“Taking you outdoors to a different world to explore.”
Stuff To Know
The Program
Dutchess No Child Left Inside (NCLI) is a program of Cornell Cooperative Extension Dutchess County that teaches youth and adults more about their environment in the Hudson Valley Region.
The Dutchess NCLI program hires teenagers (age 14-19) from the City of Poughkeepsie and provides them with the training and the skills necessary to become Youth Environmental Educators in the program. The Youth Environmental Educators then work with their peers and younger youth to teach them about the environment and encourage them to get outdoors.
What We Do
Environmental Educators engage audiences in a variety of ways, including after school and summer camp enrichment programs; organized outdoor recreation (e.g. hikes, nature walks, snowshoeing, canoeing, backpacking); community events; community projects (e.g. trash clean-ups) and utilizing multimedia to educate youth and the public about the environment and area watershed issues (e.g. social media, blogging, podcasts, building a website).
Programs and Field Trips
The Dutchess No Child Left Inside (NCLI) program has has partnered with several local After School and Summer Camp programs to deliver Ecology enrichment activities.The Youth Environmental Educators have delivered many different games and activities on a variety of topics all with the goal of getting kids outside and learning about the environment. Getting involved with these programs has also helped the NCLI Youth Environmental Educators learn more about teaching kids. Since 2007 the Dutchess NCLI program and Cornell Cooperative Extension have also participated in the NYS DEC’s “A Day in the Life of the Hudson River” (aka Snapshot Day) with classes from Krieger Elementary School in the City of Poughkeepsie.
Research
The Dutchess No Child Left Inside program (NCLI) have partnered with many local organizations and agencies to participate in scientific research projects. This includes:
Electroshocking in the Fall Kill Creek with the NYS DEC
Macroinvertebrate training through the NYS DEC WAVE program
Macroinvertebrate sampling in the Fall Kill and Wappinger creeks
Monitoring the impact of a beaver dam at the Vassar Ecological preserve
Collecting glass eels on the Fall Kill Creek as part of the NYSDEC Hudson River Estuary Program Eel Project
Monitoring the presence of mitten crabs in the Fall Kill Creek with the NYS DEC
Each activity has helped the youth learn more about their environment in the City of Poughkeepsie an the larger Hudson Valley.
Topics taught over the years
Hudson River biology
chemistry the and physical river
the water cycle
watersheds
macroinvertebrates
biodiversity
water conservation
outdoor skills and safety
hiking
canoeing and much more.
