A scientific illustration is a detailed, accurate illustration of an object that includes measurements, labels, and annotations. The process of creating a scientific illustration is a fantastic exercise in careful, detailed observation–of truly looking, and then looking again. Scientific illustrations are also sometimes called observational drawings or diagrammatic drawings.

First, select an object for your nature study. I’ve found the following items to work well for scientific illustrations: leaves, seed pods, pine cones, seashells, or feathers. Taxidermied animals, as found in a museum or nature center, also work as subjects, since they are certainly unlikely to move during your observation and drawing time.

Next, spend some time carefully observing the object. Turn it over in your hands or approach it from different angles. Ask yourself questions about its shape, color, size, and texture. Pull out a ruler or measuring tape to measure some of its features. Use a magnifying glass to zoom in. When you think you have seen all there is to see, look again.

Now, draw a detailed drawing of the object. I prefer to use mechanical pencils, technical pens, or inexpensive roller-ball pens with very fine tips. If you wish to add color, colored pencils are my preference, but water colors or pastels work as well. Younger children may prefer to use crayons or felt-tipped pens.

Scientific Illustration of a Mussel Shell

Annotate your drawing with notes based on your observations. You may choose to label the names of body parts or features. You may add notes about color or texture that you are unable to capture well in your drawing. You may note the measurements of your object. In addition, I often add questions that I have about the object. I may choose to pursue the answers to the questions later, or just enjoy leaving them as unanswered wonderings.

Some additional ideas are provided below.

Series of Perspectives: Try making different drawings of your object from different perspectives: top, bottom, front, back, left side, and/or right side. Label each drawing with the perspective from which you drew it. Even young children enjoy looking at and drawing objects from different perspectives.

Perspective Study of A Marine Shell Fragment

Scale Shifts: You may choose to make a zoomed-out drawing of a large object, or a zoomed-in drawing of a small object. You may also draw an object to scale. Practice drawing objects of different sizes at different scales.

Changes Study: You can make scientific illustrations of objects that change, such as charting the blossoming of a skunk cabbage plant in your neighborhood wetland or the unfurling of a fern frond in your garden. As suggested by Clare Walker Leslie in her book, “Keeping a Nature Journal,” spring is a great time to make a series of scientific illustrations of a spring flower as it shifts from bud to blossom and beyond (even capturing the process of wilting). Spring bulbs that can be grown indoors work well for this (tulip, daffodil, paper-whites), but any cut flower will do.

Texture Techniques: Older children in particular will enjoy exploring drawing techniques for adding texture to their scientific illustrations. Lines and cross-hatching can be used for shading. Varying the pressure on a pencil can create soft, crisp, light, or dark lines. Pointillism, the process of using fine dots in wide or close spacing, can also be used for adding texture and shading. Pencil lines can even be smudged with a fingertip to create softness.

Sand and Shells from Waterhouse Beach

One of the five paths to creative nature journaling that I previously described here is A Path to Observing. This pathway engages the scientific mind, encouraging data collection and scientific notation. One component of this pathway is collecting nature artifacts and tucking them among the pages of the nature journal. Note: When teaching journaling workshops, I advocate for careful collection of artifacts: taking only a small sample of plants, such as a leaf or a bit of moss; not taking anything that would cause harm, such as collecting live insects or removing tree bark; and whenever possible, collecting items that have fallen to the ground, such as castoff leaves or found feathers.

Stick Down Some Sand and Soil: Try describing the texture and colors collected in a handful of beach sand, and then dribble some glue to the journal page, sprinkle the sand on top, and wait for it to dry. The sand sparkles with quartzite in a way difficult to capture in words alone. The texture is preserved; a fingertip can lightly graze the grains. I use acid-free, archival quality glue to stick artifacts to my journal pages. The liquid glue is white but dries clear. It is strong enough to stick down sand, soil, bits of lichen or moss, pine needles, or other small objects.

