Our Mission

Nature Badge’s mission is to market fun nature products for youth to develop knowledge and vision for realizing a rich childhood within healthy ecological and civic community.

Audience

Nature Badge stories and products are aimed at a K-12 audience of youth who have an open mind to fun and learning challenges from nature explorations. Key story protagonists are 11 years old, with involvement of their friends, family and community members of all ages.

Nature Badge is a great compliment to classroom academic learning by adding whole-community outcome-based experiential learning, thus, is also a great adjunct to homeschooling. Parents, relatives and friends will love the “giftables” nature of products they can give loved ones of all ages.

Need

The world is at a turning point for needing a new paradigm framework for new habits and lifestyles to assure citizens enjoy ‘life, liberty and happiness’ in healthy ecosystems for generations to come.

Nature Badge accepts the Nov 2020 National Geographic magazine’s “In Science We Must Trust” article’s challenge to turn our attention to Climate Adaptation, with the greatest threat to the environment being the general disconnect between nature and people:

Science clearly shows that this decade is the decisive decade for humanity’s future on Earth, as humanity is bumping up against, and in a few cases hurling past, nine distinct planetary boundaries as we are doing dangerous harm to the planet.

The most fundamental problem of why people find it hard to come to grips with this well-documented threat is that we are too myopic as a species, focused on us and the here and now – which seemed to serve us well in the past.

New financial and climate breakdowns are related to our “expansionist human project” and changing the project will require profound cultural transformation – a collective shift in mindset for a better future. The good news is ¾ Americans are now on board!

Wherever change starts, it can sometimes spread contagiously, as people are inspired by the example of others. A small minority can tip the rest of us.
Nature Badge has this focus!

Nature Badge re-connects people with thriving “double-community;” – with the living world of Nature matched to our human community – through exciting eco-educational stories and products nurturing regenerative culture.

There is a national and global society need to not only shift towards a “sustainability win-win” of ecological health, to counter exponential ecological degradation, including climate change, but also for civic health, to counter the erosion of representative democracy by providing widespread (very popular easy-to-understand) education through folksy modeling vignettes, demonstrating good character values for next generation youth.

Strategy

Nature Badge facilitates this needed paradigm framework change by providing popular eco-entertainment stories and products through free market merchandising of daily use products.

Branding:
Nature Badge’s mission is achieved through marketing a full-spectrum of exciting branded imagery, stories and products for kid’s learning explorations.

  • Badger Bug [aka BB-tyke], a ¾-inch tall micro super-sprite, is Nature Badge’s host, mascot and ringmaster helping kids understand both the visible and invisible aspects of the many cycles in nature (energy, water, climate, mineral, bio-succession, etc).
  • The core anchor emblem of Nature Badge is its logo, an all-encompassing, 4-Direction/7-forces symbol of inter-connected nature web balance.

At it’s Core is a 5-point compass:

  1. Center pivot is the Learner/customer (shown by a diamond);

  2. East (Orient/ orientation/sunrise) is at the left;

  3. South is at top (arc of the sun across the sky during a day);

  4. West is at the right (sunset), and; North is at the bottom (night/ rest & regeneration)

Wheel Sphere of 7-Forces:

  • The core hexagon centers on carbon (C6) and diamond character.
  • The six-colored swirl-knobs represent the 6 dynamic mega-nature forces of animal, air, energy, water, plants, animals and earth.
  • The outer ring represents the 7th force of human culture, starting with gold prosperity at the east and ending back in full green regeneration at the end of circadian days and years, to start healthy cycles over again.
  • The grid lines, the blue globe, and the compass directions accentuate our living 3D world.

Ecological Citizenship: Nature Badge is about using a fun and popular “edu-tainment” approach to building Ecological Citizenship for today’s Re-generation Generation of strong future leaders.

Ecological knowledge and critical thinking competence is gained through:

  • Focusing on exploring the 7-Forces of nature – dynamic beauty and drama of (animals, air, energy, water, plants, earth and culture).
  • Experiencing, in imagination and real life, the interconnected-web of the nature cycles (Mineral/carbon cycle, Water cycle, Energy cycle and Biodiversity life cycle).
  • Because most of these vital cycles are invisible to human senses, imaginary micro/macro superpower “eco-sprites” are used in a marvelous reality fantasy story genre to bridge the invisibility gap for very rapid concept learning.

Citizenship competence is gained through the best lens America offers: life, liberty and happiness is modeled via science, freedom and justice in story vignettes:

  • Aristotle (father of science & great ethics & gov. thinker) is modeled by key mentor Ari Logos.
  • US Founders of constitutional rule of law are mentor influences (see GemBadge product).

Creator’s Bio

Nature Badge is created by Norm Lowe, who comes from a long line of pioneers who settled the Intermountain West, and has rural, urban and international cultural experience and perspectives. With degrees in Natural Resources Management and in Sustainable Communities, his life work has included solving daunting challenges as a scientist and land management specialist, working with land management agencies and doing consulting working with ranchers, environmentalists and Native American tribal groups across the West. He has also been involved in Environmental Education teaching about sustainable building, development and lifestyle. Nature Badge products have been developed to boost customer’s quality of life and dreams of “life, liberty and happiness” that include healthy ecosystem habitats.