SCA Andrew

Hi! My name is Andrew. I am the Junior Ranger Ambassador for Acadia National Park. Over the summer I will be designing new Junior Ranger activity books for the young visitors of Acadia. I am working as an intern for the park through the Student Conservation Association, a volunteer organization with more than 3,000 volunteers nationwide. In the fall, I attend Colby-Sawyer College in New Hampshire where I study Environmental Science. Join me weekly to hear more about my adventures at Acadia.

July 16 | July 23 | July 30 | August 6 | August 13 | August 20 | August 27

July 16, 2008. Last week I shadowed Ranger Matt on one of our geology hikes called “Written in the Rocks.” It was a great hike; I didn’t realize how many stories could be found in the geologic history of Acadia. Geology is certainly an aspect of the park that is very interesting and unique. I might consider an activity in the new Junior Ranger booklet based around geology, and I was certainly grateful for Ranger Matt to let me tag along. While on the hike, Matt referred to me several times for a second opinion about the biology of the area: “I’m just the geologist,” he would joke. I tried my best to help out with the biology of the hike, and something struck me while I was answering questions.

What was happening between Ranger Matt and me on the hike was something similar to the message I was crafting for the Junior Ranger program. We were on a geology hike, but biology came up repeatedly, ranging from “what bird was that?” to “why do these trees grow here?” The interpretive interweaving between geology and biology that day showed just how complex our environmental systems are. It is not enough to have just geology or just biology; they are part of a complex environmental system that must have all of its functioning parts.

This is a very important concept to understand, and it is part of the message I am trying to craft for children over the age of 8. Younger children will learn about how to keep the park healthy by leaving no trace, and as they get older, they begin to learn about how interconnected and complex the environmental systems are. As children get older, they begin to draw connections to abstract concepts. Using leave no trace as a jumping off point, children can begin to learn why their leave no trace practices are important to the environment. Hopefully they will approach the world with an expanded view. They will see it, not just as a one dimensional object, but as a rich and complex world that our everyday actions can affect.

- Andrew

July 23, 2008. Last Sunday the park held its annual Family Fun Day at Sieur de Mont Springs. Hundreds of families flocked to the springs for good food and fun, and I got to help out at one of the many educational stations. I had a great time. I have been shadowing the kids’ programs at the park for a while now, getting ideas of what to put in the Junior Ranger booklet, and it was wonderful to get a chance to lead my own interpretive hike for the kids. The hike was a combination of hunting for salamanders and talking about habitats. It was our first rainy day in what seemed like an eternity, but that did not seem to stop the kids from coming to Family Fun Day.

It was reassuring to see how much these kids enjoyed all the activities and being outside in nature. The National Park System has a great opportunity to encourage a new generation of environmentally conscious and active youth. The Junior Ranger program is one of the many ways the park is encouraging kids to be active stewards of our environment. The overwhelming numbers of families who came to Family Fun Day showed me that no child was in fact being left inside, but rather out and enjoying being immersed in nature.    

- Andrew

July 30, 2008. This weekend I got to enjoy one of the many perks of working in a national park. On Sunday, I set out on a long cross-island hike, going up and down both Cadillac and Pemetic Mountains. It was a great hike, but I saw some things that worried me throughout the day.

My first encounter was with a friendly couple on the north ridge of Cadillac. I was just starting out at the base of the mountain when I came across them, and they asked me if the direction I was coming from was the way up the mountain. They had gotten turned around and wandered off course without a map for a while. I am very happy we have our park rangers and Ridge Runners out there making sure everyone and everything is safe and happy. I came across another group of hikers going down the steep west side of Cadillac. They were struggling up the mountain in sandals and flip flops in clothing that wasn’t entirely fit for hiking. At the top of Pemetic I overheard a child complaining that he was thirsty, but the family had forgotten to pack any water.

It is great that the park attracts a wide array of people to the park; however, some are inexperienced hikers who go up trails unprepared. This introduces a new element to the junior ranger booklet—hiking safety and preparedness. I am working on an activity that will help kids understand what they should and shouldn’t bring when they go hiking. Maybe the next time that family goes up Cadillac, their son or daughter will tell them that they should wear closed-toed shoes instead of flip flops! 

- Andrew 

August 6, 2008. This week I had a great opportunity to test some new Junior Ranger activities at the Carroll Homestead. The homestead is a great place to test activities. Kids come to the house to learn and play fun games from the 1800s, so they are already in an active state of mind and are willing participants for field testing.

I got to take my testing one step further and used one of my potential activities as an educational tool for an informal tour around the homestead. I took a group of summer camp kids around the property and helped them learn to identify trees using the leaf identification activity from the booklet. It was a great way to incorporate the themes from the activities into an actual interpretative hike.

The feedback that the children provide when I test activities is wonderful. They are very candid and open about the activities and sometimes provide the best comments about the book.

- Andrew

August 13, 2008. This week I had the honor of dining with the Bar Harbor Garden Club, which sponsored my Student Conservation Association position. They provided a wonderful dinner for me and Luke and Katie, the other two SCAs that work for the Division of Interpretation. The whole experience with the SCA has been wonderful. From my training at the National Conservation Training Center to the time I have spent in the park, I feel that I have grown and matured as an individual while working here over the summer. Developing the Junior Ranger program for the park requires a lot of communication, creativity, and collaboration in addition to many other things, and I feel that I have learned so much from designing this book.

- Andrew

August 20, 2008. In addition to my duties as the Junior Ranger Ambassador for the park, I also help out with some of the interpretive programs. “Beyond the Beach” is held at Sand Beach and discusses tidepool creatures and the stresses of everyday life in a tidepool at Acadia. It is one of the largest programs that the park offers (it is staffed on average by three rangers and two SCA interns) and can have up to seventy people at one program.

The program begins with skits in which I dress as the sun and then a crab. Kids love to see park employees in these outfits (seeing them enjoy the skits takes the potential embarrassment away). These skits help kids learn how to be good tidepoolers by exercising tidepool etiquette and understanding the many natural stresses that affect these creatures. After the skits we provide an interactive segment where kids can get up close and personal with tidepool creatures they might not normally see.

The program requires a lot of work to set up, present, and pack down, but the impact we have on families is profound. I have visited the tidepools in my spare time and seen families unknowingly practice bad tidepool etiquette, such as throwing creatures to one another and prying creatures off rocks who did not want to go. I hope that the families that attend “Beyond the Beach” will be mindful of their impact on the tidepool as they explore.  

- Andrew 

August 27, 2008. The winds are shifting, the temperature is dropping, and the leaves are changing color. Summer is coming to a close and so too is my internship with the park. I could not have thought of a better way to spend my summer. I consider myself very fortunate to have been able to experience all that I have while working here. I came to the park with the notion that I would just design the Junior Ranger booklet; but when I leave at the end of this week, I will walk away with much more than just a booklet in my hands. I will walk away knowing that I served for a great organization with great people. I will know that I have made many friends, learned many wide and diverse things about the park and the National Park System, and helped touch the lives of many families through my work on the Junior Ranger program.

So in parting on my final blog entry I will cite Charles Dickens, who said that “the pain of parting is nothing to the joy of meeting again.” As I pack up my belongings and prepare for another semester of college, I hope that I might be able to one day return to Acadia either as a visitor or as a park employee.

- Andrew