Track Down a Texture: Besides tape, glue, and my mini-plant press, my nature journaling kit is also stocked with tracing paper and a couple crayons. Pads of this onion-skin thin paper can be purchased from art supply stores. Positioning a sheet of tracing paper over tree bark, a leaf, cobblestones, an etched gravestone and rub, rub, rubbing with a crayon allows you to capture the essence of an interesting texture. I then either tape the sheet directly onto the journal page, or fold it small and tuck it between two pages.

River Textures: Lichen, Needles, and Sand

Affix a Feather: A bird feather provides natural inspiration for journaling. Draw a feather, write about the feather, and actually affix the feather to the journal page. You may use the feather to identify the bird from which it came using a field guide, or to take home for further practice with drawing or painting. I capture a feather by using a strip of acid-free, archival cellophane tape along the feather’s shaft.

Press a Flower or Leaf: A flower or leaf can be preserved by pressing it flat between sheets of paper. Commercial plant presses (big and small) can be purchased from botany and gardening stores. You can make your own plant press using two light boards sandwiching layers of cardboard, newspaper, and acid-free paper. Place the plant sample between two sheets of acid-free paper; the newspaper absorbs moisture and the cardboard provides stiffness. Hold the press together with extra thick rubber bands, or drill holes to allow for wing nuts and bolts. Often, if a leaf isn’t too thick or juicy to make a mess, I’ll just slip it between two pages of my hardback nature journal, allowing it to dry and flatten in place. I may later glue it to the journal page, or allow it to remain dry, crisp, and free floating. However, it is always safer to use a plant press and then transfer the dried plant to the journal, as you risk ending up with pigment stains or smeared ink across the journal page.

What artifacts will you collect and slip between the pages of your nature journal? What stories will these objects help you tell?

A Path to Drawing is one of the five paths to creative nature journaling that I previously described here. When I teach a nature journaling workshop with kids or adults, we always begin with practicing field sketching techniques before we venture out to woods or stream. Kindergarteners can quickly master these sketching techniques, as can reluctant adults who insist they can’t draw a stick figure. Even more, these techniques are fun! They always elicit smiles and laughs as workshop participants are challenged to a 5 second gesture sketch or when they reveal the outcome of their blind contour sketches.

Contour Sketches

To draw, you first have to truly see an object. A great way to practice tuning your eye is contour sketching. Take an object (a leaf, twig, shell, seed, etc.) and hold it at arm’s length. Focus on the outside shape of the object, the lines where it intersects with the space around it. Now, moving your pen at the same speed as your eye, slowly draw the outside shape of the object–without lifting your pen from the page. You will end up with one continuous line that forms the shape of your object. To further challenge yourself, try a blind contour sketch where you intensely examine the object while drawing its outside shape–without peeking at the page or lifting your pen. Does a contour or blind contour sketch accurately capture the object? Rarely. But it is an excellent warm-up exercise that forces your eye and hand toward slow, deliberate, watchfulness.

Gesture Sketches

You spot a bird on a branch. How long before that bird moves? How can you possible capture it on paper before it changes position or flies away? Gesture sketches are quick, loose sketches that capture the essence of an object. They aren’t detailed nor exact. A gesture sketch captures the most important information in a very short time period: the overall shape, an unusual feature, or a strange pattern. Once you’ve made your gesture sketch and the bird has flown away, you can develop your sketch from memory, adding color, notes, or approximate measurements that will help you to later identify it in your field guide or describe it to someone else. Begin by placing a natural object on the table in front of you. Set a timer for 15 seconds. Now, draw! Start with the shape of the object, adding more detail as time allows. That may have felt fast, but 15 seconds is a long time for any creature (except sleeping ones) to stay still. Try a 10 second gesture sketch. Now, the ultimate challenge: 5 seconds.

Field sketching at the bird feeder.

Zoom Sketches

There is beauty in the details of a feather’s barbs, a leaf’s veins, a pine cone’s seeds. Imagine you are looking at the object through a magnifying glass and then a microscope. What do you see that wasn’t at first revealed? A zoom sketch encourages you to zoom in to capture the details of an object, like shifting the lenses on a microscope: 5x, 10x, 20x. Start by drawing a circle on your page, about the size of a drink coaster. Now, look, truly look at the fine details of your object. Zoom in to one particular portion of the object. Now, fill the circle with a zoomed-in sketch of just that portion of your object. Try drawing several circles and zooming in a little more each time.

