The staff at Rochester’s Quarry Hill Nature Center seem to have solved a scientific problem. How can you entertain people while giving a basic nature lesson?

Keep kids engaged by joining the Nature Center’s weekly video program launched early in the COVID-19 pandemic. Add vanilla ice cream and MC Hammer. Throw in firefighters, waders, (literally) dancing in the river, and a healthy dose of camping and self-respect.

What you get is a parody music video about basic outdoor education that’s trending on social media (like making scientist Bill Nighy jealous).

Pam Meyer, Executive Director of Quarry Hill, said:

Meyer was the muse for the Nature Center’s first music video, Ice Ice Safety. She and several naturalists (many of whom are also science educators at Rochester Public Schools) have called “This Week in the Wild” for distance learning lessons for students in southeastern Minnesota neighborhoods during the pandemic. We have launched a video series for

Weekly videos offer biology lessons on topics from conifers and lichens to earthworms and great horned owls. But no one thought to make the video lyrically flowing until Meyer hit upon the idea while driving back from a conference last winter.

“This staff is very creative,” she said. “So when the director came back and said, ‘Why don’t you do Vanilla Ice, isn’t ‘Ice Ice Safety’ insane?’ rice field.

Quarry Hill naturalist Jenna Daire said she knew immediately that the idea would work. The staff had already shot and produced an informational video for over a year, so it was easy to take a break to co-edit the lyrics and hear the results.

In ‘Ice Ice Safety’, ‘At least 4 inches thick is the safest to explore’, ‘Drills are waiting and rulers are about to dive. Group?

The follow-up “Don’t Touch This” camouflages MC Hammer’s “U Can’t Touch This” by pointing out what pesky plants such as poison ivy and wild parsnips look like, giving them a rash It points out what people can use to mitigate . those plants.

The parody is a fun farewell to students heading into winter or summer break. The first video came out in his mid-December, and the second in his first week of June. The average Nature Center video production cycle is about two weeks, but a parody takes him two months to complete.

“It takes a lot of work to put the lyrics and the vision together,” said Brooke Hilger, another naturalist at Quarry Hill who edits the video.

And they breathed new life on social media. “Ice Ice Safety” has over 8,000 views on Quarry Hill’s Facebook page, and “Don’t Touch This” has over 11,000 views on his.

“There are people I haven’t spoken to in years… [who] It’s like, ‘Oh my god, you’re in the video, what are you doing!'” said Daire. They love fun and they love science. ”

The staff already have ideas for a third music video, but are willing to branch out into well-known non-hip-hop songs. They want people to see through awkward dances and silly lyrics and learn more about the outdoors.

“It’s really powerful for me to connect people with nature, even through a screen, and hopefully in the long run it gets them out there,” Hilger said. So a little screen time, but a lot of green time.”