Inquiry Oasis Season 2: Colin Waite and the Cooper Center for Environmental Learning

Join Dean Robert Q. Berry and Executive Director of the Cooper Center for Environmental Learning, Colin Waite, on their discussion about the Cooper Center's six decade long history in Tucson, AZ. The Cooper Center began in 1964 and celebrates its 60th year of providing Tucson K-12 students with hands-on environmental education experiences in Southern Arizona.

To celebrate, the Cooper Center is crowdfunding September - October 2024 with a goal of $60,000 to be raised, you can donate here. 

Transcript

 Jeffrey Anthony:

Welcome to the Inquiry Oasis, the University of Arizona College of Education's podcast here in the heart of the Sonoran Desert. We bring you conversations with our esteemed faculty members and staff, whose research impacts lives from Southern Arizona to the far reaches of the globe. We explore the transformative power of education in this border town, where diverse cultures and ideas converge, weaving a tapestry of innovation with compassion and a sense of wonder.

So, join us as we journey through the sands of curiosity, unearthing insights that enrich and inspire. Sit back and relax. As we invite you to dive into the inquiry oasis. Hello, my name is Robert Berry, and I'm the Dean of the College of Education here at the University of Arizona. And today we have Colin Waite, who is the Director of the Cooper Center for Environmental Learning.

Dean Robert Q. Berry:

Welcome to Inquiry Oasis. And so we're going to get started with a conversation with Colin. Just start off with just kind of asking you just to talk a little bit about the Cooper Center and the work that you all do, and just kind of describe the mission of the Cooper Center. 

Colin Waite:

Yeah, absolutely. Thanks so much for the opportunity.

I'm really happy to be here. The Cooper Center for Environmental Learning, also known as Camp Cooper here in Southern Arizona.  Our goal is to connect children and learners of all ages with the Sonoran Desert through immersive learning. education based outdoor adventures. And we create these deep connections with nature in a welcoming and inclusive environment that fosters a love and understanding for our natural world.

And so, our focus really is on field trip experiences for children and schools that have limited access to nature in the outdoors.  We work with a lot of underserved and marginalized communities, particularly, title one schools. And so, for many of these kids, it's their first adventure. In the Sonoran Desert.

Dean Robert Q. Berry:

Wow. So that first adventure in the Sonoran Desert, you know, can, can be impactful. Can you talk a little bit about, you know, when, when students come to the Sonoran Desert and what, what have you observed about that first adventure into the, into the Sonoran Desert? 

Colin Waite:

It's a really exciting and special moment when the kids get off the bus for the first time.

I sometimes joke that it's almost as if they're explorers on an alien planet. They're excited, but they're also really anxious. And so, um, there's a little bit, you know, when we think about our Sonoran Desert, we think about things like rattlesnakes and scorpions and cactus with a lot of spines.

And so the, the beginning of that experience, there's this, you know, excitement for being outside and being out of the classroom, but there's also  just a little bit of nervousness. And what I love about our programs and about our staff is that we're able to break down those barriers in the first moments that they're out experiencing the desert and start to build that appreciation and that love.

Dean Robert Q. Berry:

So, you mentioned that, uh, Camp Cooper serves, uh, all students. Are there particularly target grade bands or age ranges that many of the programs focus on?

Colin Waite:

You know, historically and currently, Camp Cooper is really focused on preschool through upper elementary school. We really want children to have a positive, emotional connection to the outdoors at a really early age and provide experiences as they're growing up.

And soto do that we really have been able to focus on having kids come out as early as possible. We also are in the process of extending those programs because what you really need for kids to connect with nature and appreciate it and want to take care of it is a continuity of experiences throughout their education.

And so starting with preschool and elementary, we're actively working on adding new programs for middle and high school students continuing that education and that experience for university students and adults. And so, it's kind of this ongoing process of growing our programs. 

Dean Robert Q. Berry:

Yeah. So, Camp Cooper has a long history and in fact, you're celebrating your 60th anniversary. And so, talk about the impact and the sustainability, the impact broadly, not only here in Tucson, but across Arizona, you know, what is Camp Cooper's impact?

Colin Waite:

It's huge. Um, you know, every, you know, you can walk into any room in Tucson, and you'll find someone who has experienced Camp Cooper as a kid, as a parent, as a teacher.

And when you talk to them about it, it, you can tell that it helps them to have a better appreciation for the wonders of our natural world and why we as humans have this role to take care of it. You know, we as humans right now are living on a planet that is on fire. You know, we have overused our natural resources.