Landscape Drawings

A landscape drawing is an attempt to sketch the view from a particular vantage point. What do the woods behind my house look like through my bedroom window? What does the river valley look like from this section of hiking trail? People who are comfortable with their drawing skills are able to pick out a particular section of a view and translate it on the page. A variety of line forms can be used to capture the shapes of trees and greenery, jagged cliffs, and winding river bends. Other people may be intimidated by such a vast view, wondering where to start. If you are the latter, then read on for a simple technique to make a landscape a bit more bite-sized.

Landscape drawing through a window.

Landscape Mini-Masterpieces

Draw a rectangle on the page, about the size of a cell phone. This will be the canvas for your landscape mini-masterpiece. Next, join the pointer finger of one hand with the thumb of the other hand, and vice versa, creating a rectangle-shape. Use this finger-rectangle as your viewfinder to help you scan the vast landscape in search of something that strikes you. By peering at the landscape through your viewfinder, it helps you to zero in on what you want to draw, and to let everything else in the landscape disappear. Next, sketch the landscape that falls just within your viewfinder, filling the small rectangle on your page. For fun, decorate the border of the rectangle to look like a fancy picture frame.

What other field sketching techniques do you use?

Our client, Seattle BioMed, participated in local events to raise awareness about tuberculosis and their ongoing research to find better treatments and prevention strategies for this disease.

Used with permission of Seattle BioMed.

Here, Seattle BioMed’s TB scientists pose with a 5′ foot tall illustration of TB bacillus. Our talented graphic designer, Clayton DeFrate, designed this illustration as part of a series of disease icons featured in the BioQuest Academy curriculum. We’ve been working with Seattle BioMed on the production of this curriculum over the past few years. More information about this curriculum is available at the BioQuest Academy website.

A Path to Awareness is one of the five paths to creative nature journaling that I previously described here. This pathway includes journaling activities and prompts that encourages the body and mind to slow down, open up, and take notice. When I lead a group of adults or children in a nature journaling workshop, we often begin with a guided 12 Step Program.

Filling the blank page with nature observations.

Capturing the surroundings through sketches.

This step-by-step approach helps ease even the most reluctant or self-conscious journalers into a journaling session while also modeling some basic techniques that can be used each and every time to write in your journal. This 12 Step Program works with Kindergarteners as well as adults, helping each person to slow down and to truly look and listen to what is going on around them. Credit must be given to Clare Walker Leslie and her lovely book, “Keeping a Nature Journal: A Whole New Way of Seeing the World Around You,” for the inspiration for this activity.

To begin the 12 Step Program, open your journal to a fresh page. You’ll need a pen; colored pencils are a nice addition.

Step #1: Date. Write down the date and the season.

Step #2: Place. Describe where you are. What is the name of the park? The city? The state? What does this place remind you of?

Step #3: Time. Use words to describe the time of day. Is it early morning or late evening?

Step #4: Weather. Describe the weather conditions. Is it rainy or sunny? Is the sky clear or cloudy? How warm or cool is it?

Step #5: Wind Direction. If there is a breeze, try to determine what direction it is moving. You can look at the leaves on a tree or the hair on a friend. Draw a compass showing North, East, South and West, and show the direction of the wind. Also, describe the strength of the wind.

Step #6: First Impressions. Spend a couple minutes recording your first impressions of this place, in writing. Describe what is happening around you. What does it smell and feel like?

Step #7: Sky Picture. Draw a small rectangle somewhere on the journal page. Now, look up at a section of sky. Draw what you see in that section of sky inside of the rectangle. If there are clouds, how are they shaped and how much space do they take up? If there aren’t any clouds, then draw something else that you see in the sky, like the crescent moon, or a bird flying by, or the silhouette of a tall tree.

