Quarry Hill Nature Center staff Pam Meyer, Jenna Daire, Brooke Hilger, KyAnne Hilger and Sammie Peterson examined wild parsnip growing near a pond at the nature center. (Trey Mewes, Star Tribune/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Staff at Quarry Hill Nature Center in Rochester seem to have solved a science problem: How do you give basic nature lessons and entertain people at the same time?

Take a weekly video program the nature center started at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic to keep kids engaged. Add Vanilla Ice and MC Hammer. Throw in firefighters, waders, (literal) river dancing, and healthy doses of camp and self-esteem.

What you get is a couple of parody music videos — the kind that would make Bill Nye the Science Guy jealous — on basic outdoor education that are garnering attention on social media.

"It just is a creative way for us to make education fun and appeal to kids and even adult audiences," said Pam Meyer, executive director at Quarry Hill.

Meyer was the muse behind the nature center's first music video, "Ice Ice Safety." She and several naturalists, many of whom are also science educators with Rochester Public Schools, had started a video series for students called "This Week in the Wild" during the pandemic for distance learning lessons at districts across southeast Minnesota.

The weekly videos give biology lessons on topics from conifers and lichens to earthworms and great-horned owls. Yet no one thought to make the videos lyrically flow until Meyer came up with the idea last winter while driving back from a conference.

"This staff is very creative," she said. "So when the director comes back and says, 'Hey, what if we did Vanilla Ice, 'Ice Ice Safety, is that insane?' They were all on board. And the lyrics just started rolling.'"

Jenna Daire, a naturalist at Quarry Hill, said she immediately knew the idea could work. Staff had already shot and produced informational videos for more than a year, so it was easy for them to stop what they were doing, collaborate on lyrics and listen to the result.

"Ice Ice Safety" offers such tips for going on the ice as "Thickness: Four inches or more, is the safest for you to explore," and "The drill is on standby, the rulers 'bout to take a dive, In a group? Spread out, don't walk a line."

The follow up, "Don't Touch This," spoofs MC Hammer's "U Can't Touch This" by pointing out what irksome plants such as poison ivy and wild parsnip look like, as well as what people can use to alleviate rashes from those plants.

The parodies are meant to be fun farewells for students going on winter or summer break — the first video came out in mid-December, while the second dropped the first week of June. The nature center's average videos have about a two-week production cycle, but the parodies have taken a couple of months to get right.

"It takes a lot of work to put together the lyrics and the vision," said Brooke Hilger, another naturalist at Quarry Hill who edits the videos.

And they've taken on a new life on social media. "Ice Ice Safety" has more than 8,000 views on Quarry Hill's Facebook page, while "Don't Touch This" has racked up more than 11,000.

"I got people that I haven't spoke to in years … [who] are like 'Oh my gosh, you're in a video, what are you doing!'" Daire said. "People like to double dip. They like the fun, they like the science."

Staff members already have ideas for a third music video, but they're not averse to branching outside of hip-hop into other well-known tunes. They just hope people see through the awkward dances and silly lyrics to learn more about the outdoors.

"It's really been powerful for me to still connect people with nature, even through a screen, and hopefully in the long run it gets them outside," Hilger said. "So, a little bit of screen time but a lot of green time."