The Healing Power of Nature: Mountain School at Seattle Children’s Hospital

Mountain School is an immersive environmental education program that has served regional fifth graders since 1990. During the 3-day program, students spend most of their time outside, hiking on trails and exploring the waters, forests, plants and wildlife of the North Cascades ecosystem. Through hands-on, interdisciplinary activities, they connect with the natural and cultural history of our region, strengthen their relationships with classmates and the environment, and discover their place in the world—as someone intricately connected to the web of life. 

Over the years, Mountain School has evolved and adapted, responding to the ever-changing needs of regional youth. Mountain School at Home was developed to support students and families during the 2020-2021 school closures. Our instructors created more than 20 downloadable Mountain School-inspired lessons and educational videos to offer teachers and students of any age ways to stay connected with the natural world just outside their door during a time when we were all stuck close to home.

Now, in its 35th year, Mountain School has evolved again to meet the needs of students who cannot make the journey to the Environmental Learning Center —or in some cases, even leave their rooms. This spring, the Institute delivered a bit of the North Cascades to Seattle Children’s Hospital, offering in-patient youth a day of interactive, hands-on activities designed to bring nature to them!

Seattle Children’s Hospital cares for young people with rare and complex medical conditions from across the Pacific Northwest and beyond. Whether they are participating in research trials, recovering from procedures or receiving ongoing treatment, many patients miss out on experiences like class field trips or outdoor education during extended hospital stays.

My son Ren is one of those children. During a family trip to Oregon in July 2022, at just 4 years old, Ren had his first complex seizure and was hospitalized at Seattle Children’s two days later. Since then, Ren has spent more time in the hospital with doctors than in a classroom with friends, and because of medical limitations, often misses out on family hikes and time outdoors. 

During extended stays in Seattle Children’s, my partner and I were grateful to their Child Life department and the community organizations offering fun, entertaining activities that Ren could enjoy in the on-site playroom and from the comfort of his room. It helped pass the time and brought lightness and joy to otherwise tough days.

Our Mountain School manager, Megan Carter, also felt the value of Seattle Children’s partner programs firsthand as a patient in her youth: 

I was a patient at Seattle Children’s Hospital in September of 2001, and during my stay, I had the chance to take part in a nature program much like the one we offered. I still remember how special it was to simply be outside, even for a little while. Since then, it’s become a personal mission of mine to make the outdoors more accessible to everyone. Returning to Seattle Children’s – this time to share hands-on outdoor education with the kids – was incredibly meaningful. It felt like a full-circle moment, and I was deeply grateful for the opportunity to help spark the same joy, curiosity, and sense of connection with nature that meant so much to me as a young patient.

My favorite part of working at North Cascades Institute is seeing the lasting, positive impacts our programs have on participants, and, like Megan, I wanted to share those transformative nature moments with kids at Seattle Children’s. 

So Megan and I, along with Mountain School coordinators Cate McGlynn-Mandel and Victoria Aguilar, traveled to Children’s to offer youth the chance to learn about North Cascades wildlife and ecology through multi-sensory activities, adapted from our Mountain School curriculum. Patients joined us in-person, in the hospital’s nature play park or virtually from their rooms.

During two, 2-hour sessions, patients and their caregivers enjoyed the following activities:

+ Megan invited youth to explore the region’s streams, geology, plants, fungi and wildlife in sensory bags, and get a new perspective on rocks & plant life through field microscopes. The rocks got rave reviews! Megan also made a poster – with a beautiful North Cascades landscape and our spring campaign theme “Take Root and Rise“ – for the children to decorate with their favorite plants, animals & creative flourishes.

+ Cate had fun getting messy, making pollinator-friendly seed “bombs” for kids to toss in their gardens or neighborhoods. Everyone loved digging their fingers into the soil to mold seed bombs! With spring warmth encouraging new growth, blooms will be popping up all over Seattle soon.

+ Victoria introduced everyone to some iconic North Cascades wildlife with skulls & animal track identification. Eyes widened when kids saw the black bear print and grew even bigger when they compared it to the grizzly bear print! Participants even made molds of their favorite animal track to take home to remember the day.

+ And I read stories from past Nature of Writing titles like “Wild Heart” by Kim Allyson Freier and “School of Fish” by Mary Boone and shared information about the Institute and our programs with parents and staff.

_______________________________________________

All of us enjoyed connecting with the children and inviting their minds to wander beyond the hospital walls to explore our mountain ecosystem – our educators’ passion for this special bioregion truly brought the North Cascades to life in the hospital play park!

At the end of the day, each child left with a big smile on their face & a North Cascades goodie bag in hand, and our team went home with joyful hearts. 

Children across our region receive first-class medical care at Seattle Children’s Hospital and immersive outdoor education with North Cascades Institute, and the positive impacts of both are amplified when we come together to provide youth access to the healing power of nature. We look forward to supporting this new partnership in the years ahead, and helping more kids enjoy more hands-on ah-ha nature moments that they’ll remember for years to come.