NATIONAL JUNIOR RANGER PROGRAM: JUNIOR CAVE SCIENTIST (MAKING CAVES AND KARST FUN FOR KIDS)

One of the most difficult tasks many scientists face is to make their research easy for the general public to understand. Even more difficult is making that research both fun and comprehensible for kids. As a GeoCorps America participant I developed the Junior Cave Scientist Activity Book, a national Junior Ranger project, to tackle the challenge of making caves and karst systems both exciting and approachable for children ages 4-12. Working with the team at the Geologic Resources Division we put our heads together to create a visually appealing yet educational booklet for kids across the country to enjoy. Through education, we can inform the public not only of the sensitive environments beneath their feet but also of the majesty and wonder that caves and karst hold. To become a Junior Cave Scientist, it takes knowledge of how to safely enter and study caves and karst areas, knowledge and understanding of the many types of resources found within these areas, and an interest in helping to protect and conserve these valuable and important places. The National Park Service (NPS) manages over 4,900 caves including four of the seven longest caves in the world. The booklet will be distributed nationally through the NPS National Junior Ranger program which reaches more than 800,000 kids yearly and is offered at more than 200 units.

This project’s audience can be in a formal education setting such as a classroom, or an informal education setting such as a national park. One of the biggest challenges of this project is to provide a level of detail appropriate to for use in the science classroom while also designing activities that will engage non-captive audiences. We accomplished this goal by making the booklet graphically pleasing and by keeping the content relevant and interesting for all ages.