Inspire your young adventurer with tips from Nat Geo Explorers
Bring out the explorer in your child with advice from dinosaur discoverers, whale whisperers, and other National Geographic experts.
ByJamie Kiffel-Alcheh
Published September 26, 2022
National Geographic Explorer Erika Bergman remembers running her hand over a line of plants while jogging along a Hawaiian riverbed. Like magic, the plants closed at the then 12-year-old’s touch. "I remember feeling both powerful and completely tiny at the same time,” she says. “That's the feeling I still experience and strive for when I’m piloting submarines.”
The thrill of her kid-size explorations are a big part of what led to a career as a submarine pilot and engineer. And whether your kids dream of discovering the world or just their own backyards, they can get big benefits from exploring, too.
Multiple studies show that exploring can provide kids with critical-thinking skills, creativity, and confidence. “It means kids don’t have to fit in a box,” says conservationist and veterinarian Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka, another Nat Geo Explorer. “They develop a love for learning about new things and get interested in being innovative and creative.”
In fact, plenty of Explorers found their passion when they were children. Several have even been featured in the Nat Geo Kids book series Explorer Academy, about a special school for explorers-in-training who travel the world to protect animals and habitats, discover lost cities, and crack hidden codes that could lead to a lifesaving formula.
Although the books are fictional, a lot of the futuristic tech the characters use was based on the work of real National Geographic Explorers. Check out a few of the Explorers who were featured in the books, then read their tips on how you can raise an explorer.
Meet the Explorers:
David Gruber
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Photograph by DROBIS, REBECCA / National Geographic Image Collection
Marine biologist David Gruber has created what he calls a “shark-eye camera” that sees underwater life the way a shark would and co-developed “squishy robot fingers” to gently examine ocean life. He’s also discovered bioluminescent (glowing!) underwater creatures, which inspired the Explorer Academy students’ bioluminescent “Hide-and-Seek” jackets that come with their Explorer Academy uniforms. In Book 2, The Falcon’s Feather, main character Cruz Coronado wears a UCC (Universal Cetacean Communicator) to “talk” with whales, similar to Gruber’s work to better understand whale communication through a nonprofit called Project CETI (Cetacean Translation Initiative). Read David Gruber’s tips on raising an explorer.
Erika Bergman
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Photograph by MIKE PARMELEE / National Geographic Image Collection
Submarine pilot Erika Bergman has worked as a ship and submarine engineer, designed submersibles, and now helps scientists explore underwater ecosystems and record their journeys into the deep. In Book 2, The Falcon's Feather, the students also dive into the ocean using a high-tech submersible inspired by Bergman’s work—theirs is named Ridley after the endangered sea turtle, the Kemp’s ridley.
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Photograph by Dr. Gladys Rhoda Kalema-Zikusoka
Veterinarian and conservationist Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka works to save endangered mountain gorillas and other animals in East Africa. She now leads a public health initiative that helps gorillas and people by teaching how human hygiene affects the ecosystem. In Book 4, The Star Dunes, the fictional explorers help to save sick mountain gorillas in Uganda—where Kalema-Zikusoka works to keep real gorillas from contracting human diseases. Read Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka’s tips on raising an explorer.
Diego Pol
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Photograph courtesy of Diego Pol
Paleontologist Diego Pol and his team in Patagonia have discovered fossils from more than 20 new species of crocodiles, dinosaurs, and other creatures. Those include the biggest dino currently known: the titanosaur Patagotitan mayorum, which stretches 122 feet long (about the length of a commercial jet). Pol's discoveries inspired the fictional explorers’ discovery of a previously unknown dinosaur species from Patagonia in Book 7, The Forbidden Island. Read Diego Pol’s tips on raising an explorer.
Nora Shawki
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Photograph by Randall Scott / National Geographic Image Collection
Archaeologist and Egyptologist Nora Shawki focuses on “settlement archaeology,” which means she excavates to learn how common people lived thousands of years ago. In Book 3, The Double Helix, the Explorer Academy students study an ancient Egyptian sarcophagus and notice it's been cracked by looters. Archaeologists like Shawki work hard to discover and preserve precious relics like these so that they can be kept safe from looters—and continue to teach people about the past.
The story of Turtle, one of the world's first submersibles
A vehicle that could dive underwater … and stay there? During the Revolutionary War, an American colonist built an experimental submersible vehicle that George Washington called “an effort of genius.”
Bob Ballard and James Cameron on what we can learn from Titan
The National Geographic Explorers at Large weigh in on the Titan disaster: “It's okay to move fast and break things as long as the thing you're breaking is not a submersible.”
