For Families: Old-fashioned backyard campout!

Exploring the night in a campground with kids can be rewarding—but definitely tiring! A practical alternative is the backyard campout. There is still the neat experience of sleeping outdoors, but it’s coupled with the convenience of your own bathroom and a well-stocked fridge just a few feet away! Before dark, […]


Insect Hotels in the School Garden

Here is a way to teach about pollination, habitats and life cycles while adding a unique look to your school garden or unmowed areas.  Insect hotels are fun to build and encourage creativity in both design and implementation.  They make a great class project that can incorporate a variety of […]


Time Lapse Photography as a Teaching Tool

As we thaw from winter into spring, it’s easy to miss the changes that steadily, but sometimes almost imperceptibly, unfold around us. One way to help students focus on these changes is time-lapse photography. Actually, this activity is more accurately called time-sequenced photography. All you need to do is take […]


Citizen Science Resources

The Ohio Department of Natural resources (ODNR) , Division of Wildlife recently published a list of citizen science sites that have potential for the formal classroom. Several of the sources listed below are sites that contain a number of different citizen science possibilities.   Citizen science is a powerful tool that […]


Helping Parents Understand Outdoor Learning

As a new school year begins, here is a quick way to help parents understand the value of using the outdoors for learning. Perhaps you could include this on a classroom web page, or as a part of a classroom newsletter. *** “Imagine a classroom with sky for a ceiling […]