Budding Experts is our student-led interview series highlighting young people and the fun things they learn about during our programs. At Camp Fire, students learn about outdoor activities, art, STEM, and the environment from trained specialists and instructors.  

This month, we’ll be hearing from Birdie, a Junior Counselor who supported Coyote, our Nature Specialist, last summer! Birdie filled in as the Nature Specialist the last week of camp and talked to us about their favorite parts of teaching campers about nature. 

Birdie and Sally, a camper, at the Nature Center during Summerween Week! For our Halloween-themed week, Sally chose to dress up as Falkor, Birdie’s pet tarantula. Falkor is a calm-tempered and sweet caribena versicolor, also known as an Antilles Pinktoe Tarantula.

Hi Camp Fire! My name is Birdie. I am the Youth Naturalist at Camp Fire Minnesota. Last summer, my favorite part of working as the Youth Naturalist was being able to have connections with campers—obviously—but also being able to foster and promote the growth between campers’ relationships with nature and themselves.  

A lot of kids, especially the younger ones, who come in through Camp Fire are pretty nervous around bugs, or any sort of wildlife, for that matter. Getting to show them how beautiful and not-scary things like little “creepy crawlies,” as we call them, are, I think it’s something really beautiful.  

You can really just pick up any sort of bug outside, as long as you know what it is, and be like hey, “Isn’t this tiny little millipede super cool?” And you can place it in a kid’s hand and they can see all the legs, and they can see that it’s not hurting them, and they get curious and start asking questions.  

When they start asking questions and understanding nature, then they’re not going to fear it anymore. Then they can be comfortable outside, exploring and doing things that make them happy.  

So yeah, that was my favorite part of being a Youth Naturalist, and I hope I get to do it again next year!  

Did you know that our environmental education curriculum is based on the Minnesota Department of Education STEM standards and social emotional learning (SEL) competencies? That means that at Camp Fire, youth strengthen their knowledge of the objectives they learn at school, becoming budding experts.

Want to learn more about nature-based education? Check out our education page to explore all the learning opportunities Camp Fire offers year-round.