When Matt Kamin took over as executive director of the Children's Nature Institute in April, he knew he was stepping into an important role. But he didn't understand the true effect of the institute's work until a few weeks later, when he found himself rumbling down the 10 Freeway with 60 rambunctious children from Boyle Heights.
"They were all screaming," Kamin, 32, said with a smile on a recent morning. "You know how it is -- madness."
Their school bus approached the coast and entered the tunnel that forms the transition between the 10 Freeway and Pacific Coast Highway in Santa Monica. The bus emerged from the tunnel, and the children suddenly were looking at the crystalline ocean.
"Dead silence," Kamin said. "They were 20 minutes from their house. Maybe 30. But they had never seen the ocean before."
The children were among 12,000 underprivileged, at-risk and special-needs students the institute will serve this year. Many of the children are autistic or homeless and in foster care.
The Franklin Canyon-based institute enhances the education of students from poor, underperforming schools by introducing them to nature and environmental studies. Now in its 24th year, the institute is one of the Southern California nonprofit groups featured as part of The Times' annual Holiday Campaign.
The institute's organizers have armed themselves with studies linking nature-based education with children's improved academic performance, reduced disciplinary problems, improved mental and physical health and greater dedication to environmental stewardship.
That idea seems to be catching on: Earlier this month, the stick -- yes, just a stick -- was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame, which praised its versatility, its ability to spark children's imaginations and the fact that it is free. Studies have also shown that nature-based education can improve an array of skills, including science, math and vocabulary.
"But we have to get them to see it," Kamin said. "These kids are living in concrete, going to school in concrete and then coming back home to concrete."
Most children served by the organization go through a three-part education effort.
First, the institute visits a school in one of its two "Wonder Mobiles" -- a lab on wheels that uses teaching tools such as live "walking stick" insects to help educate students about camouflage.