Step #7: Sky Picture

Step #8: Sounds. Remain quiet for a few moments. Write down what you hear. You can both name the source of sounds (such as bird call) and describe the quality of the sounds (such as high pitched warble).

Step #9: Ground Observations. Crouch down near a patch of ground. Get close and then draw a quick sketch of two or three objects, such as a leaf or a flower. Add words to your drawings to describe the object’s size, color, or texture. Write down one question you have about each object.

Step #10: Eye-Level Observations. Stand up and find something at your eye-level. Draw a quick sketch of two or three objects, such as a shrub, a nest, or a bug. Add words to your drawings to describe the object’s size, color, or texture. Write down one question you have about each object.

Step #10: Eye Level Observations

Step #11: Overhead Observations. Look up. Choose something up high to draw, such as a tree, a roof, or a cloud. Draw one object.
Add words to your drawings to describe the object’s size, color, or texture. Write down one question you have about each object.

Step #12: Landscape Sketch. Draw a rectangle somewhere on the journal page. Use the pointer finger and thumb on each hand to form a rectangle shape. Use this as your “viewfinder” to locate a view of the landscape that you would like to record in your journal. This “viewfinder” helps you to crop out everything else in the landscape and focus in on your subject. Make a quick sketch of the landscape inside of the rectangle on your paper. If you would like, include some labels and written descriptions of landscape elements.

Step #12: Landscape Sketch

With the use of creative prompts, activities, and tools, the nature journal can be become your tour guide, shepherding you through deeper interactions with wild places. Many people think of a nature journal as a place to record their observations and thoughts while in nature. However, a journal can be a platform for fully immersing yourself in a place and engaging all your senses. The nature journal can be an invitation to play, as you hunt for shapes, take photographs with your imagination, and map out the micro world under your footprint. This journey also extends beyond the here and now, reaching back to the past and forward toward the “what ifs” of the future. The journaling journey may inspire you to shed your human eyes and “try on” a pair of animal eyes. What is your experience in this place as a dragonfly or coyote? A snake or a hawk? Each venture into nature, each journaling session, each blank page is the beginning of a creative journey.

Years ago, I was invited to teach a two-day nature journaling workshop to a group of elementary school teachers and their students. The site of the workshop couldn’t have been more lovely. Wild Thyme Farm (near Olympia, WA) provided woods, meadows, gardens, pastures, and fields for our wanderings and wonderings. As I planned the workshop, I developed the idea of there being different paths toward nature journaling. These five paths provide a variety of entry points to the blank page. A journaling session could sample an activity from all five pathways, or just focus on one. For our workshop, I guided participants through all five paths, creating a journey as we moved from awareness and observational activities to shift from our “city eyes” to our “nature eyes” and open ourselves to the experience of journaling in the wild, through reflection and expression activities that helped us make meaning from our experience together.

Kids drawing in their nature journals at Wild Thyme Farm

These five paths are described below and will be expanded in future blog posts.

A Path to Awareness

This pathway includes activities and prompts that encourages the body and mind to slow down, open up, and take notice. It includes games like “camera,” color and shape hunts, and touch exercises.

A Path to Drawing

Once the mind is stilled and eyes are opened, drawing activities can be introduced. This includes practicing field sketching techniques for subjects that rarely hold still (like birds or bugs), such as gesture sketches, as well as creative drawing activities like contour drawing, zoom sketches, and thumbnail mini-masterpieces.

A Path to Observing

This pathway engages the scientific mind, encouraging data collection and scientific notation. Activities include making leaf and bark rubbings, pressing plants, and taking soil/sand samples.

A Path to Remembering

Maps are powerful memory tools. They allow us to record information in a highly accessible–and pleasing–graphic format. In this pathway, maps are used as tools for remembering a place or an experience, including: event maps, sound maps, landscape maps, and micro-treasure maps. Along this pathway, I often encourage people to create fantastic nature art sculptures (a la Andy Goldsworthy) as a way to remember and pay homage to a special natural place.