We have polluted the air, water, and soil that we need to survive. And here in Tucson and in Southern Arizona, I think there is a culture around taking better care of where we live. You can see sustainability in the city, in the county, in the university community. And so, when I talk to folks, what I hear is that experiences in nature, including Camp Cooper, are what have inspired them to live more lightly and sustainably on our planet.

And there are a ton of examples of that from Camp Cooper alumni. I think my favorite one is there’s a guy here in Tucson, who goes by the name Mr. Nature. Mr. Nature, his real name is Anthony. He did Camp Cooper as a kid many years ago. And he inspires preschool age kids to love nature through music.

And it's this incredibly dramatic and fun show and way for kids to understand and appreciate the plants and animals that we live with.  We're also in the process right now of, of doing some facility renovations. And one of the contractors on our project, is a guy named Ray Clamons who did Camp Cooper as a kid, and he started a sustainable building company called Natural Building Works here in Tucson.

And so, his Camp Cooper experience helped him to think about how he could take it, go into a construction community that maybe wasn't as sustainable as you would want and to bring those ideals and practices into our community. 

Dean Robert Q. Berry:

Wow, that's incredible, impactful. So, I'm hearing that, you know, these experiences that now these adults have had when they were younger and you seeing the impact over that over time and how they've maintained that connection.

Really, you know, through their interactions with Camp Cooper and developing a kind of this framing of sustainability and making sure that we take care of the space in which we live, work and play. So let's talk a little bit about, you know, Camp Cooper's collaboration, you know, with the College of Education, with the University of Arizona and the broader community as well.

Colin Waite:

Yeah, collaboration is what has allowed us to be successful.  We are engaged with many other organizations that are focused on the education of our young people and that continuing education that ha happens as people are growing older.  Within the College of Education, we’re providing student experiences and partnering with courses in the elementary education program, the early childhood education program, the leadership and learning innovation, project, which is focused on teaching in informal settings and education in informal settings.  We focus a lot on science education and just practices around informal learning. We're also working with other college of education programs that focus on professional development for teachers. You know, we want teachers to be comfortable in working with their children and their students outdoors.

And so we work with the Indigenous Teachers Education Program, Tucson regional Educator Collaborative, and others. We're doing graduate research and coursework opportunities through environmental education, and we also provide internships for undergraduate and graduate students in the College of Education through the Paul Lindsay Fellowship. We're also working with our National Advisory Board and Alumni Council on special events and marketing and communications and fundraising and so you can really find Camp Cooper in a lot of places within our college.

Dean Robert Q. Berry:

Wow. And, and so as we think about that, those collaborations and those connections, you know, can you talk a little bit, how does this collaboration support the mission and the program? 

Colin Waite:

Yeah. I mean the goal with our programs is for, you know, to build that personal connection with nature, to help people better understand how the natural environment works, both in the Sonoran Desert and more globally.

And to take that and turn it into sustainable action in our community. And it could be sustainable action on an individual level, or it could be, you know, community wide, regional, global, you name it. When we talk about the collaborations that we have here within the college, it's making sure that outdoor learning experiences and sustainable learning are embedded and an integral component of education in all forms.

And so, when we're thinking about what's happening in a classroom, we want to tie that in with what's happening in the natural ecosystem that we as humans are a part of. And so that's the teacher and the education component is.  How do we set teachers up for success so that they feel comfortable and confident in building in that natural peace with whatever they're teaching within their classrooms?

And as we know, we as human beings learn across a lot of different hands-on experiences. And so, it's not just those classroom experiences. It's, it's any walk of life that we're a part of. We want there to be a peace. Where we're thinking about how we might be able to be more sustainably minded or have that green thinking.

Dean Robert Q. Berry:

Well, thank you so much for that. And so, I actually want to kind of touch in on some research and evaluation. And the idea of the impact. Can you talk a little bit about the impact on how, you know, the connection between one's experiences when they were younger and now how they sustain them as they become adults?

What kind of data or research, or is there data or research to kind of talk about Camp Cooper's impact or just kind of telling the story of Camp Cooper? 

Colin Waite:

Yeah, there definitely is. And what I will say is that, you know, myself trained as more of a practitioner in community outreach and education, the research piece has always been a necessary partnership with faculty and students here at the university.

