A steward of the environment, especially California’s Sierra Nevada, John Muir Laws, has dedicated himself to revealing the natural world through art and science.
John (Jack) Laws has been an environmental educator for 30 years. He recently collaborated with the California Native Plant Society and with English instructor, Emily Breunig, to create a wonderful curriculum integrating art, science and the language arts.
I am thrilled to introduce John Muir Laws and Opening the World Through Nature Journaling, the Feature Curriculum for December.
John has kept a sketchbook since elementary school. Challenged by dyslexia, he found that keeping a journal was the easiest way to record his experiences. Drawing and sketching helped him see things he had never noticed before. John’s mom gave John his first sketchbook. One year during a family trip, John and his family met a woman who was keeping a wildflower sketchbook. John’s mom noticed how he followed this woman and her sketchbook throughout their trip. On the next family vacation, John’s mom gave him a sketchbook and colored pencils so he could document their vacation. Little did she know that years later, John would use sketchbooks as a teaching tool.
While working as a naturalist group leader at Walker Creek Ranch in northern California, John led activities designed to connect children to nature. He decided to incorporate journaling into his activities to help students slow down and focus in the same way his own journals helped him to slow down and become a better observer. He soon began to notice differences between his journaling audience and the groups of children who ran through the ranch without stopping to see what was really there. John began to expand upon his journaling exercises. The Marin County Outdoor School at Walker Creek Ranch became a great testing ground. It took about four years for John to develop his activities. He wrote up his observations, began sharing them with other naturalists and teachers, and over a period of 10-15 years, his activities were tested hundreds of times and refined. This collection of journaling exercises eventually became Opening the World Through Nature Journaling.
The response to Opening the World Through Nature Journaling has been “amazing”, according to John. He says “(the curriculum) has been well-adopted in California and across the country. Teachers get this is authentic student-driven education.”
While John was developing and testing journaling activities, he was also launching the program Following Muir’s Footsteps and working on his book, The Laws Field Guide to the Sierra Nevada (2007).
Following Muir’s Footsteps is a conservation project for schools in the Sierra Nevada region whose aim is to encourage local youth to become citizen stewards of the Sierra. Encompassing an eighteen-county area around the Sierra Nevada, Following Muir’s Footsteps connects youth to nature through firsthand experiences and journaling. Through this program, John provides in-service training for teachers about how to use field guides and how to use science journals in their classrooms. He also sponsors one mentor teacher from each school so they can attend the Sierra Nevada Teacher Institute, a summer program where teachers learn about the biodiversity of the Sierra Nevada. School libraries also benefit from this fantastic program. The library of each participating school receives 25 copies of The Laws Field Guide to the Sierra Nevada.
The idea to create his comprehensive field guide to the Sierra Nevada was hatched when John was in high school. One day, while hiking the John Muir Trail and juggling many field guides, he thought how wonderful it would be to have all of his field guides packaged into one portable book. By the time he finished high school, John says he could visualize the pages, the layout — everything. John’s grandmother encouraged him to begin working on his dream. At about this same time, he came across a poem by Mary Oliver called The Journey. The first line of this poem read:
One day, you finally knew what you had to do, and began.
So John quit his job and says he “filled my backpack with paper and granola.” He spent the next six years documenting the flora and fauna of the Sierra Nevada. In the early stages of this full-time project, he drew whatever he encountered. At the end, he went into the field with species lists. John says the last few species on his list were a particular challenge and that locating them was a true “scavenger hunt.”
How did John take on the expansive Sierra Nevada? He started at the lower elevations in the south and, as plants bloomed in the Spring, he followed the bloom hopping back and forth between the west side and the east side. Every 1-2 weeks, John hiked out to pick up fresh supplies, get more paper, bathe and shave.
In The Laws Field Guide to the Sierra Nevada, you will find descriptions of over 1700 species and 2,700 watercolor paintings. John drew each plant from life and each illustration was started and completed in the field. Illustrations of birds, insects and mammals began as quick gesture sketches in the field. They were then finished in the studio after a careful study of museum skins, reference materials, and the collections at the California Academy of Science.
When asked how it is he can make so many big things happen, John says none of his programs were launched as big complete packages. He explains, “It was an accumulation of a lot of little pieces coming together organically. This is what makes it possible to do something big.”