A Path to Expressing

Writing in the nature journal can be used to record data and observations; it can also go deeper as a tool for reflection and expression. This pathway includes writing prompts, such as free write, animal eyes haiku, and postcard to myself.

A sixth pathway is also worthy of mention: A Path to the Classroom. For classroom teachers and nature educators, the nature journal can be a powerful tool for engaging students in exploration and reflection, as well as a place to play and practice with their writing and drawing skills. When I conduct teacher trainings, we discuss how nature journaling can help meet their state and district standards, connect to their existing classroom curriculum, and serve as assessment opportunities.

Nature journaling offers a journey among moss and ferns, soil and roots. It is not just a place to write down what you see; instead, it is a curator of your memories and a docent to your ramblings, both on and off the page.

Earth Day Network is a global leader in promoting environmental education and green schools. Our award-winning Educators’ Network provides resources to more than 30,000 teachers educating for a sustainable future.

This year, in honor of the 42nd anniversary of Earth Day, we are continuing our “Know Green, Go Green” campaign.  The initiative works with kids across the country, grades K through 12, to promote environmental awareness and to develop a greater appreciation for nature throughout the month of April and we would like to include you.

In honor of Earth Day, “Know Green, Go Green” ask teachers to incorporate environmental lesson plans into their curriculum. The purpose of the campaign is twofold: to educate youth about the environment, and to mobilize them to create a more sustainable Earth. We have organized a variety of lessons plans for a variety of subjects that relate to the environment for grades K-12 from our Educators’ Network. In addition to lesson plans we have organized a number of resources that will help educators across the nation encourage their students to take action and protect the environment.  All of the necessary program materials to run the campaign have been developed and are completely FREE to use.

The “Know Green, Go Green” toolkit that provides lesson plans, a how-to on setting up an event, and other helpful ways to get involved. If you would like to use this resource, please contact Deon Jackson at jackson@earthday.org. To learn more information about how you can get your organization involved, please visit www.earthday.org/knowgreen.

History of the journal

Just about as long as paper and ink have been available, humans have been using these tools to record both external observations and internal reflections. Dyment and O’Connell explain in their article Journal Writing in Experiential Education: Possibilities, Problems, and Recommendations, that early journal writers “included the Greeks and Romans, women of 10^th-century Japan, and ‘enlightened’ individuals during the Renaissance” (2003, p.3). Notable journals include those of explorers and scientists, such as Lewis and Clark, John Wesley
Powell, and Charles Darwin. Nature writers have long used the journal as a way to record observations, drawings, and emotions while in the field, such as the works of Henry David Thoreau, John Muir, Margaret Mead, Aldo Leopold, and Terry Tempest Williams. Personal journals have often become important documents that offer a look into the more human side of a historical event, such as the diary of Anne Frank. However, as Dyment and O’Connell note, “it was not until the early 1960s that researchers recognized the value of journal writing in educational settings” (p.3). Now, you can find student journals in a variety of K-12 classroom settings, especially in science, math, and language arts. Ernst writes that “journals provide students—as well as artists, writers, and scientists—with a tool for observation and a place to practice writing, respond to literature, take notes, solve problems, express themselves, and think in words and pictures” (1997, p.26).

Journals in Environmental and Experiential Education

Journals have become a standard educational tool in the fields of environmental and experiential education. Journals are used within these fields for three main purposes: to provide opportunities for reflection; to enhance skills; and to enhance students’ connection to the natural world (Dyment, p.3). Journals are often used as a safe place for students to reflect on an experience, be it an intense outdoor education adventure, an interpersonal interaction, or a service-learning or internship experience. Journal writing is recognized by many educators as a way to enhance observation skills, encourage critical-thinking and problem solving-skills, as well as providing writing and drawing practice. Field journals are often employed as a way to provide students with quiet time within a natural setting, where they can collect data, sketch, create a poem, make leaf rubbings, or make a sound map, while deepening their connections to place. Journals are also used to integrate across disciplines, to encourage various styles of learning, “to increase self-esteem, to strengthen the attention span, to enrich academic skills, and to find strength and wisdom within” (Capacchione, 1989).

