America’s Rainforests: A Distance Learning Adventure

This website includes access to an electronic field trip of America’s tropical and temperate rainforests, as well as educational materials. This program is designed for students in grades 5-8. read more...

Arkansas Forests Forever

This website, developed by the Arkansas Forestry Commission, includes learning activities for students and educational materials for teachers. read more...

Bill Nye the Science Guy -“Water Cycle Jump”

This catchy tune helps students remember the water cycle. read more...

Celebrating Wildflowers

This U.S. Forest Service program includes a variety of information regarding wildflowers on public lands. read more...

Connecting Kids to Conservation

This program provides resources to help plan and implement conservation projects involving youth. It is sponsored by the University of Nevada-Las Vegas and the National Park Service. read more...

Discover Water

This website is designed for students aged 7-12 to learn about how important water is to sustaining life. Learning activities include games, informational maps, and interactive graphics. Discover Water is sponsored by the Project WET (Water Education for Teachers) Foundation and Nestlé Waters North America. read more...

EPA Environmental Education

This website includes information about environmental education funding programs, toolkits, publications, and other resources provided by the United States Environmental Protection Agency. read more...

EPA for Students

The U.S. EPA’s website for students provides a variety of educational resources and activities for students, parents, and teachers. read more...

Finding My Forest

This website, associated with the Discover the Forest program, provides teachers with tools to incorporate forest topics into their classroom curriculum. read more...

A Forest for Every Classroom

This is a professional development program in which educators develop curriculum that integrates place-based education with instruction in natural and cultural topics. Interdisciplinary content can then be used to encourage students to have a sense of ownership in their communities and to become involved in stewardship activities. read more...

Get to Know Your Wild Neighbors

This program encourages youth to spend time outdoors in the natural world. The website includes activities such as virtual hikes and games for children, resources for parents and teachers, and information about the annual arts contest that has categories in art, photography, writing, and video. read more...

Hands on the Land

This program includes a national network of field classrooms that help connect students, teachers, and parents to their public lands and waterways. The website includes games, resources, and science ideas. read more...

Hooked on Nature

This network includes programs such as Nature Circles and Children, Nature, and You, as well as organizations and individuals who support efforts to reconnect children with the natural world. read more...

Hot Links for Teachers… Cool Sites for Kids

The USDA Agricultural Research Service compiled this list of educational agriculture and natural resource websites for teachers. read more...

Junior Forest Ranger

This program teaches youth about how to respect and protect forest land and encourages them to spend time safely in the woods. read more...

Last Child in the Woods

Richard Louv has written two books—Last Child in the Woods and The Nature Principle—supporting the re-connection of people, especially youth, with natural world in an attempt to diffuse “nature-deficit disorder.” read more...

National Environmental Education Foundation

This organization provides resources and financial support to educators and sponsors environmental education programs such as Classroom Earth and National Public Lands Day. read more...

National Environmental Education Week – Resources

The National Environmental Education Week program works to provide educators with tools to increase students’ understanding of the environment. This site includes a variety of resources compiled by the program, including a curricula library that has lessons on a variety of topics such as forestry, climate change, recycling, and air quality. read more...

Natural Inquirer

The Natural Inquirer is an environmental education magazine for middle school students that includes research from scientists in the U.S. Forest Service. read more...

Nature Explore

Nature Explore classrooms are constructed where traditional playgrounds might be built: at schools, nature centers, zoos, etc. The project is a collaboration of the Arbor Day Foundation and Dimensions Educational Research Foundation and the website includes resources to help educators, families, and others working to connect children with nature. read more...

North American Association of Environmental Education

This organization provides resources and support for those engaged in teaching others about the environment. read more...

PollinatorLIVE: A Distance Learning Adventure

This program broadcasts live, interactive webcasts about insects to schools across the nation. The website includes archives of past webcasts and information and educational resources for teachers. read more...

Science for Kids

This website has science activities and materials for students, especially related to natural and aquatic sciences. It is an outreach program of the U.S. Forest Service’s Rocky Mountain Research Center. read more...

Treetures

The Treetures® Program encourages children to learn about trees and the environment through the use of fun characters. The website includes information about the Treetures, activities, and lesson plans for teachers. read more...

USDA Forest Service Conservation Education Program

This U.S. Forest Service program helps people of all ages understand and appreciate our country's natural resources and how to conserve those resources for future generations. The website includes resources and activities targeted at varying age groups and populations. read more...

Woodsy Owl Activity Guide

This activity guide is part of the U.S Forest Service’s national conservation education curriculum. The activity guide includes 12 activities for students and accompanying teacher resources. read more...

Kids in Parks-Track Trail

Working together with partners throughout the community, our mission is to increase physical activity of children and their families, to improve nutritional choices, and to get kids outdoors and along the Blue Ridge Parkway. read more...