Ask The Artist with John Muir Laws
John received a Bachelor of Science in Conservation and Resource Studies at UC Berkeley and a Master of Science in Wildlife Biology at the University of Montana. He is also a graduate of the scientific illustration program founded at UC Santa Cruz, that is now taught at California State University Monterey Bay. In 2011, John received the TogetherGreen fellowship from Audubon/Toyota and this enabled him to deliver the Following Muir’s Footsteps program to 10 schools in the Sierra Nevada. This month, we have the extraordinary opportunity to discuss art, science and education with John.
To take advantage of this opportunity, post your questions or comments in the comment box below. John will respond to questions throughout the month of December.
Teachers, do you know of other teachers who might like to join in the conversation? Please send them the link to this article. The conversation will happen right here on this page.
Request a copy of Opening the World Through Nature Journaling
To request your own copy of the nature journal curriculum written by John Muir Laws and Emily Breunig in collaboration with the California Native Plant Society, click here.
Drawing Plants: Tutorials by John Muir Laws
John recently posted tutorials about how to draw plants on his website. These tutorials were created specifically for teachers. The demonstrations are easy for teachers to recreate in their own classrooms. Leaf and flower templates are available for download. View John’s instructional videos in the Nature Drawing section of his website.
ArtPlantae Today 
Welcome to our conversation with naturalist and educator John Muir Laws. You are invited to ask John questions about environmental education and how to incorporate the use of nature journals into your classroom or program. Post your questions and comments in the comment box below.
Let’s get the conversation started!
I am looking forward to meeting all of you. I would love to share thoughts and ideas about nature sketching and education. I should make a disclaimer up front. I am dyslexic and I am sure that my posts will be peppered with spelling mistakes. Try to look past it to the content. Are any teachers out there using nature sketchbooks in your classrooms? What has your experience been? I also am looking for ideas to help people find the time and space to make one 5 min. sketch a day. Any ideas to help motivate ourselves or our students?
We start with teaching our students to make their own journals, many from recycled materials or handmade papers they helped make in class. They are very excited to explore and less intimidated by the ‘blank page’ it seems, since they now ‘own’ the process. I teach a formal program to children K through 3rd grade, and a more informal program to preschoolers. I find their drawings much more concrete when they have the opportunity to handle natural materials and draw from those. Then we talk about where they came from and some of the ecological connections they hint to.
It makes a huge difference to draw from real things. We have this idea in our head about what a leaf or a tree looks like. But the real leaf or tree looks nothing like that. By drawing from real natural materials you have a chance to challenge that idea in your head and encounter the real world. Those journals of handmade paper sound beautiful. Have you considered writing up your process and sharing it with other teachers?
I have done a little of that but not to a wider audience, really. Papermaking requires patience and is a very wet process. We usually do it in the summer when we can bring the ‘mess’ outdoors. : ) I recycled some stretcher bars from some student oil paintings I had done and put window screen material on those for the paper molds. You also need a heavy duty blender for mixing the wet paper ingredients. The kids love tearing up discarded paper bits before it all goes in the blender to make the slurry! We will often incorporate dried leaves and flowers from our classroom garden too.
I bet they look stunning. The texture of home made paper is wonderful. Any suggestions for the best kind of blender?
I think Waring makes a 1.5 liter heavyweight blender that is good for this. I use my old blender but don’t overload on the pulp. One can also buy cotton linters by the bag – that makes the paper more archival but you have to add some sizing to make it a bit more sturdy.
Blenders really get worn out fast making paper but can often be found at garage sales. Simple paper making screens can be made by using 1 or 2 layers of screen with duct tape folded around the outside edges. This is an inexpensive and easy solution which means you can have a lot of screens in different sizes and shapes so lots of kids can be involved. The newly created wet paper has to be placed on a surface until it dries. I’ve found that torn up pieces of sheets (also very cheap) work well for this and can be used endlessly.
Great idea Terry,
I will start breaking for garage sales. It sounds like a very productive mess! The best kind. I like finding ways of doing projects in an inexpensive way that allows more kids to get involved.
Hi Jack,
In October I created a 30 leaves in 30 day challenge. I posted it on my blog and artists from around the globe participated. I posted everyday and showed them what I had done. It was not exactly a sketch but a challenge for a certain time could be a way to spur interest. 30 days 30 leaves could be incorporated into the sketch a day. Having to find a different leaf for each day makes you have to get outside and look. When I posted it online I became accountable for producing the work and it kept me motivated. Perhaps something like this could work with kids, maybe for a shorter period of time or different subject or adaptation.
