YOUNG READERS EXPLORE NATURE AND ART

How and when do people decide what they want to do when they grow up?  What unforeseen impacts or twists of fate lead one child to become a scientist? Another to become an artist?  Another a writer?

Or another, like Robert Stebbins, emeritus professor of zoology and emeritus curator of herpetology at UC Berkeley’s Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, whose career combined his artistic talent with his deep respect for nature. He wrote and illustrated more than a dozen books such as the well-known Peterson Field Guides’ “Western Reptiles and Amphibians.”

What path will the young people shown here follow?  Whatever they decide, society will need them to become informed citizens able to make valid choices across a range of personal and policy issues.

The “Drawing from Nature” series, written and photographed by Carol Felixson* which runs regularly as the lead story in the Sunday edition of the Los Angeles Times Kids Reading Room Page, makes significant contributions to the education and training of this next generation of leaders.

Each article in the series introduces children to a different subject from nature and a related art technique. The children then apply what they have learned in an illustration. Photos record both the children’s work in progress and their final art project. The nature subjects are chosen from animals or plants found at the UCLA Stunt Ranch Santa Monica Mountains Reserve or in the Mildred E. Mathias Botanical Garden at UCLA.

In addition to the many samples pictured, since the Times began running the series in 2001, young readers have learned about and illustrated mule deer, hummingbirds, yucca plants, desert cottontails, palm trees, rattlesnakes, and other living things, big and small.

The columns are a win-win for the kids, their parents and educators, and for the Reserve and Garden’s mission of education and outreach into the community. “Drawing from Nature” helps bridge the gap for kids who might be strong in art but not in science, and vice-versa.  It validates kids who have a concern and close attachment to nature. And it provides a means for encouraging an interest in kids who, for whatever reason, feel detached from nature.  

Feedback provides ample evidence of the series’ success. Denis Hagen-Smith, a teacher at Toluca Lake Elementary, commenting on the creative contribution to his curriculum, said, “The lesson on raccoons will also fit our bird watching outings with the Earth Odyssey program.”  Smadar Gilboa-Nonacs, a UCLA postgrad researcher and proud parent of one of the talented artists exclaimed, “We went to Franklin Canyon this weekend and Nomi found purple sage. She insisted that I report our VERY EXCITING findings to you!”  And from Gene Gach, grandfather, writer, artist, and nature lover, who said, “You have opened these kids who participate to nature and to art. And through them, to many other children.”

Good job, kids!

*  Carol Felixson, who directs Education and Community Outreach for the UCLA Stunt Ranch Reserve and Mathias Botanical Garden, is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. She is currently working on a middle grade novel about a pre-teen’s summer adventures as a research assistant at the fictional Mildred E. Mathias Biological Field Station in the Costa Rican rainforest.