Outdoor Learning Activities

 

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Looking for outdoor group activities with STEAM connections? Here are a few to try:

You can find the instructions and background for most of these projects in my books!

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Hands-On STEM Resources — Science

 
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In the old days, classroom teaching materials meant texts and workbooks. Nowadays, it might mean an online curriculum.

But there are plenty of hands-on learning tools that give kids a deeper experience by engaging more than just their eyes and ears – and allowing for creativity in the results!

Many activities can be done with just the materials you already have on hand. You can find suggestions for how to do them in books (including mine!) and on parenting blogs (mine are here ) for use at home. For example, my post on Nature Schooling shows you how to build a curriculum around backyard observation.

Also check out resources aimed at classroom and informal educators, such as Instructables (free, with contests for best inventions!) and Teachers Pay Teachers.

The kits and special supplies mentioned here are available through educational retailers, toy sellers, and local stores. For many, you can find teacher guides that show you how to do one project or build a unit or even a complete course around the materials.

To get you started, I’ll be sharing some suggestions for teaching STEM subjects – Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math – without a textbook. Keep in mind, many activities and supplies can be used to touch on a variety of subjects, all at the same time, or when used in different ways. First up — science!

At-Home Science Resources

At-home science activities go way beyond baking soda and vinegar volcanoes. We’ve measured the pH of learned laboratory techniques breaking down aspirin tablets into their component chemicals, experimented with the state of matter called plasma (a kind of electrified gas) by cooking grapes in a microwave, and proved that light is both a wave and a particle with a laser pointer and Styrofoam cup.

You can find many of my at-home science experiments in my books, and I’ll be updating my old science blogs over the coming weeks.

That said, if science is a weak area for you, or if you can’t pull together all the materials you need, science kits are a great way to go. Be careful what you pick -- some kits don’t always work, are hard to figure out, or ask you to provide so much yourself that they’re barely worthwhile. Here are a few science companies that get great reviews from kids, parents, and educators:

Kiwi Crate is a subscription box that includes everything you need to do one project each month. The kits are well-built and come with clear instructions. The company also produces lines for older and younger kids on themes including making, engineering, and crafts.

ScienceWiz can be found in books-plus-kits are sold in the toy section of major stores, but their quality is much higher than some flashier-looking products. My kids built a working AM radio from the Inventors Kit that we still talk about to this day.

Steve Spangler is known as a TV science showman best known for popularizing the Diet Coke and Mentos demonstration, but he also creates kits, videos, and instructions to help you do experiments at home.

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Nature Schooling: Do a Backyard Biodiversity Audit!

 
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How many different species live in your backyard or neighborhood? Can you name them all?

Inspired by a project called “The 100 Species Challenge,” we recorded, described, identified, and mapped 100 different species of living things within a few minutes’ walk of our home. Scientists call this a “biodiversity audit.” Charles Darwin conducted the first one ever in June 1855, when he counted the different types of flowers in the meadows around his home in Kent, England. His findings appeared in his book On the Origin of Species.

Our challenge served as our homeschooling biology study for the first half of the year. But in addition to learning about different types of plants, animals, fungi, and other living things, my kids sharpened their observational and documentation skills, practiced recording and analyzing data, and learned how to present what they learned so it was interesting and accessible to a general audience.

The steps laid out here take the activity from informal observation all the way up to science fair research project. You can do as many or as few of them as you like. And you can do it in one day, make it a daily or weekly activity, or come back to the same location in different seasons. In any form, it’s a great way to incorporate outdoor studies into your school or homeschool routine!

Materials

  • notebook and pen or pencil

  • your map (see instructions)

  • wildlife field guidebooks or apps

  • camera

  • binoculars, magnifying glass

  • sample bottles or bags for collecting microscopic life forms

  • field or desktop microscope

Instructions

Step 1: Choose an area to survey and make a map


Choose an area to search for different kinds of living things. These can include anything – birds, insects, wildflowers, weeds, vegetable gardens, fish ponds, mushrooms and slime mold. Pick an area (backyard, street, park, etc.) that has as many different kinds of environment as possible. A wild meadow will have more different species than a manicured lawn.

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We actually left several patches of our backyard un-mowed for a year in order to create little mini-meadows to study. A family of rabbits moved into the meadows, and a mulberry tree grew to be three feet tall in the course of one summer. We also discovered a rare type of freshwater bryozoa in the nearby canal. You may be surprised at the number of large animals and unusual plants that live on the edge of your yard or neighborhood!

Once you choose the area to be surveyed, make a map showing landmarks such as buildings, sidewalks, trees, fences, gardens, streams and ponds. Divide the area on the map into sections and give each section a label. In the example above, we used letters to label each section of the yard, the deck, the patio, the garden, etc. In the full version of the map at the top of this chapter, you can see symbols for trees, an artificial fish pond, and a trampoline.


