On Saturday, September 26th, The Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Illinois hosted a workshop entitled “Survival Skills–Plants”.  It was attended by 16 enthusiastic participants, predominantly families.  Ron received valuable assistance from three very able Arboretum staff and volunteers–Caitlin, Linda, and Dave. With Dave’s patient efforts the class was able to learn the process of making a […]

On Sunday, August 23rd, a group of folks between the ages of 8 and “over-80” participated  in our “Animal Tracks–Clear Print Identification” workshop at Starved Rock Lodge in Utica, Illinois.  Though the crowd was relatively small, the interest and enthusiasm of the audience was high.  There were good answers to our questions, good questions for […]

During eight hours of instruction on the past two Thursdays Ron & Noah shared their knowledge of animal tracking and awareness skills with the already competent educational staffs of The Conservation Foundation and the Resiliency Institute, both of Naperville, Illinois . On day one the participants learned how to identify footprints made by deer, canines, […]

The Jurica-Suchy Museum at Benedictine University hosted our Animal Tracking Workshop on June 28, 2014. All of the younger tracking enthusiasts brought either their parents or grandparents to the event. And judging by their enthusiasm and their post-class comments both the young and the not-so-young thoroughly enjoyed themselves. The participants learned how the “Tough Guys […]

This first full weekend in June brought together an eclectic group of students who were both interesting and interested. “Interesting” because they represented a variety of ages, experiences, and abilities. We had 4 parent/child pairs, 3 educators, a medical professional, marketing director, retired nuclear chemist, and more. Ages ranged from 10 to ??? The combined […]

The scouts of Pack 108 & their families had their family BBQ on Sunday, June 01, 2014. After a late morning of typical “kid fun” at Herrick Lake Forest Preserve, the families shared a scrumptious buffet of grilled hamburgers, hot dogs, and a plentiful array of fruits, salads, chips, dips, and desserts. For their afternoon […]

Last fall Nature Education Programs donated a “What 2 Know B4 You Go!” workshop to a fundraising auction for SCARCE, a DuPage County, Illinois not-for-profit environmental organization. The high bidder was an enthusiastic middle school teacher named Mike. Mike had invited nine teaching colleagues, family members, and friends to join him for our presentation on […]

You’ve got to give credit to the folks at Groupon. They wanted to give their employees an an opportunity to learn “something different”. So they invited us to do a survival skills presentation during a one-hour, afternoon break at their corporate offices in Chicago. We thought a mini-version of “WHAT 2 KNOW B4 YOU GO!” […]

We seem to be building a reputation amongst Cub Scout packs in River Forest, Illinois. For the second year in a row a group from that area has invited us to present our “What 2 Know B4 You Go!” workshop to their scouts. As was the case last year the program had to be split […]

“Hi Ron, I just read this story about a dad and two sons who died while on a short hike. I thought of you and what you and your crew do to educate old and young alike to keep us all a bit safer while enjoying the outdoors. Thank you for your efforts – the […]