Satisfy your senses by getting outdoors and exploring your wild backyard with the Pennsylvania Institute for Conservation Education.

PICE programs emphasize hands-on discovery and promote informed and intimate contact with the natural world. Whether for academic, professional, or personal growth, Institute programs are open to all audiences.

“The idea is to get people outdoors. Not only to the tourism hotspots in Pennsylvania, but exploring their backyards and communities. Most of us just don’t take the time to do that,” explained co-founder and Executive Director Michele Richards. “PICE provides an opportunity for people to take time out of their schedule and get out into the natural world.”

Since its inception as a non-profit organization in 2002, the Pennsylvania Institute for Conservation Education has excelled in its mission to stimulate knowledge of, interest in, and an appreciation of natural history by providing extraordinary field-based educational opportunities within Pennsylvania and beyond.

Through its facilitation of a diverse set of programs, which include custom-designed programs for groups and families, PICE demonstrates to its varied audiences the value of getting outdoors, learning in small groups, and celebrating a sense of place through science, exploration, literature and the arts.

“PICE programs are intended to develop a strong kinship with nature. One cannot become excited about an evening chorus of frogs or the morning symphony of bird song or the emerging flowers following a warm spring rain without feeling something of a love for our sister and brother life forms encircling us. We are all in this together and to separate one from another is to lose part of our being,” said Jim Brett, the Institute’s President and co-founder, who is also an instructor.

Programs include the Wildlife Leadership Adventures, a year-round leadership program for teens; the Young Naturalist Adventures, a series of hands-on half-day experiences with naturalists for youth ages 12-14; an international internship program, reaching conservation professionals from as far away as Zambia; and a series of seasonal natural history seminars, which are a great way for individuals from all walks of life to get out into the field and learn about the natural environment.

Through experiential field studies, participants in PICE natural history seminars learn basic natural science concepts in such subjects as ecology, geology, ornithology, wildlife biology, botany, astronomy, and natural resource management. Topics ranging from arts and literature to history and outdoor skills are also covered.

“Everything we do is inspired by nature,” explained Richards. “We try to consider all disciplines and interests, because that’s the great thing about nature: it knows no boundaries.”

Professional scientists, field naturalists, ecologists, geologists, botanists, poets, photographers, educators, artists and writers bring their expertise to the instruction of these programs.

According to Brett, PICE instructors are individuals “who are profoundly in tune with the natural world; who love it; who are able to enthusiastically present what may seem as the simplest of encounters into a whole new world of discovery. To rekindle in their charges what may have been lost over the years, or, in fact, never been really thought about. It is that excitement in what may seem a child’s play, but what is that almost cosmological introduction or reintroduction to something as simple as a butterfly or as complex as the night sky.”

Susan Munch, a professional botanist, instructs the program “Ferns & Mosses” “What makes PICE programs so special for me,” said Munch, “is the level of interest and enthusiasm of the participants.”

Like the instructors, program participants come from varied backgrounds; they are students, teachers, environmental educators, conservation professionals, seniors, and others.

According to secondary science teacher Kevin McCloskey, who has participated in two PICE natural history programs, “PICE programs have given me the opportunity to network and meet professional peers in similar fields and other fields, broadening my professional contacts for ideas and other opportunities.”

He notes that PICE programs differ from other programs “because of the amount of hands-on time spent investigating, exploring, demonstrating, and practicing the science at hand.”

“The programs are top notch!” McCloskey adds. “The programs, presenters, facilities, and people really make these programs both educational and personal. I would give PICE programs my highest recommendation.”

A complete list of field seminars and retreats is available online.

5/23/2008