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BATON ROUGE - Environmental Sciences Masters student Naya Black has a passion for environmental education, and it shows in her daily schedule: Black’s research, which she is conducting under DES Professor Margaret Reams, is looking into how Louisiana educators communicate about climate change to their students, both formally and informally. Then there is Black’s work: when she’s not conducting research, she works as a science educator with the Louisiana SeaGrant’s Environmentors program, which provides scientific mentoring for high school students. And when she’s not doing that, Black’s work as an organizer for the Dogwood Alliance, also contains a strong element of education, as she community members better understand pollution and other issues.  

In honor of Earth Day, CC&E sat down with Black to talk about environmental education – what works and what keeps her coming back. The conversation has been edited for clarity. 

How did you become interested in environmental education?

I graduated from [º£½ÇÉçÇø School of Natural and Renewable Resources] in Natural Resource Ecology and Management, with a concentration in wildlife ecology. I graduated in 2020… I was originally supposed to go to Peace Corps, but the pandemic happened… [Instead] I found an AmeriCorps program and got my first environmental education experience in Rhode Island. It was by chance because I didn’t even know I’d like working with kids. And through that, I fell in love with environmental education, and since then, I've been looking for jobs and opportunities that will put me in that space again. I did a second AmeriCorps term in Louisiana, and that's where I found Louisiana SeaGrant. [At] the end of my term, they were like, Why don't you go to school at º£½ÇÉçÇø again and get your master's?... So that's where I am now, and I just really love the opportunities of taking kids outside and letting them experience science.

As an environmental educator, what is the most important thing you want people to know about the environment?

I think the most important things I would like young people to understand about the environment is like a localized context of what's happening in the places that they live now and how it affects them. Even if that means taking them outside and listening to backyard birds, it’s like, what can I teach them now for them to easily utilize once they leave? What I mean by that is helping them build a personal connection to nature right where they are…whether that’s understanding what’s in their own neighborhood or backyard, so that environmental awareness becomes something they carry with them, no matter where they go in the future. It’s about grounding environmental education in their everyday experiences so it feels real, immediate, and relevant.

So how do you teach them to appreciate their local area?

It's nature walks, and it's hands on, engaging activities, and it's place based learning experiences. We have this SeaGrant activity called Importance of the Wetlands that we usually do on field trips…. It's a model wetland where they dump a bunch of pollutants on it, and then there’s a rain event, and they learn about how wetlands are like sponges, and how they help us fight against pollution, and how they're in trouble now. A lot of see, touch, feel type things.

Do you find a lot of students are familiar with nature, with their environment? 

Some of it depends on which schools, which locations they are coming from, what resources they have… But a lot of times they are not. A lot of them don’t know what our state tree or our state flower, what a Palmetto is. We live in Louisiana, these things are around us all the time, but I don’t think they usually make those connections.  

What advice do you have for other people who want to communicate or educate about environmental issues?

Know your audience. Do your research… Use visuals and examples to help understanding. Be humble. 

What’s your favorite Louisiana nature experience?

I really like the bogs, the swamp experience… I remember my first student worker position in RnR we went to Kitsatchie National Forest. I was doing bird counts, and… we went did it in this really foggy, swampy, boggy area with a bunch of bald cypress. It looked just like Shrek and I’m like, wow, this is really cool.