Group items tagged

This activity would be a great way to get the students more involved with being outside, and would be a fun way to study nature! Take a nature walk in your backyard or local park to find one object for every letter of the alphabet. Then put them together in this handy nature book. In the notebook, I would have the students tape or glue the object in their book, and research information about the object and write a description about it. When the nature book was due, I would have my students share with the class what they found. This lesson would work on their science, reading, communication, and writing skills.

Located in Makanda, Illinois, Touch of Nature has an Environmental Education program that, "offers exciting outdoor learning experiences in natural resource education, nature interpretation and resource management. Courses are designed to increase environment awareness, appreciation and stewardship. The do offer lodging (for a fee) to take older students for a fun learning experience. I don't think it's ever too early to get kids thinking about how they effect the environment so if I were in a school close to Makanda, I would take students as early as 3rd grade, however this would be an extremely cool field trip for grades 8 and up.

The Touch of Nature environmental program offers both land-based activities and water-based activities for students. The best way to experience Touch of Nature is to spend three-five days in their camp program. Students are set up in cabins for the night while during the day they can go on field trips to the local lake, ponds, or night trips looking for owls. This extended field trip is more specified to students grades 6 to 12. It gives students the opportunity to learn about their surrounding environment and how they can use ways to conserve it. "Your Touch of Nature experience can be designed to supplement and enrich classroom curricula or enhance youth group experiences. With nature as your classroom, it can provide insight to groups of all ages and backgrounds. You are encouraged to request a program that serves your specific needs (SIU Touch of Nature)

This website explains what the PTC gene is and why some people taste bitter flavors. It explains what the PTC gene is useful for in nature and how natural selection works. It also stated that PTC gene carriers were less likely to be smokers. I choose this resource to go in to depth more about why some people are carriers of this gene and other people are not. It helps explain why it is important in nature, which I thought was cool. I would use this website as tool for myself after giving my students the paper to test for this trait. Then I would explain the benefits of having this gene.

This lesson is used to teach young students the importance of nature. Many students don't realize many manufactured items come from nature. Bring in everyday items from home and ask the children where they think the item came from (paper and books from trees, glass from sand, etc). Have different colored dots and walk around the classroom and label items with colors from what the item might have came from (green=trees, red=animals), this requires the students to think critically. It's important for children to respect nature and understand most everything we interact with on a daily basis is from nature. As a teacher I can use this to teach children respect of nature and each other because everything must work together.

I think this would be a good place to take students when talking about and exploring nature. Students could learn about different ecosystems and how animals live in nature. The watershed has several hands on activities for the students as well as scavenger hunts.

This nature center is a great way to teach students about their local environment. The staff address issues like littering, pollution, life-cycles of plants, animals, and insects as well as coastal and forest environments. This trip isn't limited to science content but also touches on Oahu history/traditions and art. This nature center also has weekend activities for children to participate in with friends and family members. This could lead to great class discussions and show students that science is all around them.

Free downloadable program in which students can build a dam in a virtual ecosystem and see how the animals and plants living there adapt. It shows students what happens to plants and animals when a change is introduced to their environment, some adapt and live while some die. I liked this program because students can place the dam in different places thus having different effects. I would use this program while studying biological evolution to visually demonstrate how a single change in the environment can have a drastic effect on the surrounding plant and animal life (3-LS4).

This activity will allow students to produce a "marketable" product made from minerals in a product that many people use daily. Students will make their own toothpaste using the minerals, calcium carbonate and sodium bicarbonate. Students get to test their product against the basic toothpaste that many people use. The activity and lesson familiarize students will the natural compounds that are used to make many everyday things. Students will see that the combination of these two minerals makes something profitable. Students can also compare the prices of toothpastes to integrate math and to learn about the economy. The activity can be used when we are learning about minerals and natural resources, geoscience, or how communities use science.

When teaching a lesson about the earth and its natural disasters the teacher can perform this activity to get younger students more involved in the lesson. Students will see the teacher mix the ingredients together in a clear container. When the material is mixed together the teacher can ask the students what they think will happen, referring to what they have been learning about. After explaining what the substance is supposed to be, quicksand, they can demonstrate that poking the substance slowly the substance is runny while poking it quickly makes the substance hard.

Remove "science" and "earth" tags and use " " around "earth science" to keep that phrase together in one tag. Same with natural disaster. Nice job on the grade level taggin!

The San Angelo Nature Center is a collection of animals, along with related exhibits and information, that are native to the Southwest. Among the animals are bobcats, skunks, a porcupine, hissing cockroaches, tarantulas, scorpions, turtles, lizards and snakes. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The SANC is an incredible place. There are many different types of mammals, reptiles, bugs, and insects for children to experience. Being a former volunteer of the SANC, I know first-hand all of the possibilities this place offers. One of my favorite things about this place is the up close and personal experience children get with the animals. Children can choose to hold various reptiles including snakes, box turtles, or the center's two bearded dragons, Bonnie and Clyde. If they desire, children may hold or touch a hissing cockroach, a cave cockroach, a tarantula, or my personal favorite creature, the vinegarroon! Children can also meet Opus and Juliet, two African spurred tortoises. This place contains many facts and trivia about the various animals and is an exciting place for adults and kids alike.

