Resources for PreK-8 Activity 35 – Loving It Too Much

Listening to the sounds of nature has been shown to have many health benefits. Listen remotely to sound recordings from officially protected places from around the world. The Sounds of Your Park initiative is a continuously growing collection of sounds intended to celebrate the acoustical beauty and diversity of the world’s national parks and other protected areas.

The Minnesota Department of Education includes Indigenous-based learning benchmarks in science, language arts, and social studies. Learn how the Minnesota DNR worked with tribes to adapt several PLT activities to include Ojibwe and Dakota culture and knowledge, and get some tips for teaching about Indigenous Peoples with knowledge and respect. Access the Ojibwe and Dakota PLT Lessons that connect students in grades K-8 to forests using Indigenous knowledge and perspectives.

Learn more about the wide array of jobs related to forests with PLT’s 12 Green Jobs Fact Sheets, which highlights the following green jobs: Forester, Environmental Educator, GIS Specialist, Indigenous Relations Specialist, Forestry Technician, Park Ranger, Hydrologist, Silviculture Technician, Urban Forester, Machine Operator, Wildlife Biologist, and Sustainability Manager. Green jobs offer opportunities for people with diverse backgrounds, skills, interest areas, and personal qualities. Youth and adults alike might be surprised at the range of green career opportunities. These jobs help sustain forest ecosystems and ensure that forest products are produced in the most sustainable way possible also ensure that wildlife habitat is conserved, trees are replanted, and workers are treated fairly.

Plan a virtual mini-lesson using Yellowstone National Park’s Kids and Youth section for students to learn more about America’s first national park. Through educational and enriching information, illustrations, and even sound snippets, students can explore a specific theme of the park—Geology, Hydrothermal, Wildlife, History, and Preservation. You can also guide them towards the Ask a Ranger page for common questions and answers that complement each Exploration Theme.

(Resource for PLT’s K-8 Activity 35—Loving It Too Much, Activity 54—I’d Like to Visit a Place Where…, and Activity 34—Who Works in this Forest)

Explore more than 250 different Forest Service scientist and engineer career opportunities with the Natural Inquirer’s downloadable career cards, made in partnership with Cradle of Forestry in America Interpretive Association (CFAIA) and the US Forest Service. Available in both English and Spanish, career cards are available direct for download and will help youth explore the important characteristics of a scientist, with examples of research questions pursued by each profession, the common technology and equipment used in their research, and more!

Learn more about the life of a field forester and more in this booklet Find Your Path from the Oregon Forest Resources Institute. Joe Newton, once a professional football player for the Seattle Seahawks, now works for Lone Rock Timber in Roseburg, Oregon as a Field Forester. He collaborates with tree-planters, helicopter pilots, and other company staff to maintain the health and improvement of tree plantations. This booklet provides other forest-sector employee profiles – forest manager, natural resource ecologist, research economist, logging crew, millwright – offering advice, short job-descriptions, and the various curves they took on their career path.

We all know Marie Curie, the first woman to win a Nobel Prize for pioneering research on radioactivity. But there are many more women scientists, mathematicians, and engineers who have made incredible advances in their fields. Beyond Curie is a celebration of 40 of these amazing women in STEM fields, including 16 Nobel Peace Prize winners. Each one has overcome countless challenges in the pursuit of knowledge, understanding, and impact. Use these posters to share their stories and inspire your students to consider a field in STEM. Pair this activity with a poster of Rachel Carson. 

Take your students on an upcoming Virtual Field Trip. Hosted by Discover Education, virtual field trips allow your students to immerse themselves in unique learning experiences. Explore the National Archives, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, or learn more about conservation with a “Futureland” demonstration.

Denali National Park and Preserve in Alaska is a great place to learn about many different types of landscapes and climates, but it may not be accessible by every classroom. Try bringing Denali to you with a virtual tour! Explore some of the research happening in Denali, paired with some striking images of plants and landscapes in the park.

