Updated Sept. 18, 10:04 a.m.
Local educator Carolyn Walker is teaming up with the Davidson Lands Conservancy to offer a new nature discovery program for families called World of Wonder, or WOW. The program begins Oct. 2 and will include sessions at Davidson Farmer’s Market as well as nature outings.

Ms. Walker and DLC members will be at Davidson Green Day on the Village Green Saturday, Sept. 18, from 9 a.m. to talk about the new program.

Ms. Walker is the former lead teacher of The Children’s Schoolhouse preschool in Huntersville and also was one of the first teachers in the Children’s Arts Project in Cornelius. She had been working over the past year on a proposal for a nature-focused pre-school on Mayes Road. But the owner of the property sold to another buyer and she has dropped those plans.

But she hasn’t dropped the idea. At the prompting Pam Dykstra and other DLC members, she decide to collaborate with DLC to create WOW, which she called “a start in getting children outdoors,” she said.

In a web page outlining the new program, Ms. Walker and the DLC explain: “Too few children spend time outdoors experiencing the natural world first-hand. The reasons are many: the lure of electronic media, concerns for crime and safety, lack of information about natural resources, unfamiliarity with nature, and overscheduled children and parents.”

The new program will include activities and nature education at the Davidson Farmer’s Market as well as off site during “nature outings” for parents and children. The first programs on Oct. 2 and 16 will focus on spiders. Outings on those days will be led by David Grant, a Davidson College biology professor (emeritus), consultant with Discovery Place, and an adjunct curator at the Schiele Museum in Gastonia.

More information about WOW and registration forms are available on the Davidson Lands Conservancy website, www.davidsonlands.org. You can also stop by the WOW table at Saturday’s Green Day Festival on the Village Green, between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m.

STILL A CHANCE FOR A SCHOOL

Ms. Walker had sought approval from town officials spring to use a home off Mayes Road as a nature school to be called Woodlands Discovery. The project ran into opposition from neighbors. The Davidson Planning Board declined to recommend it in March. Ms. Walker later presented the proposal to the Davidson Town Board, last April, but the board never took action on the request. The property owners, developers of the nearby Woodlands at Davidson subdivision, sold the property to another buyer in June.

Still, Ms. Walker is continuing to look for a way to establish a permanent nature school. She said she is looking at other properties and trying to raise funding.

In the meantime, she hopes to fill demand for a kids nature program through the Davidson Lands Conservancy program. “I am very excited about it, and we hope that many groups in the community will come forward to offer their time, talent, expertise and/or interests as a community service at the booth at the market,” she said.

Specifically, she’s looking for clubs, scouting groups, businesses, school classes, or individuals who might like to take on an activity in the WOW program – maybe for one or two Saturdays during the year. She invites prospective partners to contact her at dlc.wow@gmail.com or .

“I see it as an opportunity for community members to teach one another and share their love of the outdoors,” she said.

CORRECTION: This story was updated Saturday, Sept. 18, 2010, at 10:04 a.m. to correct former jobs titles of Carolyn Walker and the contact email address.