Thinking of heading outside with the kids? How about combining summer fun with some outdoor education? Don’t know where to start? Read on and some of these ideas may inspire you into action.
1. Geocaching: this is our family’s new obsession. What is it? In a nutshell, geocaching a real-world treasure hunting game using GPS devices. Participants look up the co-ordinates of hidden caches, or treasures, at geocaching.com, then navigate to those coordinates and look for the hidden container in that location.
2. Participate in the World Sound Map: how about taking part in an exciting new study by the Acoustic Research Centre at the University of Salford that relies on the general public to help build a sound map of the world? All you do is use a mobile phone to record 10 to 15 second clips from different locations. At soundaroundyou.com, you can then upload your clips to their virtual map, along with opinions and ideas about the recorded sounds.
3. Raise Young Farmers: do you have some space in your back yard, porch, even your balcony to grow herbs, vegetables and berries? Be it a small herb garden or raised beds in the backyard, learning to grow and take care of plants, nutrition, and to cook with the ‘fruits of the labor’ are all important for understanding about our food sources. Looking for some inspiration, how about this easy children’s vegetable garden plan from Better Homes and Gardens.
4. Be a Citizen Scientist: SciStarter is a vast database of ongoing science research projects that connect researchers and citizen scientists. Use the site’s project finder tool to find a project in a field that catches your kids’ attention and imagination. How about monitoring pollution or collecting photos of insects? Try it out to see what you can get involved in this summer.
5. Spend Time in Nature: a couple of our favorite sites for getting closer with nature are the National Wildlife Federation and Project Learning Tree. Both sites are packed full of activities for kids of all ages. Everything from learning about and identify invasive species, to birds and worms, making nature potpourri, and building a Wildlife Brush shelter. We’re sure you’ll find something to inspire you on these sites.