In 2016, the National Park Service (NPS) celebrated a milestone birthday, 100 years! In celebration of its centennial, NPS created the Centennial Junior Ranger Activity Book. Explore the history of the National Park Service and complete fun activities with this printable book. While this book is geared for 4th-grade students, all are welcome to enjoy it.

AllTrails is a free app that helps users discover the outdoors. Use it to find a hiking path suitable for children, to search for local places to bike or fish, or to plan a national park visit.

More Than Just Parks have released their eighth national parks short film—Grand Teton. Explore Jackson Hole Valley and the foothills of the Teton Mountain Range, a land dominated by towering peaks, apex predators, and majestic beauty. To see more National Park films, visit More Than Just Parks.

Learn about wilderness history, the values and benefits of wilderness, and threats to wilderness at this website.  This interagency repository of information about the more than 750 Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife Service, Forest Service, and National Park Service wilderness areas contains K-12 classroom resources.  At the website, you will find webquests, quizzes, and links to wilderness programs, along with blogs, legislation, agency policies, scientific literature, and research. 

Held each fall, this day celebrates service and recreation on public lands. NPLD engages adult and youth volunteers to get outdoors and improve their lands, whether at the grandest national park or at an urban park in their neighborhood. The event also encourages volunteers to explore and enjoy America’s natural wonders through outdoor recreation. After working hard, volunteers can take a hike, a swim, a bicycle ride and get healthy in America’s backyard. Find more information or register for NPLD at www.publiclandsday.org.

This 90-minute documentary explains John Muir’s influence then and now, delving into Muir’s life with reenactments filmed in high definition throughout the majestic landscapes he visited: Wisconsin, Yosemite and the Sierra Nevada mountains, the Alhambra Valley of California, and the glaciers of Alaska. Placing our nation’s most important natural assets in a cultural and social context, John Muir in the New World is a timely reminder of America’s unique and, ultimately, threatened ecosystems.  Visit the PBS website to watch a preview or watch the full documentary online.

New NPS Podcasts show students what park scientists do and provide an inside look at some of the issues facing our national parks. Most appropriate for middle and high school students, teachers can use the clips to generate discussion about real-world problems in nature and how scientists and others work to solve them.

If students are considering a career in the forestry profession, they may envision spending a workday in blue jeans and hiking boots, managing wild lands and protecting nature for future generations. The reality of forestry careers, however, is somewhat different. Forestry Careers & Degrees: A Guide for Students offers a wealth of information about forestry careers, including facts and data on employment prospects, educational requirements and options, and more.

The Agents of Discovery Mobile Game is a place-based, environmental education game for iOS and Android devices that blends best practices in gaming industry technology with experiential outdoor education. It is designed to connect youth with nature, educate them about local ecosystems, and promote physical activity using readily accessible technologies. After downloading the free app, students head out to participating sites in their community and search for hidden QR codes which unlock challenges based on the mysteries of nature. Possible locations include Mount St. Helens, Los Angeles, Houston, and more. Try it today!

Be inspired by the latest video in EPA’s 20th Anniversary Environmental Justice Video Series that features Penny Newman of the Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice. Penny’s 5-minute video describes the environmental justice concerns of the Inland Valley communities in Southern California, and the ways local residents are making positive changes to protect the health of their families and neighbors. 

Take an electronic field trip inside Utah’s Bryce Canyon National Park.  During this live, one-hour podcast, students will learn about the importance of the park, hunt for signs of land and aquatic dinosaurs, explore “hoodoos” (unique limestone formations), and see animals that live in this extreme environment.

Think virtual field trip! Brothers Will and Jim Pattiz are media professionals who have a passion for our national parks. Over the past year, they put their passion to work by producing short films for several of the parks. Their long-range plan is to create a short film for each of the 59 U.S. National Parks to help build a greater awareness of our national parks system, and encourage families to plan trips of their own. Check out their website at morethanjustparks.com and view this 5-minute video on Joshua Tree National Park to sample their work!