Learning Outdoors
Resources from Environmental Education - 4/15/21
Spring Curriculum and Classroom Visits
Earth Day Edition!
1000's of Ways to Celebrate Earth Day!
Earth Day Tip - Litter Clean Up
Earth Day Craft
Student Opportunities
Check out these fantastic activities for Earth Day/Week/Month and beyond! All activities and descriptions compiled by Green and Healthy Schools Wisconsin.
The Great Wisconsin Birdathon runs each spring from April 15 to June 15. Interested educators form a team and then go birding on their day of choice to see how many species they can find.
Youth Summit is taking place online April 13 - May 13. Youth Summit provides a unique opportunity for youth in grades 6-12 from across Wisconsin to share projects with peers, participate in facilitated activities and discussions, and engage with diverse perspectives around sustainability.
Great Lakes iNaturalist BioBlitz starts on Earth Day, April 22 and runs through May 20, 2021. To participate simply create a free iNaturalist account and become a member of both your local project and the umbrella project for the Center for Great Lakes Literacy 2021 Great Lakes BioBlitz, then upload your photos (see below for more details). For added fun, participate in the weekly aquatic or terrestrial challenges!
ClimateScience Olympiad is a global climate competition engaging 10,000 youth (ages 14-25) in an effort to find solutions to some of the most challenging climate problems. Competitors are asked to propose solutions to climate-related problems in one of nine categories.Thousands will compete, but only the top 25 teams will make it to the finals! Registration ends on 1 August, 2021. The last qualifiers will be in early September.
Solar Youth Leadership position allows students to work with Midwest Renewable Energy Association AmeriCorps members to organize within their school or community to advocate for clean energy initiatives, which could include solar at your school, 100% RE resolutions, advocating for increased RE curriculum, and more.
Virtual School Gardens Tour
Young people from across the country will be gathering on April 27 for the first-ever virtual school garden tour! Students from Hawai’i to D.C. will share with your students how STEM education, nutrition and environmental literacy, hope and healing are brought to life through outdoor learning. Register here at growingschoolgardens.org. Follow @sgsonetwork for more info!
Planetarium Corner
Each week, Lisa Swaney (the Planetarium Director) will share some fun opportunities here!
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Check out these extension activities for the planetarium:
Are you interested in showing a brand new planetarium show in your classroom yet this year? Catch Big Astronomy: People, Places, Discoveries in a 360° livestream this April. Every Monday we will be livestreaming the Spanish version of the Big Astronomy Film in 360°, at 6 PM Chile time / EDT and 3 PM PDT. On Wednesdays, we will be livestreaming the English version of the film, at 2:30 PM Chile time / EDT and 11:30 AM PDT. These will be the last livestreams of the show for a while, so if you haven't caught one yet, make sure to tune in.
California Academy of Science is a great resource for any science classroom and is offering some great offerings for April’s live streams. Registration closes at 12pm PT one week before each live session, so that they have time to send instructions and pre-visit activities to educators.
Tuesday, April 20 | Mission to the Moon (Grades K-2)
Thursday, April 22 | Make Earth Day Every Day (Grades 4-6)
Thursday, April 29 | Live Q&A with Astronomy Experts (Grades 3-5)
Are you looking for a simple little demonstration to teach your younger students about the sun and shadows? Check out this 6-minute video from the Our Sky online activity bundle from the California Academy of Sciences. Academy educator Ethan will shed some light on how the Sun’s path across the sky changes how your shadow appears
Phenology Phorum
Spring Frogs
written by EE teacher Laureanna Raymond-Duvernell
Are they keeping you up at night? It’s the time of year when frogs in Wisconsin are thawing out from winter and digging up out of the mud, leaves, logs or other debris that has kept them insulated from the cold. It’s prime mating season, and they are eager to find a mate.
There are twelve kinds of frogs in Wisconsin (including one toad - the American toad) and each species has its own distinct call. Around my house, the most common are chorus frogs, but we also hear spring peepers this time of year. The Wisconsin DNR’s EEK! website is an awesome resource to learn more about each frog and hear how they sound.
A great book to read together is Marsh Music by Marianne Berkes. It imagines each of these frogs as a part of a natural orchestra, playing together with inspiring harmony.
Sit-upons
Support for Outdoor Learning
Science Joke of the Week
We Want to Hear From YOU!
Email: ekoeppel@waukesha.k12.wi.us
Website: https://sdw.waukesha.k12.wi.us/domain/173
Location: 810 West College Avenue, Waukesha, WI, USA
Phone: 262-970-4333
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SDWEnvironmentalEducation
Twitter: @sdwenved