Instilling an Ecological Curiosity: Cary Institute of Ecology Studies

For a week in mid-July, I worked as a junior counselor at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies Ecology Camp in Millbrook, New York. CIES—a non-profit organization that supports environmental research in freshwaters, forests, and disease and urban ecology—offers a plethora of opportunities to people of all ages and backgrounds. XX. The particular ecology camp that I worked at is for elementary and middle school students, and it serves as a learning ground for children to connect with and develop an appreciation for nature. It is, in essence, a camp that fosters biophilia, and Cary’s nearly 2,000 acres of land in the Hudson Valley are perfect for the application of that appreciation. Over the course of the week, campers sweep meadows to catch butterflies, wade through the creek looking for frogs, and observe fungi under the microscope. Through these activities, these young campers come to understand the beauty of the natural world and the importance of its conservation. 

For six straight summers, starting when I was six-years-old, I attended the weeklong CIES Ecology Camp myself. For that long-awaited week each summer, I would become incredibly immersed in nature, stopping to identify every bug I saw, feeling individual leaves on the trees I passed. In the process, I became obsessed with ecological identification; my mind raged with curiosity, and the only way to sate it was with knowledge. Cary’s grounds transported me to a new world, even though it was only ten minutes from my house! I credit that constant time spent outside among the trees, amidst the meadows, and along the streams with seeding my love of nature. 

As a junior counselor this past summer, I had the privilege of working closely with Emily Masters, an educator at the CIES Ecology Camp. Emily loves exposing campers to the intricacies of the natural world, like how different bugs employ different methods of eating leaves, or the origin of lichens on the bark of trees. Whether it’s through bug hunting or stream wading, Emily has a keen understanding of how hands-on immersion and discovery can lead children to develop their own biophilia. I’ve witnessed the week transform people, like when one of my campers arrived timid and averse to touching bugs, but left with a laugh at the sight of a praying mantis on her hand. That was my own experience as a camper, falling in love with nature as a result of programming run by people like Emily.

Even though the CIES Ecology Camp is just one week, Emily spends the entire year educating children. When she’s not at CIES, she is at the Ashokan Center in Kingston, New York, which similarly offers three or four days of hands-on, immersive nature programming. Emily has devoted her entire career to helping kids fall in love with nature and show them how their environment can shape their view of the world. Even if her campers are not aware of the terminology, they are engaged in the experience of psychogeography—the principle that there is a profound relationship between a person’s emotional state and their physical surroundings.

Emily was born on Long Island, but moved to Dutchess County, New York when she was seven-years-old. While Emily’s family cherished their time spent in nature, she recalls that her parents, in particular, were “paranoid about ticks,” which prevented them from spending as much time outside as they otherwise could have. Originally, Emily wanted to become a pediatrician, so she pursued a pre-med track at university, studying anatomy and microbiology. Eventually, though, she decided that she wanted to “feel relaxed and happy with schoolwork and her job,” and did not see a way to do so as a pediatrician. With this in mind, she switched gears, joining her school’s environmental club. By senior year, she was the club’s captain and had moved from studying pre-med to studying ecology and zoology. After graduating, she found work at the Ashokan Center and the CIES Ecology Camp, where, of course, she is still employed today. “There’s something so magical about how innocently interested little kids are in things and how sweet they are,” she told me. “I want to instill a curiosity for nature in them, while also teaching them and having them hit milestones that they need to.”

Educators like Emily have the ability to foster biophilia and psychogeography in the minds of their students. In this regard, I very much believe that appreciation for one’s natural surroundings can be taught. Many young children who have grown up in urban areas may simply not know what the wider natural world has to offer. By exposing kids to what they’re essentially missing, even for a week like at Cary, teachers can inspire their appreciation to come to light and grow. I experienced something similar in my class with Cris; had I not attended her lesson about Taoism and Qigong, it would be very unlikely that I would be exposed to her way of coexisting with the natural environment. If we, as humans, can keep open minds, then I believe there is nothing stopping us from learning to appreciate the natural world and allowing it to have positive effects on us emotionally and mentally.