Interview with Nikki Saccoccia
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In our sixth episode of the Voices of Local Leaders series, we interview Nikki Saccoccia, an environmental educator working as the Schooner Camp Director and Preserves Coordinator for Gather New Haven. Nikki grew up in Connecticut and has always been fascinated by natural sciences and education. Through middle-school and high-school, she got involved in several initiatives to learn more about field research and help researchers in their work, including volunteer opportunities and internship across the state like mapping invasive species, tagging geese and butterflies, and catching dragonflies and damselflies. Using hands-on, outdoor experiences that combine arts and natural sciences, Nikki creates learning opportunities that foster a deep relationship between kids and adults with the environment.
Interview Transcription
“Hi everybody, I am Nikki Saccoccia from Gather New Haven. I direct a camp that serves over 400 kids throughout New Haven and beyond to teach them both sailing and coastal studies at the Long Wharf Nature Preserve and it’s run out of the Sound School, in New Haven. We offer over 50% scholarship to allow easy access to those types of programs. Through my Preserve Manager job, we have 80 acres of land throughout New Haven. We were one of the first urban land trusts in Connecticut. Through those preserves, [Gather New Haven] allows access to both green spaces and blues spaces in an urban setting, allowing people to enjoy that, and nature to enjoy that.”
[Science Yourself] What has inspired you to get involved in Environmental Education?
[Nikki Saccoccia] Growing up, I always knew I wanted to be some kind of teacher. My dad was a 5th grade science teacher in New London (CT), so I had that figure in my life to inspire me. I’ve always loved informal education. Growing up, it really gave me a chance to explore what I was really interested in and really seek out opportunities in environmental education. For example, in 7th grade, I sought out Project Oceanology camp for girls, and that really got me involved in learning more about field research. Then in high-school, I did an environmental research camp with the state called Project Search, with Alberto Mimo, which was very inspiring and showed me how important it is to provide opportunities. Those opportunities that really allow you to expand on what you may want to do as a career. Not just having people visit and say 'This is what I do,' but you’re actually doing something like field biologists do everyday. To get that practice early on is amazing! And the reason I bring this up as an inspiration for why I wanted to get into environmental education is to help facilitate and provide those types of opportunities that I had growing up, because I know how much of a profound effect it had on me. It was very empowering because it was what I wanted to do. It was not necessarily something that was going on at school. I actually struggled at school. I had to try really hard at math, which is very applicable to science, and to make those connections. So, having those informal education opportunities helped me making those connections and helped me really value experience. More than just knowing all these theories and stuff, it was applying them.
“There’s all these different ways to connect people to the outdoors, to nature, to the environment, that it doesn’t have to be a direct throwing all these facts and theories at them”
[Science Yourself] How do you see this flexibility of informal education particularly in your work?
[Nikki Saccoccia] How I see environmental education programs is creating a connection and educating about how we are all connected on this planet and applying the science that is there. In introducing kids and adults to the environment, it’s important to be very conscious to their development and how their understanding of the world is. Environmental education, what I love about it is it’s so multi-faceted and there are so many approaches you can take to it. You can take an art-based approach to it, which I particularly love as an artist. There’s all these different ways to connect people to the outdoors, to nature, to the environment, that it doesn’t have to be a direct throwing all these facts and theories at them. The whole point of it is you’re getting the hands-on experience, you’re seeing these things in-person, out in the field. [If] I’m showing them a turtle, they are going to be fascinated by it because it’s an animated thing that is happening right there. But what happens if you don’t find a turtle on the trail? How do you make that experience valuable to them? There are different creative ways to go about that. One particular approach I really have loved taking is teaching both kids and adults animal track-and-sign, because it allows them to slow down and critically think about a situation that’s in front of you, how it’d happened, and what could’ve left it. Whenever we would bring up symbiotic relationships… that’s a big word! You always have to group that big word with something that is going to create a lightbulb in people’s heads, in kids’ heads especially. This helps me be a creative person [because] I really want these connections to get there, I really want that lightbulb to go off in the kid’s head, so they visually remember. I always try to home in on my inner child 'What would help me remember this?' It always has to be a little bit silly, or something that I’d seen before. So back to the symbiotic relationship, I bring it back to 'Finding Nemo' or 'Finding Dory' especially for the newer generation. And I always talk about the clown fish and the sea anemones, especially because they have such a hard time saying ‘sea anemone’ and they laugh. So, they have a bit of humor to connect it to and then, talk about how both of these organisms benefit from each other and how they do. Symbiotic relationships are one of my favorite things to teach about to both kids and adults because it just shows that connectiveness in nature, and how we can benefit more from each other together rather than apart. And how many thousands of millions of years it’s taken nature to develop those relationships, and how we really need to think about that too. That is a long way of talking about how making those connections with kids, making it humorous, making it connective, is really important because it then more approachable if they are attaching those humorous images to a really cool scientific fact.
