Sleeping Bear educational programs offer wintry experience
By Ross Boissoneau
Sun contributor
You can read about how animals and plants survive winter or how to identify trees, but it’s more fun and more engaging to see up close and personal. That’s the premise of the winter experience programs offered by Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore rangers.
“We show what plants and animals do, evolutionary strategies … like rabbits changing coat colors, cedar boughs have scaly leaves (for) less water loss,” says David Fenlon, the Education Lead at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.
“It’s a big hit with kids. Kids want to know about animals. The evidence is all around them,” Fenlon says, pointing to animal tracks, scat and burrows as examples.
The winter field trips are geared primarily toward students in third through fifth grade, though accommodations can be made for older students. “Fourth grade lines up well with (state) curriculum standards,” Fenlon says.
There are two programs. The Winter Experience field trips offer students the opportunity to come to the park and snowshoe (or hike, if there isn’t enough snow) near the Dune Climb. Plant and animal winter adaptations, watersheds, and climate change are among the topics for study.
A newer program is Sharing Star Stories dome visits. Rather than students coming to the park, rangers visit the schools. They use a 10- by 12-foot inflatable planetarium dome to provide an interactive program on night skies using a laser projector. “We teleport into the classroom,” Fenlon says, where they explain the various constellations as the Anishinaabe saw them, navigating by the stars, light pollution and other topics, providing hands-on activity stations.
For Fenlon, the program has been a chance to get back into a field he originally envisioned before his life took a turn. He studied biology with the intention of teaching before taking a detour into the Peace Corps. He found himself working in a mangrove forest and a coral reef in the Philippines in a position similar to that of the Department of Natural Resources.
When he found out that National Park positions could involve working in the outdoors and in education, he applied for a position and was hired in 2020. His original position at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore was capped at a maximum of four years. Three years into the program, Fenlon secured the permanent lead position when his predecessor moved into a different post.
The program is made for classes of up to 60 (though it occasionally hosts more), with half the class in the field and the other half experiencing a more classroom-type program at the Visitors Center, before the two swap places. While most of the classes are from schools within the local area, Fenlon says they have had some from downstate as well. “We had one from Kalamazoo, but most are within 50 miles,” he says.
The winter experience program hasn’t completely rebounded from the numbers it experienced pre-COVID. While there is no charge to the schools that participate, they must provide transportation, which Fenlon says has been a limiting factor. He says the mild winters have also played a role in keeping the numbers lower, so he’s hoping this year’s early winter will help build interest.
The downturn is also part of the reason for the night sky program, reasoning that if the students can’t come to them, they can go to the students. Not only does it expand the curriculum, he’s hopeful it will spur interest among the students and teachers, and promote more trips to Sleeping Bear.
While there is no charge for either program, schools and classes must reserve their places. For more information on all the programs, including those offered in spring and fall, visit nps.gov/slbe/learn/education.
