Creative Roots: Weaving Together Art, Nature, and Education with Researcher and Art Teacher Jenna Saulo

Unlock the secrets of fostering a deep, enduring connection between children and the environment through the power of art and nature. Join me, Dr. Lisa Richardson-Hassler, as I talk with Jenna Saulo, researcher and art educator from Roots Nature and Leadership Academy. Together, we explore the integration of natural elements into art education, transforming urban classrooms into fertile grounds for environmental stewardship and creative investigation. With Jenna's pioneering methods, students are not just learning about ecosystems and sustainability but experiencing them through a sensory-rich curriculum steeped in playfulness and discovery.

Take a stroll through the urban wilderness of education with us as we dissect how the intertwining of art and ecology can inspire wonder and responsibility in young minds. I share transformative education strategies that leverage students' innate curiosity, blending art with nature to foster ecological thinking in every subject. Our conversation showcases how tangible, everyday materials can become powerful educational tools, connecting students with their local community and environment. Hear tales of how butterfly pea lemonade, tadpoles, and even a live tortoise can turn a classroom into an unforgettable learning adventure.

Finally, we celebrate the triumphs of educators who are making a significant impact on students' lives. I invite you to share your own success stories, emphasizing the crucial role of community in nurturing educational practices. As we wrap up this inspiring session, remember that every shared experience contributes to our mission: nurturing the seeds of environmental awareness and creativity in the next generation. For more insights and to continue this vital conversation, I encourage you to visit Roots Academy Sarasota's website and join us in cultivating a brighter future through art and nature.

To learn more: www.rootsacademysarasota.com

Chapters

• 0:10 Research on Art Enhancing Students Connection with the Natural World
• 1:34 Jenna Saulo Introduction
• 2:09 Art and Environmental Education Integration
• 4:11 Incorporating Indigenous Knowledge to Empower Art Educators
• 7:03 Art Educator Takeaways From Forest Schools
• 8:15 How Art Educators Can Connect Urban Students With the Natural World
• 10:01 Place-based Curriculum and Projects In Art Classrooms
• 12:17 Sustainable Skills Gained
• 14:06 Advise for Teachers and Parents
• 18:51 Conclusion and Call to Action

Transcript

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 0:10

Welcome to the Brighter Side of Education. I'm your host, Dr. Lisa Hassler, here to enlighten and brighten the classrooms in America through focused conversation on important topics in education. In each episode, I discuss problems we as teachers and parents are facing and what people are doing in their communities to fix it. What are the variables and how can we duplicate it to maximize student outcomes? In today's episode, we explore the connections between art and the natural world. How can art be used to enhance students' connection to nature themselves and the world?

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 0:43

Children are spending less time in nature as technology continues to consume their time in interests. Because of this, students are not practicing sustainable lifestyles or local resources to care for the land. However, according to researchers, if students spend more time outdoors, they can gain creativity, reasoning, awareness, observational improvement, stress management, concentration, balance, immune health and motor coordination. Educators have a unique opportunity to spend significant time with children and assist them in acquiring these critical skills and healthy experiences.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 1:18

Native American educator Gregory Kajetti describes the process of art making as making connections, participating in life, and that the artists in their environment are not separate from this process. Art helps the person grow internally while creating something tangible. Researcher Jenna Saulo believes that art is the tool that can reconnect people with nature. Her study brings attention to traditional, indigenous approaches to education that focus on learning in relation to physical, social, physiological and spiritual health. As an art educator, she believes that art has the unique capability to spark the magic, gender, play and curiosity needed. Jenna is joining me today to discuss art as a medium for teaching children about their environment. She teaches at Roots, nature and Leadership Academy. Welcome to the show, jenna.

Jenna Saulo: 2:07

Hi, thank you for having me.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 2:09

Can you tell us a bit about yourself and how you became interested in integrating environmental education with art?

Jenna Saulo: 2:16

Yes, well, I've always had a love for art, since I can remember. I loved creating as a child. I still do today, but my passion comes from creative experiments. I dabble around in all the mediums, having fun, seeing what will happen and what ideas will work. That's one of the reasons why I love teaching art is because it's like one big playful experiment with the kids. We get to explore all of the tools and mediums and really focus on creating for the process and not just for the product. I try really hard to instill in students that it's about learning artistic behaviors and not about the result. Every single time, however, my inspiration comes from the natural world. Once I started teaching art, I realized that a lot of the students who lived in these urban inner city environments did not have a lot of experiences in the outdoors. I started being that weird art teacher and fully embodied the misfrizzle look.