And so, for many years, we've done research on our longest duration program, which is,  Earth Keepers.  That research was set up and has continued with Dr. Bruce Johnson, here within the college and with graduate students in environmental learning during his time. And what we've been able to find out it with surveys that happened before and after the programs and interviews with students and teachers is that these programs have a statistically significant impact.

Uh, increase, they show a significant increase in ecological understandings, but then also in environmentally friendly behaviors and attitudes. And that's the piece that's fascinating to me, is that, is try, as a researcher, trying to quantify, that change in behavior or that change in attitude around environmental issues and concepts.  Bruce has worked with Dr. Franz Bogner from Germany on developing a model of ecological values that very accurately shows that, behavior change, that attitude change when it comes to environmental concepts.  And so, to have that research happening at Camp Cooper has been transformational for us. Historically, there was not a lot of research done on the effectiveness of our programs.

Going forward, we are currently actively searching for new research partners, looking at not only the effectiveness of the programs themselves and evaluating those programs, but helping to have our programs be more culturally responsive and inclusive, looking at environmental education and learning from a lot of different perspectives so that we're better serving the communities that we're engaged with.

We're looking at accessibility for environmental learning programs. There are many environmental learning facilities that are not accessible to people with physical disabilities or learning disabilities, and so incorporating universal design for learning into the work that we do so that our programs can be more effective and life changing for those students.

And you know, there, there's a lot of research happening at the university around climate action and environmental justice. And we feel like there needs to be an educational component to that as well. And so, we're actively looking for those new partnerships. 

Dean Robert Q. Berry:

Wow. I really appreciate that and the way that you get the forward thinking on this in terms of the connection and thinking about the research opportunities that are possible and working and collaborating with Camp Cooper.

I want to kind of circle back to, we're in the 60th anniversary and you know, this is a moment to kind of acknowledge, celebrate and think about and reflect as well, right? Yeah, definitely. So, can you reflect on this, those 60 years? 

Colin Waite:

I can. You know, it's fascinating to me the impact that Camp Cooper has had in our local community.

I've been involved for 21 years and that kind of shocks me when I say it out loud. My wife did Camp Cooper as a child and that's how I got involved as a, as an educator later on. But when you think about it, you know, Camp Cooper has been in part of the community for, since 1964 and over 150,000 students.

Children have been through programs at Camp Cooper since teachers first started exploring its Sonoran Desert classroom. And so, we've, we've changed our community for the better by inspiring young people to live, to live more lightly and to be more environmentally responsible. There are people in our community who are now leaders around environmental issues because of or in, in part because of their Camp Cooper experience.

And so, it’s you know, I think it's an integral part. I think of it as kind of this hidden gem of, of, of Tucson. Um, and it's always fun to find people who have experienced it, but it's also fun to find people who are just learning about it for the first time. So, you know we're at that 60-year point.

Dean Robert Q. Berry:

So, I'm going to ask you to forward think on some things. What will the next 60 years look like? What are your hopes? What are your dreams around the next 60 years? 

Colin Waite:

I mean, I think Camp Cooper's future is incredibly bright. Um, the things that have happened, uh, in the last 10 to 12 years with the University of Arizona College of Education as a partner at the facility we've been able to increase our budget through philanthropy and community support.

And this has led to the first major facility renovations in more than 50 years. And it's also leading to the growth and expansion of our programs. And we hope that that will continue. There will, there's always an opportunity to serve more kids and families with desert experiences. So, we need this growth to continue.

And with the support of our partners at the College of Education and Tucson Unified School District, and from our community, I know that we have the opportunity to do that. I shared earlier that we want to add new programs for middle and high school and university students. We are hoping to extend our programs to a year-round model to do summer programs in addition to school year programs.

We want our connections at the university to grow. If we are truly going to see change with respect to climate action and environmental justice we need to be able to provide new opportunities for U of A students, faculty, and staff to have experiential learning to be participants in research, to have professional development opportunities, and to just experience the desert for their personal health and well-being.

We want to do more off site. You know, Camp Cooper is an amazing place, but not everybody can get there. And so going into schools, going into community centers, participating in special events. We want to be meeting people where they are and bringing the desert to them when we need to. And ultimately, I see our programs as being more accessible and culturally responsive and aware. 

And all of this can happen if we continue our collaborations and continue to grow our community support. 

Dean Robert Q. Berry:

Just so you've mentioned that you have a 21 year relationship with Camp Cooper, and so I want to tap into that a little bit. Do you have a personal story or a personal thing that you can share? You know, an experience that you may have had in that 21 year relationship that you would be willing to share. 