This is a great environmental field trip! I would use this in conjunction with a unit on the environmental impact and/or the various plants/animals present in our local communities. This is a beautiful nature preserve. I chose this resource because I have spent time on this preserve and it is remarkable. You feel like you are in your own little world and there is so many possibilities to explore. Students could be partnered up and sent on a photo scavenger hunt. They would journal their findings and upon returning to school we would discuss the many things they encountered.

I like this lesson because it includes an activity on how electrical charges attract and repel. While doing the activity using Cheerios, thread, wire clothes hanger, plastic comb, piece of wool, foam cup, and a large nail, students will draw conclusions about the nature of electricity. It must be a good lesson or it would not be posted on the Smithsonian's website!

This activity requires students to go on a nature walk and collect helicopter seeds of various sizes. The students measure and examine the seeds in the classroom and then make predictions about which size will spin faster to the ground. Students then test their hypotheses by dropping the seeds from the same height and recording the flight patterns. This is a great activity because it teaches students various scientific ideas, plus it is fun! I would use it as an opportunity to get out of the classroom and also do some great learning!

This is a link to the US Geological Service's website. The education portion is really neat. Since i have met my boyfriend, he is a miner, I have become more and more interested in rocks and the earth. This webpage makes it easy to find what you need. Their resources are broken down into categories (K-6, 7-12, and undergraduate). The best part about this is there is a place to look at 3-D pictures of major landmarks. You would need your own glasses, but I think if these were projected on a smartboard, it would be a great way to show students what Mother Nature can accomplish.

Geocaching is a great way to get kids outside and observing the world around them. Geocaching give you a set of coordinates and your job is to find the hidden object. It is usually a small box containing small trinkets like children's toys, CDs, coins from around the world, etc. When you find the box, you take something and leave something and you can track where your items go across the globe. They are literally all over the world. They can be found in oceans, on mountains, at gas stations, in the woods, etc. It would be a great field trip to take the kids out to a local bike trail (there can be more than 15 Geocaches on 1 trail) and take some time to be outside, talk about nature and try to find something cool! As a teacher, you can even make a Geocache for your class and check out who is finding it online. My husband and I have a Geocache of our own and go out geocaching often. It helps keep you active and allows you to enjoy the outdoors. Older students can also benefit from learning about coordinates.

When teaching a lesson about natural disasters, making a vinegar volcano is a great way to keep the students interested and active in the lesson. This experiment would be really great to try with all of my students after a science unit on volcanoes. Using baking soda and Vinegar, the students will also be learning about chemical reactions and how baking soda ( a base) and vinegar (an acid) react to each other and cause frizzing. This lesson would allow my students to get creative in making their own volcano, while learning about what a volcano is, and the cause and effects of the volcano.

remove "science" tag and add something more specific, such as "earth science." The grade level tag should be K-2, 3-5, 5-8, and/or 9-12 to be consistent with other tags. Specify whether this is a lesson, activity, field trip, etc. in the tags.

This resource explains how to make a tornado in a plastic bottle using only water and dish soap. I selected this resource because I thought it would be a good way to introduce weather patterns that can produce natural disasters. It's fun and interactive and is sure to grab my student's attention. After creating the tornado, I would use it to talk about wind and other weather patterns that can create tornadoes.

Let one of our knowledgeable Garden Guides be your class's guide to the Garden! Garden-guided school group tours are available weekday mornings from September through December, and February through May. Choose our popular 'Discover the Missouri Botanical Garden' tour to introduce your class to the Missouri Botanical Garden, learn its history and see our featured gardens and conservatories. ________ The Botanical Garden offers many field trip opportunities for students of all ages. Field trips include tours of the gardens which include, the Sensational Seed Hunt, Plants from Top to Bottom, Tropical Rain Forest, Foodology, Asian Gardens Tour, Discover the Botanical Garden, and Green is Here for Good. Each field trip is aligned to standards which explore concepts in botany, ecology and natural science. The field trip I am concentrating on is Tropical Rain Forest. During this tour, students are able to explore the rainforest which is named the Climatron at the Botanical Gardens. The tour allows students to view waterfalls, lush lowlands, approximately 1,500 different types of plants, and tropical birds. Since we don't have access to a real rainforest (and most students never will), I think it would be a great idea to allow my students to explore the Climatron. I would take my students to visit this location at the end of our unit on rain forests to make sure they are able to understand the tropics at their fullest! Taking students at the beginning of the unit would be a great way to introduce them to the topic, however, I feel they will have a better grasp and appreciation on the subject after they have already learned about it.