Empowered by Play

Empowered by Play's mission is to help families and teachers protect and promote imaginative play in this way-too busy, media-filled, consumer-driven world. read more...

PE Friends

Pefriends.com is a physical education social network. In short, it’s like physical education meets Facebook. Here, you can share P.E. ideas, add friends, create groups, upload PE lesson plans, upload PE videos, PE resources, and lots more. It’s your one-stop-shop for all things PE. read more...

National Environmental Education Foundation: Infographic of Children & Nature

Infographic of Children and Nature and information on how being active in nature makes kids healthier. read more...

The Children's Forest Community of Practice Blog

Blue, Green, and Brown are the fung shui colors of Wood, Water, and Earth. They are the colors of nature and are connected to money, financial prosperity, and abundance at your Children’s Forest. read more...

Inspired, Naturally: Ten Crafts and Actitivies from the Great Outdoors

I'm nuts about nature, and thankfully my children are too! Unfortunately, living in Texas makes it somewhat challenging to enjoy the great outdoors, with 110 degree temperatures in the summer and being hunted by mosquitoes most of the year. Nevertheless, we try to enjoy as much time outside as possible. Plus, it affords us the opportunity to catch up with friends on the block and find out what's going on in the lives of our neighbors. Being outside is also a natural cure-all for many things, like temper-tantrums, high-energy personalities, fussy babies, stress (from the fussy baby), and life's challenges in general. Breathing in the sweet smells of spring, listening to the sounds of birds, watching ducks dive for food at the lake, rolling down a hill—there's a world of adventure waiting just beyond your front door! read more...

Top Ten Tips to Promote Healthy Students

A variety of informational websites that include classroom curriculums, virtual activities, and conservation education ideas.

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Bugfest

The Southern Research Station was a co-sponsor of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences 16th annual Bugfest event held September 15 in Raleigh, NC. More than 35,000 participants showed up early and stayed late to enjoy fun-filled “buggy” entertainment, activities, and cuisine. The Station’s exhibit, “Bad Bugs in the Forest,” and SRS researchers engaged festival-goers in Forest Service research addressing invasive pest concerns, including the hemlock woolly adelgid, sirex woodwasp, Asian long- horned beetle, and emerald ash borer. Smokey Bear’s cameo appearance delighted the young and young-at-heart, sharing his timeless “Only You Can Prevent Wildfires” stance. His message was reinforced through special reusable activity bags designed for school-aged students, including the Forest Service’s popular middle school science journal, the Natural Inquirer. Bugfest is the nation’s largest family-friendly event that explores the world of insects and other arthropods. read more...

Childhood and Nature-Design Principles for Educators

Public discussions of global climate change and other threats to the planet are making children more aware of environmental issues. As increasing numbers of kids come to school wishing to take action, educators want to know how to teach in a way that fosters a love of nature and an understanding of the complexity and seriousness of these issues. In Childhood and Nature, noted educator David Sobel makes the case that meaningful connections with the natural world don't begin in the rainforest or arctic, but in our own backyards and communities. Based on his observations of recurrent play themes around the world, Sobel articulates seven design principles that can guide teachers in structuring learning experiences for children. Place-based education projects that make effective use of the principles are detailed throughout the book. And while engaged in these projects, students learn language arts, math, science, social studies, as well as essential problem-solving and social skills through involvement with nature and their communities. The pressures of test preparation, standards, and curriculum frameworks often reduce the study of nature and the environment to a set of facts and general concepts. However, as Childhood and Nature demonstrates, linking curriculum with an engagement in the real world not only provides students with the thinking skills needed for whatever test comes their way, but also helps them grow into responsible citizens and stewards of the earth. read more...

Finding My Forest

Today’s children have little free time. Between school, scheduled activities, television, computers, and cell phones, it’s no wonder that our children are losing touch with natural spaces like our forests. And yet, time in natural spaces has been proven to help children and adults succeed. read more...

What Tree Is That?

What tree is that? Our illustrated, step-by-step process makes it easy to identify a tree simply by the kinds of leaves it produces. read more...

Animalearn

At Animalearn, we work to foster an awareness of and a respect for animals used in education. We strive to eliminate the use of animals in education and we are dedicated to assisting educators and students to find the most effective non-animal methods to teach and study science. Animalearn has created The Science Bank, our lending program of new and innovative life science software and educational products that enable educators and students to learn anatomy, physiology, and psychology lessons without harming animals, themselves, or the Earth. Our loan program has been offering products to thousands of people for over a decade, and it is continually growing and expanding. Animalearn also provides humane education curricula and materials free of charge for educators and students. read more...

