Escondido Children's Museum helps visitors find nature's ABCs

By: JOEL D. AMOS - For the North County Times | Saturday, August 18, 2007 10:20 PM PDT ∞

ESCONDIDO -- The Escondido Children's Museum opened its first visiting exhibition Saturday with a focus on the connection between nature and language.

The photography exhibit "Discovering Nature's Alphabet" began as a game for a Los Angeles married couple and has evolved into a burgeoning educational tool. Krystina Castella and Brian Boyl's accompanying book of the same name has sold 12,000 copies and spawned a curriculum guide from kindergarten to high school.

The two are avid backpackers, and the couple's quest to find nature's alphabet arose from Castella. "She's so observant and notices the minutest details," Boyl said.

Both are university professors at the Art Center of Design and UCLA, and the couple said Saturday that the teaching potential of their "game" appeared when children began imitating their actions on Laguna Beach.

The couple's first picture was taken in 2000 at Joshua Tree National Park.

"I thought, that tree looks like a 'Y,' " Castella said. "Then I wondered, how many letters could we find?"

Three years later, they finally shot the photograph of the last letter ---- "Q," an almost impossible letter to find in its perfect form.

"And wouldn't you know it, 10 feet away we found the second 'Q,' " Boyl said.

Saturday was a day of firsts ---- the museum's first traveling exhibit and Boyl and Castella's first opportunity to witness their show.

"This is a landmark meeting of firsts," Boyl said of the exhibit that runs through Oct. 13.

Museum executive director Katie Ragazzi said she was inspired by how much the exhibit's subject matter synched with the museum's mission.

"We get kids excited about learning about the world," Ragazzi said. "Because of this exhibit, the bar for future exhibits is set very high. It's important that we offer new content as often as we can."

Educational opportunities with "Nature's Alphabet" are produced on numerous levels, Castella said, and the most profound are the unseen ---- families that leave the exhibit launching their own game.

"That is so fun for us," she said. "If we weren't teachers, we might not have thought so much about passing this on. That's what we do every day."

Later, the opening crowd took in a lecture from the exhibit's photographers.

The permeating theme was clear, especially given their patience for finding the perfect "Q."

"Look up, look down," Boyl said. "Do not rush through something. Look at the details. Notice the beautiful things out there. There are intricacies in nature that you would never discover otherwise."

Fertile grounds for nature's alphabet exist universally. Their quest took them to all 50 states and produced photographs running the gamut in subject form ---- from a "K" formed by two trees to an "E" that emerges from protruding tree roots.

The couple said they are thrilled by how their idea has become a way to teach children about photography while incorporating linguistics. The educational opportunities keep emerging.

"As students get older, there are other topics that can be explored, from history to where language comes from," Castella said.

The biggest smile at Saturday's opening was on the face of Ragazzi, the founder of the Children's Museum. With the premiere traveling exhibit opened, the museum's flourishing future was on display as much as "Discovering Nature's Alphabet."

"We're growing up," Ragazzi proudly said.