Nature Foundation St. Maarten collaborates with schools and businesses to engage and educate local communities and youth
Nature Foundation St. Maarten is engaging local youth and adults in more educational activities by collaborating with (local) companies and schools.
This initiative is aimed towards increasing local awareness and involvement in its mission to preserve the beautiful nature on and around our gorgeous island. By involving more residents in fun nature activities we hope to create more compassion and awareness of the need to protect our island. A few examples that are coming up soon; there is a Nature Trivia Night, an Educational Night Hike, Big Live Nature Quiz - Kids Edition and a Beach Clean-up organized within the next few weeks. Keep an eye out on Nature Foundation social media sites for more information on these events to come.
In collaboration with the California Academy of Sciences there are a series of events this week and next week as the Academy is visiting the island to pilot field trip activities with students from various schools. A teacher workshop on environmental learning is also planned for teachers from various high schools . The local community is invited to a night hike on Sunday, October 23rd at Loterie Farm. This hike is led by Dr. Lauren Esposito from the California Academy of Sciences, who is an arachnologist who studied St. Maarten’s insects, spiders and scorpions. This activity is open for young and old!
On Monday, October 24th, there is a Nature Trivia Night which will be held at Pineapple Pete’s. The Trivia Night is not just a fun activity for the whole family where you can win great prizes, this is also a fun way to learn more about St. Maarten and its flora and fauna. Everyone is welcome to attend, you can participate in a team of max. 4 people or on your own.
On November 8th students ages 12-14 are invited to take part in the 3rd annual Big Live Nature Quiz for Kids! This fun event allows students from all six Dutch Caribbean Islands to compete on-line in a nature-based trivia quiz. Students and teachers interested in taking part or hosting a class for this event can reach out to the Nature Foundation for more info at education@naturefoundationsxm.org.
On November 26th there will be a beach cleanup organized at Mullet Bay where the foundation hopes to collect a few 100lbs of waste off the beach. Unfortunately, often deserted waste can be found on the beach after holidays like St. Maarten Day, so it is necessary to prevent this litter from reaching the ocean. Once the waste reaches the ocean it will be harmful, and even deadly, to marine life. These beach clean ups are all within the IN-No-Plastic project which is aimed to reduce marine plastic through innovative social and technical removal technologies.
The Nature Foundation is a non-profit, non-governmental organization located on the island of St. Maarten, in the heart of the Caribbean. We aim to preserve and enhance the natural environment of St. Maarten in the present moment and for generations to come through a variety of education, preservation, and research initiatives.
The Nature Foundation partnered with DCNA and In-No-Plastic to decrease the amount of plastic in St. Maarten. In-No-Plastic is a three-year project funded by the European Union in an H2020 research project. Learn more by visiting https://naturefoundationsxm.org/.../in-no-plastic-project/ or our previous social media posts on Facebook and Instagram about how you can help decrease the plastic in our environment.