I love this idea. As of four days ago I have started a bird a day. Even if I am going to spend the day drawing in the studio. I need to make sure I get out and draw a real bird from life. I want you to hold me accountable for the next 30 days. Lets see what happens. Does anyone else out there want to join?
John has a tutorial about how to draw birds on his website. Go to http://www.johnmuirlaws.com/drawing-birds to watch John take a bird drawing from geometric shapes to a finished painting.
Also see his latest post, Creating Illustrations for Field Guides.
So far I am doing well with my sketch a day. I find it really helps to have all my sketch stuff out and accessible. If I have to hunt for my art supplies I will not do it. I see towhees in the yard right now and I need to sketch them!
How many species of birds have you observed so far this month?
That is an interesting question. Unlike many bird watchers, I do not keep track of how many species I have seen/month, year, or even overall. I am mostly interested in what the birds that I see are doing. The most exciting observation this month was a Sharp-shinned hawk that took a finch right outside my window. I could not sketch it while it was there because I would have scarred it if I approached my drawing supplies. Once it flew away, I grabbed my pencil and went to work.
Memory drawing is a skill that develops over time. The most important part is that you can have a general understanding of the bird’s structure so you do not have to hold everything in short term memory. It also helps to say your observations out loud when you are looking at the bird. This helps hold those observations for access in your short term memory.
John,
I have been looking for easy-to-follow bookmaking instructions. A book I found has directions I am going to try. Especially appealing are the chapters titled Folded Books, Simply Glued, and Simply Sewn. The “simply” part is what I am after.
Do you have a favorite 5-minute journal that you like to create with students and teachers?
Here is a fast system that offers a lot of flexibility. Start with an 8.5 x 11 cardstock cover. You can use a photo copy machine to print on one or both sides if you want cover elements such as the name of your group, student name, a regional map or a ruler. Place several pieces of copy paper or other 8.5 x 11 drawing paper on top of the cover. Use a centerline stapler to put two staples in the midline of the book and fold. You end up with a quick and inexpensive journal that is 5.5 x 8.5. Students can illustrate the cover to personalize the books. The secret ingredient is the centerline stapler, a $35 investment that will pay for itself if you are making a lot of journals.
A great simple format. Thank you. I always forget about those centerline staplers.
Does anyone else have a quick-and-easy journal they like to create for their own use or with students?
There are so many good ways to make journals! I really like Peter and Donna Thomas’ books, especially ‘More Making Books by Hand’ and Gabrielle Fox’
‘The Essential Guide to Making Handmade Books’ for a lot of fun approaches. We sometimes cover discarded cereal cartons with decorative paper and use those as the boards or have the kids decorate plain paper and use that. If I want to get fancy I’ll take a strip of bookcloth to use as a hinge between the two covers and punch a hole through the center, about an inch from each end and one in the middle, then do the same thing with paper folded to just under the size of the covers, and lace through all thicknesses with pearl cotton or some other cord.
Great suggestions. I love the feel of home made books.
John,
You’ve worked with many children of all ages. If you sorted all of the ages into separate groups (e.g., ages 5-8, 9-12, etc.), have you found that some OTWTNJ activities work better with some age groups more than others?
If so, what tends to work with younger students? Teenagers?
(OTWTNJ = “Opening the World Thorough Nature Journaling”)
On page 5 of OTWTHJ I have a matrix for grade and age appropriateness. Most of the activities work with children from about 8 years old and older. They also work great with adults. I use many of these activities with students in college classes that I teach and they do not seem out of place. Once students are at the stage where they are using drawing to represent what they see instead of just as symbols (this mean house, this means cat) you are good to go. That transition often happens around 3rd grade so by 4th or 5th grade you should be able to use these activities with most students. I do encourage art activities before that but some students will not be ready to draw what they see. They will draw “a” leaf instead of “this” leaf.
Thank you, John.
Readers, what have been your experiences with the journaling activties you teach?
John,
Thank you for spending time with us during the busy month of December and for introducing us to your new curriculum.
Readers, be sure to visit John’s website to learn more about nature journaling and how to use journals in the classroom. You might be especially interested in his upcoming classes and speaking events. If you are on Facebook, you can follow him there too.