[Science Yourself] What do you see as the value of exploring science and art together?
[Nikki Saccoccia] Being able to incorporate both [science and art] is a dream to me. They equally benefit from each other. I implemented a few years ago a home-school nature art program where we would go outside and just create with the environment, [similar] to the Andy Goldsworthy approach. If anybody’s familiar with that artist that is able to take natural elements and make these cool structures. The point of it is for you to be creative, but you’re just then leaving these sculptures (that are still part of the environment, they are not harming the environment), that can just decompose back. It also just creates that creative element of the human being that is appreciative of art. The fact that it’s art that doesn’t take from the environment is really important. And also, what is such a profound impact for me to teach kids how to be creative. You don’t need these expensive art supplies to be an artist or to be creative. It’s about using what is in front of you. It’s teaching resourcefulness.
“Doing research in different state parks, like mapping invasive species, catching dragonflies and damselflies - that’s fun field science, and people need to know that science can be fun”
[Science Yourself] What is a common myth or misconception about environmental education that you had come across in your work? How do you work around this challenge?
[Nikki Saccoccia] Whenever I have an animal out, kids and sometimes adults be like ‘Oh, is it gonna bite me? Anything with teeth is there to bite me!’ So, what I always try to do, especially when it comes to what I call ‘volatile defenses of plants and animals’, I try to be super clear that these are some of the only ways that these organisms can communicate with us and defend their wellbeing. We need to be conscious of them around us and respect their defenses and how they’d developed them. Then get into the science of how they’d adapted to be this way. I think even about thorns on plants. Kids are always running through them, getting scratched and stuff. ‘Why don’t you just rip them all out?’ [And I say] ‘Why does the plant need thorns?’ I always try to give them the reason why they need those thorns. It’s a chance to talk really in depth about the defense adaptations of both plants and animals to kids and adults.
[Science Yourself] What would be your advice to someone who loves nature and science, and is seriously thinking about becoming an environmental educator?
[Nikki Saccoccia] What I’ve learned throughout my career in education is to always seek out opportunities. Don’t expect them to just come to you! If you’re interested in nature, in teaching environmental education, first get experience out of it. Go out into the field or find somebody that works out in the field, and volunteer with them. In middle-school or high-school, join your environmental club. Just get involved in what is relevant right now. Seek out those volunteer opportunities. My mom and I would always, when I was growing up, take advantage of volunteer opportunities with the CT-DEEP, tagging geese, do stuff with fisheries, and tagging butterflies. There always those opportunities that are out there, you just have to seek them, even if you just Google them. Because that’s exactly how I found the environmental research camp that the state used to put on and involved a few UConn professors that were actually doing research in different state parks, like mapping invasive species, catching dragonflies and damselflies for David Wagner at UConn. That’s fun field science, and people need to know that that’s fun. That science can be fun. There’s all the nitty-gritty in between, but it’s about the relevancy. And also, what’s so important about environmental education is the communication of the science to make it relevant. Because you can have all these scientists, all around the world, collaborating and making great strides, but it takes the public understanding what’s happening and conveying that to the world. Environmental education takes that step by step through childhood development up until adults to create those important connections.
