Wisconsin Schools Receive Grants For Nature Education

Seven Wisconsin schools are getting grants from a private conservation fund to improve outdoors education.

The grants aren’t large, but the impact could be, said Caitlin Williamson of the Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin.

“That hands-on, physical, even emotional, spiritual experience with the outdoors is something you can’t learn in the classroom. So that was a big desire creating this (fund),” she said.

Williamson, the foundation’s program and development coordinator, said seven schools will get $1,000 to give students an appreciation of the outdoors by planting trees, keeping a school garden or studying aquatic ecology.

“It’s understanding where the frog comes from, what happens through its life cycle, how it’s connected to other species, putting together the pieces of the puzzle,” said Williamson.

The Teacher’s Outdoor Environmental Education Fund began in 2010.