One of the newest GHC clubs, the Nature Journaling Club, will offer students the opportunity to incorporate elements of nature and merge the fields of art and biology.

Chair of Library Services, Jessica Osborne, is the club adviser. She says she has wanted to offer the club for years with John Muir Laws being her inspiration.

“Nature Journaling will enrich your experiences and develop observation, curiosity, gratitude, reverence, memory and the skills of a naturalist,” the Nature Journaling webpage says. “You do not need to be an artist or a naturalist to begin.”

“There’s a lot I’m excited about with this club. I think there will be fun experiential things. We’ve generated a wish list of places to go and journal,” Osborne said. “I also think it will be fun to see how everyone’s journaling grows and changes over time. Nature journaling pulls on aspects of observation, discovery and communication.”

Osborne said nature journaling is fascinating due to the way people can establish connections in their brains to strengthen the way they process information since one is communicating information in various ways.

“Have you ever doodled while taking notes in a class? If you have, you may have noticed that the content was easier to remember,” Osborne said. “Nature journaling is an exercise, observing nature, looking for distinct characteristics, drawing those and recording data surrounding those experiences.”

A study by Myra A. Fernandes, Jeffery D. Wammes and Melissa E. Meade from the University of Waterloo conducted a study titled “The Surprisingly Powerful Influence of Drawing on Memory” that shows drawing is better for information retention than reading or writing. 

Edutopia said in an article that “the researchers confirmed drawing to be a ‘reliable, replicable means of boosting performance’—it provided a significant boost to students’ ability to remember what they were learning.”

Osborne believes that this club has the potential to attract a wide range of individuals even though several members of the Nature Journaling Club are also members of the Green Highlands club. 

The club offers a blend of academic and creative pursuits with combined aspects of arts and STEM. 

The club discussed its purpose, forthcoming events and plans of the organization of future meetings on its first meeting date of Feb. 24. The date for the next meeting is to be determined.

For more information on the Nature Journaling club, contact Jessica Osborne at [email protected].