Kids Connect with Nature at Apple Tree Ridge Farm

COPPER HILL, VA -- Nestled into the side of a mountain near Roanoke, Apple Ridge Farm gives city children the opportunity to learn through camps and nature.
“It is important for children to connect with nature,” said Laura Wasko, Environmental Education coordinator. “It’s important…as we’re moving into this electronic age.”
The rolling property is equipped with a science center, classroom facilities, kitchen and picnic area, a bunk house, tennis and basketball courts, and of course miles of natural world and habitat.

Apple Ridge Farm’s Environmental Education (E.E.) Program offers students the opportunity to learn through interaction with nature. The curriculum provides a range of activities from hiking, animal tracking and tree identification, as well as interactive studies focusing on streams, air and water quality, flowers and Geology.
“Its very hands on,” said Wasko, “They get to touch, feel, put their hands in the water and touch the critters.” The E.E. program is geared mainly towards lower income public schools in Roanoke. Through grants, donations and other companies and schools visiting Apple Ridge Farm, the center is able to fund class trips, so students can have the opportunity to learn by interacting with the environment. “Oh the kids love it, they really thrive, particularly some of the groups you wouldn’t expect to,” said Wasko. “They really respond to it – it’s a great opportunity for them.”

Founded in 1976, the E.E. program was started only concentrating on grades 3 through 5, but now they have adjusted to accommodate students from kindergarten to high school. “We find out what the teacher has been studying during the school year, and what they want to cover,” said Wasko. “Then our educators will fit in what the kids are studying into their lesson, if they’ve really been studying insects [in school], they will weave it into what the kids are studying that day.”

The curriculum has also been modified to cover SOL sections, making the experience even more beneficial. “It’s an opportunity to teach kids in a different way, to get out of the classroom,” said Wasko. “We try to give kids an experience with natural findings – sitting in a classroom vs. going out and looking at leave and tracks.”

Aside from factual education, the E.E. program also emphasizes building social skills. The courses expose children to social situations that require cooperation and individual responsibility. “Basically we are trying to give them a better understanding of not only themselves but how they fit into the natural world,” said Wasko. “We also want to teach them an appreciation for that natural world, that maybe some of them don’t have.”

Another skill the program teaches is self-control. Many of the expeditions the children participate in require them to study their surroundings, and without staying still and paying attention, they wouldn’t find anything. “They need to learn the skills of awareness and observation…if they make a lot of noise they are going to miss things, the critters will scatter,” said Wasko. “That also ties into a certain discipline, they aren’t wild, they are observing instead.”

Fall and spring are the main visitation times for school groups, but the E.E. program recently added a science center, which allows them to offer winter visits to the farm. These sessions consist of a combination of indoor and outdoor activities that explore the winter environment.

Apple Ridge Farm is currently working on building a high-ropes course, climbing tower and a night sky observatory. The building will be one of the few dark sky observatories in the country, and will offer many new opportunities for expanding the centers outdoor programming.

After the new buildings are complete, the E.E. program will continue to strive for finding education in nature. Their goal is to get children up off the couch, and to start taking opportunities. “Kids are couch potatoes…we want to move the kids outside,” said Wasko.

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