Garden City High School Students Become Outdoor Educators at LICM

Thanks to a multi-year grant from the National Grid Foundation visitors to the Long Island Children's Museum will receive hands-on workshops with environmental themes. Additionally, the “Green Teens” program provides training to high school students to serve as outdoor educators. As “Green Teens,” 10 area high school students will learn how to work with visitors in the museum’s award-winning green space, Our Backyard.

Garden City natives Addie Zebrowski and Adrie Christiansen were chosen to participate in the Green Teens program this summer. The Garden City High School students applied for the eight-week volunteer program based on their shared love of the outdoors.

Green Teens will work with museum educators on the development and delivery of daily interactive nature-based programs. At the conclusion of the summer program, the 10 teens will provide written evaluations of the program and make recommendations to assist the program’s growth.

At the conclusion of the summer program, the 10 teens will provide written evaluations of the program and make recommendations to assist the program’s growth.

"National Grid contributes millions of dollars every year to deserving programs, most notably in energy, education and the environment—three areas critical to the core business of our company moving forward,” Mauri Myers-Solages, manager of corporate giving, said. “We want to ensure our approach is sustainable and enables us to build meaningful long-term relationships with the community."

The remaining program themes are as follows:

Week 6 (Aug. 6-10) — Boats: This week sail on into our exciting water play area and design your own special vessel. Discover the fun behind sinking and floating as we race our creations down the water chutes.

Week 7 (Aug. 13-17) — Summer Fun & Games: Exercise is important to keep us all healthy and strong. In honor of the summer Olympic Games join the Green Teens and learn some new and fun ways to exercise.

Week 8 (August 20-24) — Bugs: Do you know all the body parts of an insect? Join together a variety of fun materials to invent your own insect.

For more information and a complete list of programs visit http://www.licm.org/greenteens.php.

Our Backyard

Transformed from the asphalt alley adjacent to the children’s museum, Our Backyard, is a 4,000-square-foot bilingual, intergenerational outdoor exhibit space. The exhibit area serves as a gateway to nature appreciation using all five senses, as visitors explore Long Island’s ecosystem, animal and insects, meteorology, botany and agriculture. H2Oh! Watering Our Backyard, allows visitors to explore all aspects of the water cycle as they create sun showers on demand, race boats in rills, and splash through a river bed and over a wooden bridge. The exhibit became LI’s first nature explore classroom in 2008.