Resources

Outdoor Games and Activities:

  • Columbus Metroparks Park-Specific Scavenger Hunts: 
    • Simple scavenger hunt that uses lists of descriptions of different animals, insects, plants and landscapes to guide identification of different species and some ways that they interact with their natural environment. There are site-specific scavenger hunts within the Columbus Metroparks system and general ones that can be done in various places. 
  • Meet a Tree:
    • Game that directs players to identify trees without seeing them. It encourages experiencing nature holistically, with all of our senses. This motivates the players to not only experience nature but also to connect with it. 

Indoor Activities:

Check out the links below to find engaging science experiments for children of all ages that can be completed in the comfort of your own home.

Crafts:

The crafts below are fitting for children of all ages and for the adults that are young at heart! Most can be completed with supplies that are around your house or yard and should not take too long too complete. Encourage your children to have fun engage with the natural world around them as they work on these crafts!

 

Places to Visit from Home:

  • Columbus Zoo Live Stream: Are you itching to go to the zoo right now? Check out the Columbus Zoo’s live stream to see what the animals are up to when you are not there.
  • COSI Daily Lessons & Activities: Cosi is sharing science video and activities that can be done at home at this link. They post new videos daily so be sure to check the link frequently!
  • Visit Yosemite from Home: (park videos & blogs + coloring pages): Do you ever wonder what is happening in Yosemite with all of the people being gone? According to the park rangers, the bears are having a blast! Check out what the park rangers, bears, and other wildlife in the park are doing by checking out this link. 
  • Virtual Tour of National Parks: See some of our country’s beautiful parks from the comfort of your own home! You might even find some that you want to visit in person when you are able to travel again! 

Podcasts:

  • Dirtbag Diaries: This podcasts tells the tales of people going on extreme adventures outdoors, starting businesses, environmental issues, and people falling in love with the natural world around them. It will likely be more interesting for teenagers and adults, however it is appropriate for younger children most of the time. Warnings are given if that episode is not appropriate for younger children. We recommend starting with the episode “The Great Indoors”.
  • People Behind the Science: Listen to scientists tell their stories about their research, careers, successes, failures, and passions. This podcast includes people from many different fields telling their stories. This podcast is fitting for teenagers and adults.
  • Eyes on Conservation: This podcast has professionals in the industry discussing environmental topics from all over the world. Each episode they talk about research and citizen science projects that are benefiting the topics. This podcast is fitting for teenagers and adults.
  • Wow in the World: This podcast helps to guide younger children and the curiosity to understand the world around them. Episodes focus on a variety of topics ranging from technology to the natural world. This podcast is appropriate for people of all ages, but its target audience is children.
  • Occupation Wild: This podcast tells the stories of people with different exciting career paths outdoors.

Virtual Citizen Science:

  • Penguin Watch: If you are interested in penguins, this is a great virtual citizen science project for you to help out with! Through this site you will help scientists to count penguins and this data will be used to look at population sizes and fragile ecosystems. 
  • Galaxy Classification: Click on this link to explore different galaxies and help scientists to classify them.
  • Star Dust @ Home: Have you ever wanted to be a co-author on a scientific paper or name something in outer space? If so, this citizen science project is perfect for you! Help scientists to look for space particles and foils, if you find them then you will be rewarded. See the instructions in the hyperlink.

Outdoor Citizen Science:

  • Seek: This app, from the creators of iNaturalist, Seek is a family friendly nature identification app in which you can earn badges, learn fun facts, and progress from tadpole to expert. 
  • Ebird: eBird uses citizen science and observations to provide scientists with real-time data about bird distribution and abundance.
  • iNaturalist: iNaturalist is the most popular nature ID and citizen science app. With help from scientists and members of the community, you can identify a wide range of plants and animals.
    • The videos below are instructional videos on how to use iNaturalist
      • This video was made by the National Parks Service and shows how to load an unidentified species picture from your camera roll 
      • This is an engaging video that shows how to use the app, take photos, and identify the species in the photo if you already know the species
      • These are specific instructional videos made by iNaturalist for specific tasks within the app: 
  • Budburst: Budburst is a citizen science program used to monitor seasonal changes in plants and it partners everyday people with scientists who gather and analyze the data you collect. It teaches you how to make observations and report them and afterwords you can even download the data you have submitted to the site.
  • Collect Weather Data: Through Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, & Snow Network you can learn how to measure different forms of precipitation, use the equipment, and become a volunteer citizen scientist to assist with data collection.

Other citizen science projects can be found here: 

  • Scistarter: Scistarter helps you  to find citizen science projects that are the right fit for your life. This website allows you to specify your location, your age, and how you would like to complete the citizen science project. If you want to get involved in citizen science but don’t know where to start, this website is for you!

Useful Apps:

  • Merlin– Bird Identification: Merlin is a very simple app to use created by The Cornell Lab that is a very helpful tool for bird identification even for beginners. It provides photographs, sounds, identification tips and maps as well.