daily except Sunday when it opens at 1 p.m. The trails are open from dawn to dusk and birds of prey can be viewed anytime the trails are open. ACNC is located just east of Route 62 between Warren and Jamestown. Maybe part of that experience will be the memory that helps a student learn something new, or maybe this experience in nature can just be one more memory that will give them another reason to care about the natural areas near them.Įither way, getting to explore the outdoors with children, just as I was allowed to during my childhood, is an important reminder that the freedom to make memories and have experiences both on our own and with people we trust is just as vital in our learning process as time spent studying and memorizing.Īudubon Community Nature Center builds and nurtures connections between people and nature. While making observations and asking questions are important, what is equally as important is facilitating a positive experience with nature. These memories are just rooted in nature.Īt ACNC, students from across Chautauqua and Warren County are visiting for spring field trips. It feels similar to the way a smell or a song brings you back to a specific memory.
The more you experience and connect with a place, the more you are willing to seek out information and retain it in the long run because it has more meaning. Something to give the neurons in my brain a reason to solidify that pathway. I am someone who needs an experience to coexist with the facts. I know where certain trees are and where to find animal tracks on my parent’s property because they are tied up in the memories of my childhood. I learned about Killdeer roaming around the gardens at my best friend’s house and I can identify a Bufflehead from afar because I recall witnessing a friend’s excitement at seeing them for the first time on a Wisconsin lake.
Making memories with how to#
I know how to identify trillium because it was the name of a dining hall on my college campus and I know how to identify Joe Pye Weed because I once walked to the edge of a field to cut some and instead ended up getting poked in the eye with a stick. It can be as simple as associating it with a specific place or person, or be tied up with the complexity that is some human emotion or another. Upon reflection, I have learned that I need an experience, a memory behind the knowledge, in order to remember things. On the other hand, there are some strange and specific things that I recall perfectly. He had spent just as long living on this land and walking through those woods as I had more time really, due to the fact that in my toddler years I was still trying to figure out this whole walking business. Even though it was momentarily unexpected, it made sense. When my father and I were sitting on the front porch and I heard him casually pull out the names of all the trees across the driveway, I paused for a moment. I learn a little more each year, but it is often a result of circumstance. Despite this, I am well aware that what I do not know far outweighs the things I do know.įor example, I have always had very limited tree identification skills.
Somewhere along the way I made the exploration and knowledge of the natural world into somewhat of a career. Quite likely, this is a significant reason why I spent my college years studying the systems, structures, and functions of nature and then spent years beyond that gathering knowledge of the names and interactions found in varying ecosystems from those who know more than me. I also remember being in those woods with my grandfather as he pointed out birch trees and explained how to identify a deer or rabbit track in the mud and snow. I remember getting to explore each new landmark as I was allowed further into the woods on my own. I could follow the blue maple syrup lines to the property edge marked by deteriorating stone walls. I remember growing up on those rural acres and walking down those trails as the landscape changed from conifers into the stand of hardwoods.
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