Imagine a world where students with access to nature and conservation-minded professionals become change agents for environmental conservation—both in their daily lives and future careers. That is the ambitious overarching goal of Conservation Nation’s first in-school pilot program: the Conservation Nation Academy.

This spring, Conservation Nation partnered with the Washington Jesuit Academy and the Washington School for Girls—two tuition-free, independent day schools in Washington, DC—to bring the pilot program to life. During the eight-week unit, 82 6th-8th grade students received tailored hands-on classroom instruction and nature-based outdoor lessons. Fun—yet educational—activities included a friendly scavenger hunt competition between partner schools and field trips to a local nature center. Students also had opportunities to interact with conservationists who looked like them. 

To assess the pilot program outcomes, Conservation Nation partnered with the Founder and Principal of Fernwood Consulting, Esther Cowles, to design a mixed-method evaluation. These methods included in-depth host teacher interviews, student pre-and post-assessment surveys, student journal entries, and weekly feedback from the teaching teams. When the pilot program concluded, the evaluators analyzed the results of each method to assess the overall program design and to measure progress toward the intended student outcomes.

The key findings from the initial evaluation were promising as the results showed progress toward most of the program’s intended outcomes. Students demonstrated positive shifts in their sense of belonging in nature and care for wildlife, their perceptions of nature in their neighborhoods, enthusiasm for learning about and investigating nature and the outdoors, and knowledge of conservation concepts and careers.

Guided by the evaluation results and the Next Generation Science Standards guidelines, Conservation Nation will spend the next several months revising the pilot program’s content. They also plan to secure additional partner schools in the DC-metropolitan area—specifically, those lacking in resources or environmental education programs—to increase the scope and scale of the second pilot program and evaluation phase.

Over the next two years, Conservation Nation plans to acquire national implementation partners to help bring the Academy to schools in new markets by late 2024. It will be exciting to welcome students into the conservation community, engage them as wildlife champions, and ignite their interest in becoming future conservationists!

Conservation Nation wishes to extend sincere gratitude to Bass Pro Shops and Cabela’s Outdoor Fund! With their generous grant, participating classrooms acquired the materials needed to participate in the program. Additionally, the funds helped outfit each student with backpacks and other essential outdoor exploration gear.

Last—but certainly not least—a special thank you goes out to the pilot program participating schools and host teachers: Mr. Haley, Mr. Jones, Mr. Karriem, Ms. Thomas, and Ms. Walker. Thank you for welcoming Conservation Nation into your classrooms and sharing your students with us!