2024 Environmental Education Interns

Our college interns had a great summer working with more than 100 children from local summer camps. Please scroll down to see a video and a summary of the intern’s accomplishments.

Our Interns

Erin Nadel – Sophomore at University of Florida, Majoring in Environmental Science and Minoring in Philosophy

Juana Baudrix – Graduate student at Florida Atlantic University studying Geosciences, B.S. in Environmental Science from North Carolina Wesleyan University

As part of their internship, Erin and Juana became certified in Project Learning Tree & Project WILD, led summer camp programs, and completed two final projects to be used in the Nature Center’s educational programming.

Pre-Visit Lesson

• Presented a PowerPoint highlighting an overview of the Everglades habitats and animals.
• Taught modified version of Project WILD’s “Oh Deer!’ to “Oh Snail Kite!” activity to support stewardship by learning the importance of food, water, and shelter needed for the Everglades Snail Kite.

In-Person Field Trip

• Lead students in a hike through the cypress swamp and taught them about the importance of the Everglades and resources needed for human survival within the Everglades.
• Lead water quality dipnetting activity in the marsh by teaching students how to catch and identifying wetland invertebrates.
• Emphasized the importance of non-polluted wetlands as the student’s drinking water supply.

Post-Visit Lesson

• Presented a PowerPoint highlighting Everglades animal adaptations and reiterate importance of Grassy Waters Preserve being their water supply.
• Taught modified version of Project Learning Tree’s “Backyard Safari” activity. They compared the species of animals that they found in their schoolyard to the ones they saw at Grassy Waters Preserve.
• Had students create a new Everglades animal and then presented to the class the adaptations needed to hide, eat, and protect itself.

Intern Legacy Projects

Erin’s Project: Become a Naturalist

• Designed a new Education-To-Go kit “Become a Naturalist” for 3rd grade classes. This kit, provides teachers with a complete outline, all supplies and background information. Teachers handed out and read the upcoming book “Sam the Snail Kite and the Secret of the Everglades.” Students completed several activities related to what real Naturalists do.
• Designed a new self-guided activity for young Nature Center to “Become a Naturalist”. Two “Naturalist” vests are now available for children to wear. The vests contain an interactive journal that guides them through a variety of naturalist activities. Each pocket contains helpful tools including binoculars, compasses, magnifying glasses, field guides to identifying leaves, and much more.

Juana’s Project: Secrets of the Everglades

• Created short videos for 3rd grade students about each animal found in the book “Sam the Snail Kite and the Secret of the Everglades.” Students in the classroom completed the “Become a Naturalist” Mystery Marsh activity. Juana created a complete outline for teachers to lead this activity. Students drew their animals and wrote facts from each video. Each group presented their animals to the rest of the class. Information cards were created for each animal.
• Created “Flip-Up” signs for each animal found in the book. Each sign has a photo of the animal on the outside. Once a visitor flips open the sign, information about each animal and where they are most often seen within the Preserve can be found. Each sign will be correlated to the upcoming jumbo book pages that will be installed along the boardwalk.