And so you know, we're just making sure that we're creating these visual and hands-on and multisensory approaches to teaching nature literacy and making sure that through that we're reaching an audience of diverse learners. So everybody learns in a different way and teaching nature I think can really bring those people together learning the same thing. And then also just want to understand and appreciate the natural world. You know, we really try not to scare children with these really big concepts of global warming and things like that. The little bits of it, but I think it's overwhelming to a four or 5-year-old that the earth is getting warmer and things in that respect. Important for them to learn but maybe in snippets. It's one of the things that we've kind of learned over the years, of doing programs. Were there any questions or anything else that anybody wanted to share? >> Yes. There are a few more questions thank you so much. There was a great question about -- you mentioned that there is a little bit of an adult space that's outside of the Explorium. And somebody's interested in making an outdoor space for mixed ages. Do you have any advice on what that might look like based on your experience? >> Honestly, like I think that we could have a space that's meant for both with using, you know, a model, such as a Nature Explorium because we do make sure there's lots of seating for the adults that are with children outside, it's a very open space, even though there's a lot of different things within it. So I think a model, such as this could be used for both adults and children using it. It just happens to be within our community. It wasn't working but I could see it definitely working in another space. But I would definitely say seating for adults would be top on your list. And then just visual, you know, making sure it's visually, you know, beautiful and natural within your own environment, bringing whatever's happening around you into that space. And not just pulling things from all these different tropical areas but making sure it looks like your community. >> Absolutely. >> And then there was another question, can patrons from other libraries use this space or does one need a Middle Country library card? >> No. So to drop into the space, anybody can come in. A lot of our big events, anybody can come to as well but any of our smaller programs, they do need a Middle Country library card to attend. >> Okay. That's really helpful. If there are any other questions feel free to chime in here but know that the resources that are collected in the wonderful -- it's called the resource book, growing nature literacy in libraries resource back as well as the learner guide that Tracy helped us create and this has a set of questions, some of them she talked about in the session today but it's another tool for you both if you're individually learning to explore or looking at explore this idea or if it's something that you're trying to get your staff on board with or perhaps partners in your community, the learner guide is there for you to customize if you have specific questions you would like to bring to a discussion locally, know that you can customize that guide, as well. And today's session has been recorded. We'll let you know once the archive has been posted later today. And we'll also send you a certificate for attending today within the week. And as you leave today we'll be sending you to a short survey. We'll share that feedback with Tracy and it will also help us guide our ongoing programming. All right. I don't see any other questions come through. Lots of excellent feedback and thank you, thank you so much Tracy. It's been really exciting to see the behind the scenes of the Nature Explorium and we appreciate all that you bring to your community with this great work. >> Thank you so much. I really appreciate this opportunity. Thank you. >> Excellent. All right, and everyone have a fantastic day. Thank you so much.
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