Kids Learn About Environment At NMU

NMU Student Leader Fellowship Program leads kids in hands-on environmental education activities.

NMU SLFP member Melissa Orzechowski helps a young student with a creative activity to get kids thinking about ways to recycle waste around the home. (photo courtesy of Kim Randolph)

Marquette, MI – Members of the Student Leader Fellowship Program at Northern Michigan University put together some fun hands-on activities for kids of all ages on Monday, February 17, 2014.

Melissa Orzechowski (center) plays an animal identification game with Kamea McMillan, Gabe Richadson, and Molly Lawton. (photo courtesy of Kim Radolph)

Throughout the school year the NMU Student Leader Fellowship Program (SLFP) hosts several events tailored to serve different segments of the community here in Marquette.  The community service events are designed to give students in the 2 year program the opportunity to implement the leadership skills they have developed by planning and organizing their own project.

On Monday, February 17, 2014 (SLFP) member Melissa Orzechowski collaborated with members of other on-campus organizations to host an environmental education event for kids held on campus in the Great Lakes Rooms.   Besides having great inter-active displays at the educational stations they also devised fun games and activities to engage the kids and get them thinking in creative ways.

Gary Lawton (left) and Sam Matteson (right) participate in an activity to about reducing, recycling, and reusing everyday items we use at home. (photo courtesy of Kim Randolph)

In all, the subjects introduced to the kids touched on how we interact with our environment on a local level here in the Upper Peninsula and also on a global level.  They participated in a sharing circle discussing memories of special places in nature each person had experienced and recognizing ways around our homes that we can reduce, re-use, and re-cylcle the waste we generate on a daily basis.

NMU environmental studies program student Lauren Schnoebelen (right) teaches elementary students (from left to right) Gary Lawton, Zohar McMillan, Kamea McMillan, and Gabe Richardson (behind) about the water cycle with an inter-active water cycle table at NMU on Monday, February 17, 2014.( photo courtesy of Kim Randolph NMU Wildlife Society)

The NMU Environmental Science Organization demonstrated how pollution enters our water systems with an inter-active water cycle table allowing the kids to participate in the process and discover for themselves how our water quality is adversaly affected.

Members of the NMU Chapter of the Wildlife Society (from left to right) Kaitlyn Minney, Andrea Wirtz, Douglas Hardy, and Ashley Adams put together a display to teach kids about animal identification. (photo courtesy of Kim Randolph)

The NMU Chapter of  the Wildlife Society put together a presentation on animal identification by demonstrating how to observe tracks, scat, bones, furs, and behaviors of different animals.  Then they played a fun guess who game.

Unfortunately this was the last children centered project being put on by the organization this school semester.  But don’t worry if you missed this one… look for more upcoming activities for kids by the Student Leader Fellowship Program in the fall semester when they put together more fun centered activities where kids learn about environment at NMU and more!

Check our calendar for other community based events happening in and around the city of Marquette, MI.

by marquette_magazine