Field journals can take on many forms. A natural history journal focuses on data collection, such as charting weather, animal and plant species, and geography. A reflection journal is used in conjunction with service-learning projects, internship experiences, or intensive outdoor education adventures. A response journal provides a space to respond to prompts or to literature. While individual journals are more prevalent, some educators use group journals in order to collect responses to a group experience, or as a way for individuals to address the group following an intense experience.

Dyment and O’Connell offers nine recommendations, based on a literature review, for environmental and experiential educators who want to implement the use of journals. However, I believe these nine points are applicable to any subject-area teacher who uses journals with students. A summary of these recommendations follows:

1.  Offer thorough and detailed feedback.

2.  Improve students’ journal writing skills by offering workshops.

3.  Recognize that students will have varying interests in journal writing.

4.  Recognize the different ways that males and females perceive journal writing.

5.  Set aside semi-structured time for journal writing.

6.  Model good journal writing behavior.

7.  Consider alternative models for evaluating journals.

8.  Establish a trusting community between journal writers and journal readers.

9.  Avoid journal writing students “to death”.

(Dyment, p.4).

A strength of field journals is that they often integrate across disciplines, creating opportunities for students to use many skills including data collection, observation, drawing, writing, creativity, and reflection. Journals can be used to meet some of the North American Association for Environmental Education’s (NAAEE) Excellence in Environmental Education—Guidelines for Learning (Pre K–12). Journal writing is aligned with many of these guidelines, including: Questioning, Collecting Information, Individuals and Groups, Change and Conflict, Human/Environment Interactions, Places, and Evaluating the Results of Citizen Action (NAAEE 2004).

Journal writing is also aligned with the principles of experiential education, as outlined by the Association for Experiential Education (AEE). Journal writing can support the following AEE principles:

• Experiential learning occurs when carefully chosen experiences are supported by reflection, critical analysis, and synthesis.
• Throughout the experiential learning process, the learner is actively engaged in posing questions, investigating, experimenting, being curious, solving problems, assuming responsibility, being creative, and constructing meaning.
• Learners are engaged intellectually, emotionally, socially, soulfully, and/or physically. This involvement produces a perception that the learning task is authentic.
• Relationships are developed and nurtured: learner to self, learner to others, and learner to the world at large.
• Opportunities are nurtured for learners and educators to explore and examine their own values.

(Association for Experiential Education).

 

Theory and Practice

Dyment and O’Connell found that while journals are popular, there is little research published about the “theory and practice” of journal use in the fields of environmental and experiential education (p.3). Most of the published literature on field journals tends to be more anecdotal. The majority of research related to student journals focuses on the improvement of students’ writing skills. In their literature review, Dyment and O’Connell identified several potential problems with student journals. These concerns include:

• The overuse of journals, which leads students to identify journaling as “a pointless ritual.”
• Students may fall into writing what they think will please the instructor, especially if journals are graded.
• Journals may be misused, such as students using them to “attack other students or make inappropriate comments.”
• Students may not receive adequate training in improving their journal writing skills.
• Putting too much emphasis on journals as a reflection tool, instead of balancing the use of journals with other opportunities for reflection.
• Evaluating journals can be  difficult, especially if it is being assessed for a grade.

(Dyment, p.3).

Recommendation

As environmental and experiential educators, it is important that we understand the context of what we teach with what is taught in the school curriculum. The student journal is one example of a tool that is popular among environmental and experiential educators, but also integrated into the school curriculum. One concern may be that students are getting journaled to death, between journal exercises in their science, math and language arts classes. Are field journals going to put students over the edge, or will they become a meaningless ritual? I believe that journals are an important tool both inside and outside the classroom. We can use some of the same techniques as classroom teachers in using field journals to record observations, collect data, track learning processes, and provide opportunities for reflection,  scaffolding on techniques that students may already know. Field journals provide a unique opportunity to engage students in new ways to use their journal. Through sensory games, observation and awareness activities, and opportunities for authentic, deep reflection, field journals can inspire students with these fresh ways to see and record the natural and inner worlds.

