Insect nets at the ready, fourth graders from the housing projects just south of downtown Denver were combing the trampled grass outside Lincoln Park Community Center. Passersby were curious. Could creatures possibly exist on these barren, trampled grounds? The Urban Education Project soon dispelled any doubts.
Within minutes, two little boys were holding a ziplock bag inches from their faces and peering at creatures they had never observed this close up before. A spider clutched a struggling moth. Ants wiggled their antennae menacingly. Leafhoppers sprang over tiny, creeping flies. A beetle barged through the miniature terrarium like a small locomotive.
"Wow!" exclaimed one kid to his buddy. "This is more fun than watching TV."
At other Denver inner-city schools and community centers, kids with plastic cups sift through leaf litter and scoop up grasshoppers, ladybugs, and beetles. Later, using plastic magnifying glasses, each kid examines his bounty and makes a record of a particular creature. Some trace the insect. Others cut out the appropriate head, thorax, abdomen, and wings from a body-parts sheet and tape them together to form a model of their bug.
The children's curiosity is boundless. Volunteer instructors must keep a tight watch on the clock since most activities are one-hour outings.
Since its inception in 1984, the Denver Audubon Society's Urban Education Project has shown more than seven thousand Denver kids how to explore the urban wilderness in their backyards. Interest has been so widespread that program director Karen Hollweg now administers a three-year, $383,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to help establish similar programs in seven metropolitan centers nationwide: Prescott, Arizona; Birmingham, Alabama; Broward County, Florida; Louisville, Kentucky; Boston, Massachusetts; Arlington, Texas; and Seattle, Washington.
HUNTING FOR BUGS
Opening the children's eyes to nature's daily miracles takes place in their own neighborhoods. Vacant lots, nearby parks, overgrown alleys, and school playgrounds supply the raw materials: zillions of creepy, crawly critters and an amazing variety of seeds, leaves, and flowers. Volunteers assemble simple collecting materials, which include sweep nets, Popsicle sticks, cardboard containers, milk cartons, observation trays, and ziplock bags. Children wear name tags and carry plastic magnifying lenses.
Volunteers begin by reviewing every activity with a circle of six children. Focusing the lens correctly can be tricky. Urling Kingery, who is leading a group of fourth graders from Bromwell Elementary School in Denver, has students practice bringing a fingernail into focus. Kingery, who has volunteered for five years, then pairs up the children, hands out sweep nets for the lesson on animal diversity, and herds them a half block down the alley to a vacant lot.
These kids from Bromwell act as if they are on a treasure hunt. Veterans of several previous expeditions, they expertly scoop up leaf litter in their nets, pinch them closed, turn the nets inside out, and shake the litter and
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