Jenna Saulo: 3:14

I love it I was bringing in bags of leaves and plants and all kinds of things to the indoors. Really, every time I found something that the students were interested in regarding the outdoors, I would pair it to an art project. If we were looking at, to test your insightful colors and your체ay, the anatomy of mushrooms and learning about fungi, I might turn that into a print making lesson and then use like string to make them mycelium. Or if we were learning about soy or like layers, I could make that into a collage. Mixed media or a still life was becoming like a wildflower bouquet, but we were learning all of the species names. So really I just kept combining my passion for art, my inspiration for the natural world and using art as a tool, and so I started doing lessons at local parks and at the our local farmers market here so kids could come and learn about things in our area through this fun, creative way.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 4:08

Oh my gosh, that sounds so fun. I want to be in your class. So in 2021 you wrote exploring indigenous wisdom to cultivate a connection to the natural world through art education, which gave you the unique ability to observe schools across the country. Can you discuss how incorporating indigenous knowledge can empower art educators to foster curiosity, wonder and investigation in their students?

Jenna Saulo: 4:31

Yeah, this was my capstone project at the University of Florida, which I'm very passionate about and still hope to expand upon the research soon. I observed various nature-based schools and also interviewed a few authors and artists who really helped me connect how to implement these indigenous concepts into the classroom. And one thing I found was that all the schools used thematic units so they learned all the academics through these like student-centered projects. Usually that was involving their local ecosystem or adapting a sustainable skill, and art was weaved into the lessons and used to like drive their inquiry and their focus. So I found that learning also seemed to ebb and flow in this like concentric style, inward to themselves, outward to the community. And in some ways I emphasize this in my classroom today is that we give five thematic units of school year and I start by giving the students a few lessons on the subject, introducing them to the topic and the theme, but then I sort of become a guide and the student takes it from there. So the student starts asking questions from their interest within the subject and I just kind of help them research and create. But really they're so excited to learn and do this academic work because they're proud of it and they're interested in it.

Jenna Saulo: 5:45

For example, one project we did last year was on cartography, so map making, and they started by like designing maps of their hearts and things that they love, and then they moved outward and they made a family map, then their homes, their neighborhoods, their state, their city. Some went all the way out to like the earth and then outer space, and so they were continually looking like inward and outward and they made these beautiful maps and then we turned them into books and they presented them. Yeah, and another was on herbs. So they learned how to garden, so they planted all the herbs from seeds, they cooked to them, they illustrated them and they wrote about all their medicinal uses. So really seeing the ecology of this indigenous education tie into these lessons on traditional skills, seeing like symbolism in art, they were learning local plant and animals and they were just inspired by it all it was. It was great that bubbly curiosity was alive and I think that's just the most important.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 6:42

I love the pictures that you had in this study that showed children's journaling and it was colorful and beautiful yes one of them that stuck out to me is a girl who had a month-long journal of her feelings and the different bottles and the colors of that emotion. That was so pretty. What can art educators learn from forest schools? About introducing nature-based themes and ecological thinking?

Jenna Saulo: 7:09

I think art educators can get rid of the fear of bringing the outside in if they are in a setting where it's not possible to always go outside. If you're in a traditional school indoors, think about how you can combine your art lesson with other subjects. Yeah, so some you know like everyone wants to look at the famous paintings. Or that might be a lesson you have to teach, like if you looked at the great wave one time. You can turn that into a lesson on the ocean layers. They might add their own touch and curiosity what's underneath the wave? What animals are there?

Jenna Saulo: 7:41

Or, like a Cézanne, still life, a fruit might turn into a tasting. So we're getting to use our senses. Maybe you're making pain out of the fruit and the plants. Or like the clipped tree of life can be into leaf and bark rubbing. So more sensorial work and like learning about the native trees. Then you could even take a walk and tally them. I think just making the art lessons like playful using your senses and applying all this local knowledge really makes it also engaging for the students as well that's some good advice, for which leads into the next question, which was how can art educators in urban settings connect children with the natural world?

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 8:19

I think you gave some good examples of that.

Jenna Saulo: 8:23

Yeah, I think that's the most profound. The biggest question is how can the urban setting like foster this for a school mindset? And I think the obvious answer is just go outside as much as possible. Like, we all know the benefits of being outdoors, but unfortunately for some that is limited. I'm lucky to be outside at Roots all day, but I think getting a child to want to go outside and investigate is the biggest thing. It is.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 8:51

And if you can't get outside, bring it into them. You know, by being able to have even like containers of, like you were saying, you're bringing in leaves and soil and bark and they can touch it.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 9:02

And I know like even in my classrooms when I was teaching first and second grade I did that as well where I would collect things or even have the children bring them in to say we're going to be doing this unit on plants or leaves or soil. I want you to go out and bring in some really interesting rocks and then we're going to identify what kind they are or were soil, so you could feel all of them.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 9:23

You know you could feel them from different places and I used to collect them. So I had at one time we were doing a road trip and I was like orange soil, pull over to the side of the road.

