Mystic Lake Chatter in Minneapolis- What’s that All About?
Mason Middle School Science Teacher Tiffany Henfling presented at the National Science Teachers annual meeting in Minneapolis. The title of her session was “Take Them to Camp,” with a focus on the power of authentic learning in the outdoors. Her goal was to inspire attendees to engage students in an outdoor experience, like camp, and be equipped with the tools to actualize it.
She shared her story, which began with her own love of the outdoors fostered as a child, and then gave the audience the jarring, but not surprising, news that our adolescents spend far more time on their devices than outside. These two things helped build a case for why outside matters. She also provided some mighty compelling quotes such as, “The more nature, the better you feel.” (Florence Williams, The Nature Fix) and “In the world obsessed with safety, we sometimes forget that scraped knees, tree climbing, and even getting lost for a moment are how children develop resilience, confidence, and problem-solving skills.” (Ginny Yurich, 1000 Hours Outside.)
With the “what” and “why” established, she zeroed in on Mystic Lake as an exemplary space, creating the context with beautiful visuals laced with concrete examples of activities the students experience on-site. For those of you wondering how Mystic Lake relates to state and national standards, rest assured that specific standards were addressed and actually came to life for the kids!
Focused on determining the evidence of the impact of the Mystic Lake trip, she administered pre- and post- surveys which revealed 30% of the students said, as a part of the Mystic Lake experience, they were committed to spending more time outside. She also asked about the overall camp experience and received some responses included:
- “You were never bored when you were outside.”
- “Camp gets kids off devices and screens. When I was outside more, it changed my mood.”
- “I felt calmer than usual being outside.”
Would you believe nearly 100% of students who took the survey found value in the camp experience? One of the conference attendees said, “Now, that is no small feat!”
While I’m sure many of the attendees would love for their students to have the Mystic Lake experience, the teachers who attended the session, from what they said and how they interacted, left convinced an outdoor experience was now on their radar screen, and they’d received the tools from Tiffany to make it happen!
