Remote Learning Activities & Resources
Activities for Kids and Families
In this time of remote learning, here are some interesting ways to enhance your outdoor experiences with various activities you can use in your backyard, your neighborhood or a local park.
- What is Earth Day all about? Test your knowledge and learn more about Earth Day
- Neighborhood Nature Journal
- Family Nature Walks
"Adopt-A-Tree" encourages children to build closer relationships with trees in their environment. This module consists of a video that encourages students to observe, measure, and identify a tree. The individual steps are explained on the website and a template for a work sheet is included.
Resources for Teachers
“No Bugs, No Birds!” is designed to teach students the basic ecological relationships between native trees, insect biomass, and native songbird populations in southeast Michigan.
No Bugs, No Birds consists of a narrated video, a PDF of the original PowerPoint slides, a section on tree identification, and two hands-on exercises, the Point-quarter Tree Survey and Designing a Natural Bird Feeder. Each of the parts can be used by itself.
The Pond Explorations program invites students to explore aquatic habitats. This program lets students get their feet "wet" with STEM focused activities: from species identification to habitat health.
Pond Explorations can easily be incorporated into a classroom. Its stand-alone components allow for maximum flexibility. Pre- and post-program resources are tailored to different grade levels. They can be used in conjunction with the video of naturalist Samantha Opolsky exploring the aquatic habitat at the EIC, or a visit to the EIC for a hands-on exploration of the Rose Garden. Of course, the EIC Pond Exploration Video can also be viewed by itself for a quick dip into science.
Apps for Wildlife Identification
Enhance your outdoor activities with online tools, for example:
inaturalist.org is a slightly more advanced way to track and share your nature observations. You can be connected with others interested in doing the same thing and get input about observation. You can use the web based portal or download an APP to any smartphone.
Merlin Bird ID is a fun way to learn and track your bird identification skills. You can download an APP to your smartphone or use the web based portal.