Jenna Saulo: 9:34

I went to Utah and I brought it all back in little jars. That's exactly it.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 9:38

I was like the children in Chicago haven't seen this Pull over right now. You know I was collecting sand on siesta key and then I just remember that you know, for soil the children were like digging and playing in it and touching it. They're like this isn't real. Is this real? Where did this come from?

Jenna Saulo: 9:53

You know it's so different yeah.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 9:55

That's exactly it. And then to be able to tie art into it the way you're talking about just brings it to the next level. What is a placed based curriculum, and could you provide some examples of placed based projects that can be implemented in the art room?

Jenna Saulo: 10:10

I have two quotes that I just love. That I think ties into it. David Orr said that all education is environmental education. By what is included or excluded, we teach our students that they are apart from or apart of the natural world. And then Richard Love also said that every child needs nature, not just ones with parents who appreciate nature, not ones of certain economic class or culture or gender or set of abilities every single child. And so I think those are so important because everyone knows the issues but you have to care, and so getting them to care and give children this opportunity to learn, placed based curriculum is just so important. Like they begin to understand that they're once strand in the web of life when they get this knowledge.

Jenna Saulo: 10:52

But placed based curriculum, specifically, is a concept that uses local community heritage, opportunities and the local environment as a starting off point to teach all the language, arts, mathematics, history, science and other academics. So one thing we do every day in our class is we have a naturalist notebook, so every day we draw and label a new plant or animal or other things that we find or students may bring in, like the rocks and stuff, and we also have a cabinet of curiosities which is filled with like bones and shells and things all the findings that we've collected and shells, and so in these naturalist notebooks, not only are they learning like to write and draw, but they're also noticing seasonal changes. Like it's helping them retain this knowledge by drawing it. I find that I think it builds more empathy and connection to the environment, and also the changes in Florida are so subtle, so it really helps us like see those cycles and understand them, because if you don't, if you're not really looking at them every day, you don't really see it.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 11:54

That's a good point. I love the cabinet of curiosities. I have a little shelf that I put a bunch of different science artifacts and, you know, like bones and stuff like that and furs. Now I'm going to call it that because that immediately makes it feel like it's Hogwarts and it's super interesting.

Jenna Saulo: 12:13

Exactly, it's like a magical drawer that it does Like a.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 12:18

So what sustainable skills have you seen students develop using this approach and curriculum?

Jenna Saulo: 12:23

I've seen a lot of students take on initiative in their learning independence. They're learning these sustainable skills like earning a cooking, but also problem solving within that in their community. One example is last year we did a mini farmers market to learn entrepreneurship. So the students took everything they learned through the year and they brainstorm things that the community might need or want to buy and so they made products themselves signage, set up a booth. We had a pet booth where they sold a homemade dog treats and they grew catnip for cats.

Jenna Saulo: 12:54

Oh, wow, yeah. We had a big good stand where they like picked herbs and made like butterfly pea lemonade Good stand where they sold like paintings and necklaces they made out of shells and sharks teeth. We had a garden booth and a posthumous booth where they made like salves and spices and bath soaks. Students had to count the chain, sold everything and they used those profits, as right now they're building a chicken coop because they really wanted chickens. And so this year we'll do something really similar, except we'll call it a community compassion, and so they'll figure out a need in the community and donate all the profits then to that, and so they'll figure out, yeah, real life problem solving within their learning.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 13:39

Did I hear you right? Did you say butterfly pea lemonade?

Jenna Saulo: 13:42

Yes, it's a flower. It's like a blue flower that glows on the side, but it's really cool because when you add it with like a citrus, it turns it purple. So they love it. It's more like Hogwarts magic, that is magical, I mean.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 13:58

you're not like running around with containers collecting butterfly pea.

Jenna Saulo: 14:02

I didn't even think they really did pea, unless they over ate.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 14:05

So you wrote. Exposing children to as many connections in their current place is key to exposing them to how they affect their community and who they want to be within it. As we wrap up this episode, what advice can you give teachers and parents looking to introduce nature based ideas and ecological thinking?