Step 2: Start recording species

Take a notebook, pen or pencil, and camera or phone to take photos, videos, and record sounds. If you have binoculars or a field microscope (or a microscope attachment for your phone camera), bring those as well.

Choose one section of your map to begin your survey. Walk carefully around the section and make a notation of every species you see. Give each species you see a number, and mark the number on the map to show where you found it. Completely cover one section of your area before moving on to the next.

If you don’t know the name of an organism, write down as much information as you can about it. You can make a list of things to describe or create a chart with categories like size, shape, and color. If you have a field guide to local wildlife with you, use it when you come across something you can’t identify.

 If you have a camera, be sure to take a photo of every species as well. Try to frame the picture with an uncluttered background so the species you’re focusing on stands out. If you don’t have a camera, draw a picture or diagram of the organism, labeling details for later.

Whether or not you have a field microscope or magnifying glass with you, you can take samples of water, soil, or vegetation, put them in bags or bottles, and bring them back to observe under controlled conditions.

If you do the survey on different days, be sure to include a description of the weather conditions and how the environment changed.

Step 3: Identify the species

If you are having trouble identifying a species, and you can’t find it in your field guide, use your photos and/or drawings and written description to try to identify it. There are many searchable websites that list different species by description, as well as apps that let you upload an image for identification. You can also contact local wildlife experts and biologists for help. Try a nearby college or your state environmental department.

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Once you have identified a species, do some research to find out more about it. Add this information to your notes of your observations. Check to see if your observations are typical or unusual for that species.

Step 4: Pull your data together

When you have gathered all your data, you need to arrange it in a form that you and others can use. If you have made handwritten notes, copy them over neatly or type them into a computer. Pick out the best photos of each species, and crop it to get the best view.

Decide how to you want to organize your information. If you enter the data into a computer spreadsheet like Excel, for example, you can easily figure out how many birds you found by the pond or how many insects by the rose bushes. Or make your map into an infographic, using color coding and symbols (for instance, a symbol of a ladybug wherever you found an insect).

You should also think about how you want to present your data to others. Suggestions include creating a large version of your map, with details about each species along the side. You can also print out your descriptions and photos in book form, post them on a website or blog, or create a slideshow with music and narration.

Step 5: Analyze your data

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Look at your observations to see what patterns emerge. Were there more of one kind of species than another? What kinds of places had the most diversity? Did you discover any rare or unusual species? What did you notice about the way the species interacted with each other or the environment?

If you made a hypothesis about what kind of species you would find, where they would live, or what time of day or season you would find them, see whether your hypothesis was proven by the data.

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Engineering + Art + Inventing = Making

 
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What I love about the concept of Making — particularly for education — is that it highlights the overlap between arts & crafts, engineering, and science.

To explore this idea, a while back I made a little Venn diagram to illustrate the similarities and differences between engineering, art, and inventing.

In school, Making (using the capital because Make: magazine has kind of made that a thing) is most tied to engineering.

To me, it’s more about how engineering concepts can enrich the creation process. Think about Leonardo da Vinci — probably the poster boy for artists who are also scientists and inventors. He designed flying machines using his imagination, but based upon his knowledge of physics, anatomy, and materials.

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That’s why in my classes and books, I like to frame the activities I share with kids as “inventing.” I think it's a great way to get at engineering through art skills many of us already have. To my mind, engineering, inventing and art all use the same process:

  • Come up with new ideas and solutions to problems.

  • Test your ideas to see if they work.

  • Take note of what went right and keep working on what didn't. (Iterate!)

  • Record your results so you or others can repeat them.

That last part is very important (although, like other dabblers, I sometimes get caught up in the excitement of inventing and forget to take photos or keep notes). Adam Savage of Mythbusters has a famous quote about it: "The only difference between screwing around and science is writing it down."

What’s more, engineers ask questions that can apply equally well to inventing and art (particularly when it comes to using new materials and techniques):

  • What is it made of?

  • What makes it behave the way it does?

  • What are its limitations?

  • How can it be improved?

  • How can it be standardized to make it easier to reproduce?

 
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Kids can be encouraged to do that too. These students are building Solar WobbleBots, simple solar-powered spinning robots. (The instructions for this project appears in my book BOTS!, and there's an advanced version in Making Simple Robots that works in low light conditions thanks to a capacitor.)

As they put them together, they’re exploring materials such as recycled CDs, Slurpee cup lids, and solar panels ripped out of garden lights. They’re experimenting with designs to give their robots unique ways of moving. They’re using familiar tools and techniques (screwdrivers, tape, hot glue) and adding new ones (wire stripping). And they're using crafts materials to give their creations personality.

The concept doesn’t end there. I truly believe the process of Making can be used to enhance any academic subject. I’ll write more about that soon.

Meanwhile, I’d love to hear what you think!

This page may contain affiliate links. Thanks for helping me to keep producing great learning advice and activities for kids!