Dr. Seuss' The Lorax Curriculum Guide

Through the Discover the Forest campaign, the U.S. Forest Service has partnered with the Ad Council and Universal Pictures to launch a series of public service advertisements (PSAs) and educational materials featuring characters from the animated adventure Dr Seuss’ The Lorax. The PSAs and the educational materials aim to encourage parents, caregivers and their kids to go out to the forest to experience and reconnect with nature. Like Truffula Trees, forests are renewable resources that offer numerous benefits. Trees provide shade, oxygen, clean water, food and homes for humans and wildlife, and wood products that meet many other public needs as well. As an enduring symbol of forest conservation, Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax offers a message of hope and renewal, restoration and responsibility. The U.S. Forest Service and the Ad Council have teamed up with Project Learning Tree and Universal Pictures to create an educational curriculum for Discover the Forest campaign. This new curriculum features the enchanting artwork of the recent film, Dr. Seuss' The Lorax. The curriculum features newly designed content and materials broken down into two sets of educational kits: one for the classroom and one for families. The classroom kit is a compilation of six classroom activities designed for easy incorporation into daily lesson plans. The second kit consists of five activities for children and adults that can be done at home, at camp, or in a school-setting. As advocates for forest conservation, the Lorax and his fellow forest friends are the ideal characters to encourage children to explore and cherish nature around them. Please help us instill a love and appreciation for nature in the next generation. Your students can benefit from the lessons in this curriculum, which all meet national education standards. While the materials in this program are copyrighted, you have permission to reproduce them for use in your school. (The materials may not be reproduced for commercial purposes or adapted for use in other materials.) Make as many copies as necessary for all your students, and be sure to share the materials with other teachers. read more...

John Ratey MD-Spark the Revolution

ohn J Ratey, MD, is an Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, Research Synthesizer, Speaker, and Author. He has published 60 peer reviewed articles on the topics of Aggression, Autism, ADHD, and other issues in neuropsychiatry. Dr. Ratey has authored A User's Guide to the Brain(2000) and co-authored Shadow Syndromes(1997) with Catherine Johnson, PhD. From 1994 to 2005 he co-authored Driven to Distraction(1994), Answers to Distraction (1995) and Delivered from Distraction (2005) with Edward Hallowell, MD, all published by Pantheon/Random House. Additionally, he has edited several books including The Neuropsychiatry of Personality Disorders (1994), published by Blackwell Scientific. Most recently, Dr Ratey has penned, Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain published by Little Brown. In Spark, Dr. Ratey guides the reader to an understanding of neurobiology and inspires the reader to reach for their potential, and embrace exercise that is crucial for the brain and body to operate at peak performance. Each year since 1995, Dr. Ratey has been selected by his peers as one of the Best Doctors in America. He is Reebok's Ambassador for Active Kids and Advisor to the California Governor's Council on Physical Activity and Sport. Spark is fueling a movement to re-engineer school practices and medical recommendations to establish curriculum, lifestyles and corporate practices based on scientific principles. Providing the scientific foundation and research data, Dr Ratey has been drafted into the groundswell of those whose mission it is to revitalize schools, combat the obesity crisis, stave off the encroaching epidemic of Sedentarism, by returning to evolutionary principles of physical exercise and proper diet. Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain, released in 2008, is the culmination of years of experience with the brain body connection, new research data, and the synthesis of biological sciences. Spark is revolutionizing how we see the human species. A call to return to our evolutionary roots; to get in sync with our metabolic design honed through eons of survival to optimize mental and physical health. Dr. Ratey is the spark that will set your old paradigms on fire, which will clear your mind to see a new vision for mankind, and inflame a passion of commitment to create a healthy future for our posterity. read more...

Children and Nature Initiative: Prescription for Outdoor Activity Resources

A variety of informational websites that include classroom curriculums, virtual activities, and conservation education ideas.

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National Tree Benefit Calculator

The Tree Benefit Calculator allows anyone to make a simple estimation of the benefits individual street-side trees provide. This tool is based on i-Tree’s street tree assessment tool called STREETS. With inputs of location, species and tree size, users will get an understanding of the environmental and economic value trees provide on an annual basis. The Tree Benefit Calculator is intended to be simple and accessible. As such, this tool should be considered a starting point for understanding trees’ value in the community, rather than a scientific accounting of precise values. For more detailed information on urban and community forest assessments, visit the i-Tree website. read more...