Jenna Saulo: 14:23

I think exposing children to as many experiences as you can, giving them the opportunity to explore their innate sense of wonder, is crucial. Children are curious, they're extremely capable, and if adults give them the tools and act as a guide rather than just an instructor, I think that that's key. My advice would just be to go outside, though, because the lessons will just come and there will be more than we could ever plan or ever give. Finding outside and see what inspires them, or even you, because I feel like the teacher has to be excited about what they're doing as well. One time, I was just so excited that I found a really cool shell and brought it in, and it took us on a whole lesson on bivalves and gastropods. Or one time, a student brought in tadpoles, and so now we're studying the frog life cycle. Or we have another student that's really passionate about butterflies, and so we learned about host plants and migration. And now we have this little mini monarch conservatory going with milkweed.

Jenna Saulo: 15:22

And so going beyond all this wonderful knowledge, but also seeing how we can help our area and how tools were made from these items, and just letting them just bubble out all these brilliant questions they come. The questions that come from these little ones are amazing, and if we just take some time to listen to their questions but also look at all the tiny magic, like in our own backyards.

Jenna Saulo: 15:46

And art can be there as the tool, as the creative tool that we can use to learn within. So I guess, have fun, get messy and just be a forever student with them alongside.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 15:57

That makes me think of so two different stories. One time I was teaching first grade and a student brought in a praying mantis and in a jar and everyone was super excited. We put it in this container and everyone's looking at it and we were writing about it that day and we drew it and we were trying to learn more about it and all of a sudden it started foaming and we're like what is it doing? So now we're all like watching it foam, we're like what's coming out of it? And then it gets like huge, and then it got hard and we don't know what's going on. So we're trying to learn about it. So it became so interesting and curious. And then, of course, we found out it was the babies and if we kept them in the classroom during the winter they were gonna hatch and confess to school. So we had to get them out of the school.

Jenna Saulo: 16:44

But so that was interesting.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 16:45

And then one time we had while I was teaching second grade, there was this like big commotion and we found out that there was a snake in the principal's office. So they called me and they said, lisa, we think you're gonna want the snake. And I was like, yeah, of course I want the snake. So I ran, got my big glass container it was like a fishing tank, some fishing with, okay, with a little grate on top and we went running to the principal's office and the janitor caught it and threw it in the cage or in the container. We threw the lid on top of it and we went running back to the classroom and the kids were so mesmerized by the snake and before you knew it we had, we were drawing the snake and we were trying to figure out what kind it was and what does it normally eat.

Jenna Saulo: 17:28

And the kids were like let's catch yeah, I guess it's measurement yeah, all kinds of things we're gonna be like how can we catch food for it?

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 17:34

And I was like you guys are gonna catch food for it every day. I could have.

Jenna Saulo: 17:38

That's so funny.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 17:38

Right, and then I'm like what?

Jenna Saulo: 17:41

We have a snake that keeps going through our classroom too, and I'm not a big fan, but the kids love it. But lately then a tortoise like moved in to where it was too, so like, yeah, they're chasing this tortoise like throwing lettuce now every morning, and why they get so excited about the animals and so it's so easy for them to become interested in something when it naturally occurs.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 18:03

Even you don't even have to go looking for it. Sometimes these events present themselves, and then, capitalizing on those moments to make teachable moments, the kids get so into it, and you can just pull so many different subjects there into it mathematics, you know, you're researching, so you're reading, you're writing, you're art. It really just becomes a life of its own.

Jenna Saulo: 18:25

Yes, it really. And then all the subjects are all there together. Naturally there's not like this masses right now and reading is later, like we're all just doing it all at once and it's great.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 18:38

Oh well, Jenna, thank you so much for joining me today to discuss the wonderful ways art can be used to teach children about their environment and foster a sense of connection with the natural world.

Jenna Saulo: 18:49

Oh yes, Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 18:52

To learn more, you can go to rootsacademysarasota. com that's R-O-O-T-S-A-C-A-D-E-M-Y-S-A-R-S-O-T-A. com. The call to action is for educators of all subjects to use art to enhance students' connections to nature, themselves and the world. If you have a story about what's working in your schools that you'd like to share, you can email me at Drl isar ichardsonhassler@ gmail. com, or visit my website at www. drlisarhassler. com and send me a message. If you enjoy this podcast, please subscribe and share it with a friend. The more people who know, the greater impact it will have. And if you find value to the content in this podcast, consider becoming a supporter by clicking on the supporter link in the show notes. It is the mission of this podcast to shine a light on the good in education so that it spreads, affecting positive change. So let's keep working together to find solutions that focus on our children's success.