In Spring 1998, in anticipation of the new UM-Dearborn Environmental Interpretive Center’s opening, Ford Motor Company awarded $200,000 for the Children’s Environmental Wall project.
The project engaged over 2,000 school children, mostly between the ages of 7-12, in environmental education programs conducted outdoors in the UM-Dearborn Environmental Study Area. Led by naturalists from the UM-D Natural Areas Department, the children were encouraged to pencil sketch one memory from their field trip onto a blank 6” x 6”, unfired ceramic tile. This was most often done in their own classrooms upon returning to school.
