Mighty Acorns grew out of a need to support a next generation of conservation-minded people in the Chicago region.
Chicago area teachers, natural resource professionals, scientists, naturalists, volunteer natural area stewards, and others came together in 1993 to address this need. Mighty Acorns emerged as the solution. While Mighty Acorns has evolved over the past 30 years, its focus remains the same: to foster a personal connection to nature through stewardship, exploration, and learning. The history and timeline of the Mighty Acorns program is below:
- 1993: The Nature Conservancy creates Mighty Acorns
- 1998: Mighty Acorns expands from two partners and 2,500 students to 15 partners and 6,500 students
- 1999: First year of Mighty Acorns Nature Camp at Dunes Learning Center
- 2006: Mighty Acorns wins the Chicago Wilderness Excellence in Conservation Award
- 2007: Wetland addendum is added to the Mighty Acorns curriculum
- 2014: Mighty Acorns programming expands in Indiana from 1,700 students to 3,600 with generous support from Arcelor Mittal
- 2014: Mighty Acorns partners are now supported by a full time partnership coordinator at The Field Museum
- 2015: The Mighty Acorns curriculum is revised to reflect current Next Generation Science Standards and Common Core Standards
- 2020: The Mighty Acorns Partnership launches COVID-19 working groups that create over 30 pandemic-adapted lessons from the Mighty Acorns curriculum
- 2023: The Mighty Acorns curriculum is translated into Spanish