Wild Play: Parenting Adventures in the Great Outdoors

When David Sobel’s children were toddlers, he set out to integrate a wide range of nature experiences into their family life, play, and storytelling. Blending his passion as a parent with his professional expertise, he created adventures tailored to their developmental stages: cultivating empathy with animals in early childhood, exploring the woods in middle childhood, and devising rites of passage in adolescence. This book is Sobel’s vivid and moving memoir of their journey and an inspiring guide for other parents who seek to help their children bond with the natural world. As we share this family's experiences, we observe how wild play in nature hones a sense of wonder, provides healthy challenges, and nurtures Earth stewardship—and we share Sobel’s joy as his children, Eli and Tara, grow into earthbound, grounded young adults. Richard Louv’s Last Child in the Woods identified the urgent problem of “nature deficit” in today’s children, sounding the alarm for parents, educators, and policy makers. Wild Play is a hopeful response, offering families myriad ways to blaze their own trails; it should become another classic in this field. read more...

Schoolyard-Enhanced Learning: Using the Outdoors as an Instructional Tool, K-8

Schoolyard-Enhanced Learning shows how the school grounds—regardless of whether your school is in an urban, suburban, or rural setting—can become an enriching extension of the classroom. In this comprehensive handbook, Herb Broda blends theory and practice, providing readers with practical suggestions and teacher-tested activities for using the most powerful audio-visual tool available—the outdoors. Emphasizing the practical, this innovative book offers teachers step-by-step guidance to help ensure success when they take a class outside. It provides: Background that helps present the case for outdoor learning: educational theory that supports the concept; overview of the terminology; research on the benefits related to student achievement; alignment of outdoor learning with current teaching practices. Ideas for making the schoolyard an effective outdoor classroom: the planning process; enhancing and maintaining the site; developing gardens and attracting wildlife; finding community resources and funding. Advice on working with a class outdoors: garnering administrative and parental support; considerations before going out; making the most of your outdoor time; using GPS as an educational tool; building on the outdoor experience back in the classroom. An array of proven activities that utilize the schoolyard: activities related to specific subject areas; activities that teach process skills; activities that encourage initiative and build community. At a time when children's natural curiosity about the outdoors is eclipsed by the demands of busy schedules and the ever-present glow of video screens, schools may be the only place where they are encouraged to interact with nature. Schoolyard-Enhanced Learning can help teachers unlock the powerful learning experiences that exist just beyond the classroom door. read more...

Moving the Classroom Outdoors: Schoolyard-Enhanced Learning in Action

Since Herb Broda published Schoolyard-Enhanced Learning, his groundbreaking first book on outdoor learning, many schools across North America have embraced the benefits of “greening” their learning programs. Herb has visited dozens of these schools and nature centers, and he showcases the very best examples of schoolyard-enhanced learning in action in his new book Moving the Classroom Outdoors, complete with photos of a wide variety of outdoor learning environments. Designed to provide teachers and administrators with a range of practical suggestions for making the schoolyard a varied and viable learning resource, Moving the Classroom Outdoors presents concrete examples of how urban, suburban, and rural schools have enhanced the school site as a teaching tool. Herb focuses on the practical and the specific, including ideas for seating, signage, planting considerations, teaching/meeting areas, outdoor classroom management, pathways, equipment storage, raised gardens, and more. The book also provides an outdoor activity sampler, information on incorporating technology into the outdoor learning experience, and a chapter on the unique concerns of urban schools. Moving the Classroom Outdoors: Schoolyard-Enhanced Learning in Action is filled with examples of model schools, innovative ideas, and inspiring people. read more...

Green Teacher

We are a non-profit organization dedicated to helping educators, both inside and outside of schools, promote environmental awareness among young people aged 6-19. read more...

Wings, Worms, and Wonder

Wings, Worms, and Wonder, the guide and the company, aspires to reconnect children with the natural world and help create future generations of happy, healthy, ecologically literate children who are invested in nature and have a desire to “grow their own.” Through the many educational workshop and garden consultation services I offer I hope to reach as many students, teachers and parents as possible. We have a right to healthful nutritious food and a beautiful inspiring natural world. Through my guide and workshops I hope to help you bring nature into your classroom or home soon! read more...

SPICE: Science Partners in Inquiry-based Collaborative Education

SPICE II is a five-year project funded by the National Science Foundation to train UF graduate students in teaching and to foster inquiry-based learning of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics in Gainesville's under-resourced middle schools. It builds upon a similar program (SPICE I) that started in 2003. read more...

Leafsnap: An Electronic Field Guide

Leafsnap is the first in a series of electronic field guides being developed by researchers from Columbia University, the University of Maryland, and the Smithsonian Institution. This free mobile app uses visual recognition software to help identify tree species from photographs of their leaves. read more...

Jr. Range Wilderness Explorer Booklet

The new Wilderness Explorer Junior Ranger activity book is designed for ages 8 through adult, targeting two groups: Kids who already may have completed the Junior Ranger book, and older kids drawn to the program. The book is flexible enough to adapt to any area with wilderness resources (whether formally designated or not). Junior Rangers can complete it by individual work, by asking questions of adults and rangers, and by research at a visitor center or on the Internet. The book also contains an answer key. read more...