References

Association for Experiential Education. What is experiential education? Retrieved December 6, 2004, from http://www.aee.org

Capacchione, L. (1989). The creative journal for children: a guide for parents, teachers and counselors. Abstract retrieved November 30, 2004, from the ERIC database.

Dyment, J.E. & O’Connell, T.S. (2003). Journal writing in experiential education: possibilities, problems, and recommendations. Retrieved November 30, 2004, from the ERIC database.

Ernst, K. (1997). Student sketch journals: art in your curriculum. Teaching Pre K-8, 27, 26-27. Retrieved December 6, 2004, from the ERIC database.

North American Association for Environmental Education. (2004). Excellence in environmental education—guidelines for learning (Pre K–12). Retrieved December 6, 2004, from http://www.naaee.org

Whether it is tucked into my suitcase for a trip to Hawaii, packed in the car for a weekend road trip, or tossed into a backpack for a hike or camping trip, along it comes. I’m not religious about journaling; when I find the time or the inspiration, I open to a fresh page and record what I observe. Mostly, this happens during vacations or adventures when my eyes feel fresh and nature provides a bounty of wonders. Sometimes, though, I journal the common, everyday stuff, perhaps while watching birds at a feeder or wandering through a neighborhood park.

My hard-backed nature journal is a record of both the common and uncommon, the everyday and the extraordinary. It is a reminder of exotic trips as much as a depository of the small wonders found here and there when I slow down long enough to truly look.

I have been nature journaling since college. Before that, I kept childhood diaries which later evolved into naval-gazing teenage journals. As an adult, I stopped writing regularly about my daily ongoings and instead began crafting essays, articles, and stories. My creative nature journals are different than what came before. A nature journal isn’t a diary. It isn’t a polished piece of writing or a perfect work of art. And it isn’t about me. It is a collage of writing, observations, data, sketches, and collected artifacts about the natural world and my wanderings through it. My nature journal is rough and mismatched–a collage. It is a place to play with journaling techniques (like gesture sketches, event maps, scientific illustration, and color hunts). Most importantly, it is a tool for stillness that forces my eyes and ears open to what is going on around me: the twit of a songbird, the color of the lichen, the ongoings of a colony of black ants, or the treasures discovered from a morning beach walk.

Moclips is a tiny seaside town on Washington’s coast. Town? Maybe not. Just a collection of vacation rentals, a beaten down motel, a restaurant, and a mercantile. The first time my husband and I rented a cabin at the Moonstone Beach Motel, the buildings were painted bright orange. On a return trip in 2006, everything but the clam cleaning shack had been coated in sky blue paint. From Cabin #8, a few steps along a path spilled us onto the beach. The boom and growl of the Pacific Ocean. Sea mist, sea foam, seaweed, and seagulls. This page from an old nature journal records a few highlights from a long weekend spent wandering this strip of Pacific coast. It is an eclectic collection of sketches, notes, wonderings, and questions, and features a squiggle of glued-down beach sand.

Moclips, WA 2006. Copyright Kristen Clapper Bergsman.

I’ve taught workshops on creative nature journaling to teachers, students, and families and enjoy sharing a variety of techniques and games that spark inspiration. Creative nature journaling captivates Kindergarteners as much as it does adults. Opening to a blank page in a journal is an invitation to watch, listen, participate, and play, regardless of age. My hope is to craft future blog posts on nature journaling, providing information on the value of nature journaling both in and out of educational settings, sharing activities for kids and adults, and providing a peek into pages of my nature journals.

Today is the first day of the last month of 2011, the year which marks our 10th anniversary. With our anniversary this year came many new changes and a spreading of wings: Our lovely new website which better communicates what we do and how we support our clients. A beautiful new office space in Greenwood which allows for us to host client meetings. A part-time Administrative/Project Assistant, the multi-talented Joanna, who joined our staff last summer.

Please check back to this blog regularly for company updates, information about local science education happenings, and for a peek into the pages of our nature journal.