Colin Waite:

Absolutely. You know, when I first started as an educator, I wasn't sure that it was the right fit for me. I got my undergraduate degree from Northern Arizona University was environmental science.

And I found out towards the end of my classes that being a scientist was not the focus that I wanted. I was more interested in sharing about the science of the world and communicating that with others than I was in doing the science myself. And I didn't really know exactly what that looked like.

But when I started at Camp Cooper, I had very little education experience. And so much of what I learned was kind of a crash course in teaching and learning with kids. And after a couple of years of that, I went back and got a master's degree in elementary education and the experiences that I had that are most memorable to me are little details with kids on the trail where I might be, wishing that we would see something really cool on the trail like a javelina, but in reality, every little detail, every little minute thing in nature is incredible.

And, there was a time where I was working with a first grade student and he was looking with a magnifying glass at a cactus. And we were talking about the little details that he was seeing and just watching the fascination with learning around all of those little pieces and knowing. Like, just seeing that it was going to be something that he had to go tell his friends and his parents about later was really special.

And certainly, the desert is a challenging classroom, but when it comes down to it, when you get through the fear you can observe it just like you can any other environment. 

Dean Robert Q. Berry:

Wow. Wow. And, you know, I've had an experience, you know, where when we first, when I first came here and, and a prickly pear, right, you know, I've heard the stories about them, so I grabbed it, and I learned my lesson very quickly.

So, you know, I'm hoping that as we think about this and you think about students’ experiences and adults’ experiences with Camp Cooper, it is those kinds of things, those takeaways, those stories, those observations, those engagements, those things really matter. And how we then build our connection, our community around those things.

So, I have one last question. Is there anything that you want to add to or answer a question I haven't asked you that you want to answer now?

Colin Waite:

You know, the thing that will allow Camp Cooper to grow most successfully as we kind of move into the next 60 years of our history, of our future, I guess it's not history, is reconnecting with Camp Cooper alumni from across generations and being able to tell those stories as you so accurately shared.

That is really what allows us to grow, to be successful. And so, we are on our coopercenter.arizona.edu website, collecting memories from people who have experienced Camp Cooper over the years. We want to hear your memories. We want to see your pictures and learn more about how Camp Cooper has inspired you as an adult in our community.

We're also, on November 16th, Saturday, November 16th, from 3 to 7, having a huge celebration. We're calling it Camp Cooper Homecoming. And so, for anyone who has experienced Camp Cooper in the past, or who wants to experience it in a new way, we invite you to join us for that event. You can RSVP on our website and it's an opportunity to celebrate the love of the Sonoran Desert.

It's an opportunity to enjoy music and food and educational experiences and hikes. We're also going to be cutting the ribbon on our first facility renovations in 50 years, our new sustainable bathrooms and showers, and it's going to be an incredible model for what sustainability looks like in our community.

And it's going to help us to grow what Camp Cooper is able to do as we continue to move forward.

Dean Robert Q. Berry:

Wow. So that's an exciting opportunity to have all of the Camp Cooper alums, as many that are able to come to come on out. And even those who are not alums and just a part of the community, when we say community, not only Tucson, but just a broader community in Arizona and nationally, internationally as well, to come out and enjoy Camp Cooper when we have this event.

So, I look forward to that as well. And so, Colin, I want to thank you for your time and the opportunity just to kind of have you to visit the Inquiry Oasis and to engage in this conversation. 

So, one more thing I want to give you one last word. If you have one last word, I want to give it to you.

Colin Waite:

This month, as we celebrate our 60th anniversary, we are also engaged in one of our key fundraising components for the year, which is our crowdfunding campaign. And so, for folks who are interested in getting involved and supporting this with a donation, you can donate at crowdfund.arizona.edu/project/Cooper.

Every gift helps us to support our amazing educators. It is through community donations that we are able to support our staff with livable wages and benefits and raises for longevity and for their performance and to do promotions for our team members. And so, every gift helps to make that happen.

Our goal is to raise $60,000 for our 60th anniversary. And we're well on our way. And so, if you're interested in making a contribution, you can do that or share our campaign with others who might be interested in getting involved. Thank you so much for calling me for this conversation. 

Dean Robert Q. Berry:

And then just as a reminder, Colin is the director for the Cooper Global Learning Center here at the University of Arizona.

And I am Robert Berry. I'm the Dean of the College of Education, and we look forward to having you more involved in all of the Inquiry Oasis podcasts, and feel free to tune in for our next podcast.