Category: Distance Learning

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Distance Learning Young Naturalists Club

Virtual Field Trip to the Creek: This Friday

Kylee shows what she found in the creek. We might see some similar creatures on the field trip.

Creeking is one of our favorite outdoor activities! On this zoom field trip we will:

  • Visit two different creeks
  • Learn about fish, insects, and other animals we can find in the creek
  • Learn about microhabitats in the creek
  • Learn how to tell if a creek is healthy or dealing with pollution
  • Visit an acid mine drainage seep, and show how pollution can be helped

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Friday, May 8 at 1:30pm
Please register at this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEtfumhrjwtGtLpEBNwQ5FnTz5cFx2L8HSC

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You can also follow the facebook event.

Have a creek question or request for the field trip? Leave a comment!

Stay updated in our Facebook Group

We are sharing every new activity in the Southeast Ohio Young Naturalists Club facebook group. Join our group for conversation with other nature-exploring families, and to always know what environmental education activities are happening.

Brush up on your creek knowledge before the trip

“What’s a Watershed?” activity from last Monday

Our watershed team has been posting great activities about creeks for the last two weeks!

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Distance Learning Young Naturalists Club

Acid Mine Drainage

We’ve learned about watersheds, the animals that live in our streams, what can happen when those streams get polluted, and how we can measure that pollution.

What have you figured out about pollution near you? Here in Appalachian Ohio, one common cause of pollution is acid mine drainage. 

A creek affected by acid mine drainage

What is Acid Mine Drainage?

Acid mine drainage, or AMD, happens after an area has been mined for coal. It is orange water or sludge. You need three things to make AMD:

Continue reading “Acid Mine Drainage”
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Distance Learning Young Naturalists Club

What’s your water’s pH?

Last week, we talked about some clues to water quality that you can see, like what lives in a stream. Today we’ll talk about an invisible part of water quality: pH.

The pH scale measures how acidic or basic water is:

  • An example of an acid is lemon juice (acids often taste sour).
  • An example of a base would be soapy water (bases often feel slippery).
  • Plain old water from your sink should be neutral (in the middle between acidic and basic).
  • Ever done the science experiment where you mix baking soda and vinegar

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    , and it bubbles up like a volcano? That’s because you mixed a base and an acid!
Vinegar and baking soda reacting in a ‘volcano’. Photo:JShontz

Can you think of some items around the house that might be an acid or base? (Here are some examples to compare).

Continue reading “What’s your water’s pH?”
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Distance Learning Young Naturalists Club

We All Live Downstream

This Enviroscape is a simulation of a watershed and is a great way to illustrate non-point source pollution! Non-point source pollution is when pollution comes from many different places.

What are some things that we know cause pollution? Pollution can come from anywhere and anyone. Putting salt on the roads, not picking up your dog’s waste, and running your car unnecessarily all creates pollution. When it rains or when snow melts, that pollution ends up in our waterways.

Continue reading “We All Live Downstream”
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Distance Learning Young Naturalists Club

Stream Life

On Monday, you learned what a watershed is and how to make a mini watershed with paper. Today we will talk about some of the things that make up a watershed: streams and the organisms that live in them. 

Streams are where water first gathers in a watershed. They join together to make big rivers and eventually flow into the ocean. Streams are home to many forms of life, including plants, bugs, and animals.

Organisms make their home in different parts of streams, such as:

  • under rocks
  • in tree root clumps
  • in vegetation.

For example, salamanders prefer to live in spaces under rocks. Fish like to live in deeper pools in and around tree roots. Some bugs like to live in clumps of dead leaves. One type of fish called “darters” even likes to live right on the stream bed!

Here are some common critters you might find in streams in Ohio:

  • Dragonfly nymph
  • Red-backed salamander
  • Crayfish (Crawdad)
  • Longear Sunfish
1. Dragonfly Nymph ( photo : CC TJ Gehling); 2. Red-backed salamander (photo: Kylee Nichols); 3. Crayfish (photo: ODNR); 4. Longear Sunfish (photo: Kylee Nichols).
Continue reading “Stream Life”
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Distance Learning Young Naturalists Club

What is a Watershed?

A watershed is like an upside down umbrella.

Wait, what?

OK, let me explain. What is a watershed? A watershed is an area of land drained by a river and its tributaries (smaller creeks) to a common outlet. This outlet may be a basin, large stream, lake, wetland or ocean.

A watershed includes everything in its boundaries: land, air, surface water , underground water, plants, animals (this includes humans!), mountains, cities and forests. 

Continue reading “What is a Watershed?”
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Distance Learning Young Naturalists Club

What you can do to help birds

Hey guys! This week we learned about bird nests and bird migration. Today, we wrap up the week by looking at ways to increase bird biodiversity, right in your neighborhood!

Have you heard of biodiversity before?

Let’s break it down:

  • The first part of the word, Bio, means life.
  • The second part, Diversity, means a variety of things.
  • So put together, it means a variety of living things.

Scientists consider more biodiverse ecosystems to be healthier.

We can attract a diversity of birds by creating diverse places for them to live, and creating diverse food sources for them. Let’s look at some examples of how to do that.

So how can we improve bird biodiversity?

We’ll go over:

Continue reading “What you can do to help birds”
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Distance Learning Young Naturalists Club

Bird Migration

Right now, in our very own backyards, an amazing annual event is taking place. Birds are currently traveling from their winter residences all the way to their summer homes! This is called migration.

Your challenge today is to find as many different species of birds as possible and to figure out how they got here!

As it is currently the height of migration season, we have an incredibly diverse population here with us. Some birds might be full-time residents, but others are just passing through. Take a look outside and see what you can find!

Once you’ve found a bird, go to Cornell’s All About Birds site to be guided through identifying it.

It may take patience to see birds outside your home. If you can’t get a good look at a bird at home, try these livestreamed bird feeders:

  • This live footage of a bird feeder in Ithaca, NY has similar birds as Ohio.
  • This one in Fort Davis, TX is farther away. Do you see any birds that are the same as here? Any birds that don’t live here?

What to look for:

When trying to identify birds, there are a few characteristics that can be incredibly helpful:

Continue reading “Bird Migration”
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Distance Learning

Survival Skills Virtual Field Trip: This Friday!

This Friday, we’re taking another Zoom-based field trip. Join us for a crash course in survival skills!

Environmental educator Joe Brehm and Madison Donohue will teach us about some of the most basic survival skills like fire building, rope making, and even brewing wild tea. This event is for youth, adults, and families.

Friday, April 24th, 2020 at 1:30pm


Did you miss it? Watch the recording: (6 videos total)

Watch the recording

You can also see the Facebook event.

Using a tinder bundle to coax a coal to life. This is part of starting fire with friction (i.e., rubbing sticks together).

We’ll explore these skills:
Starting and tending to a fire
Foraging for food
Using natural materials to create tools.

Stay tuned for some activities you can practice to prepare!

Have survival questions or something else you’d like to see in a field trip? Leave a comment!

Stay updated in our Facebook Group

We are sharing every new activity in the Southeast Ohio Young Naturalists Club facebook group. Join our group for conversation with other nature-exploring families

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, and to always know what environmental education activities are happening.

Categories
Distance Learning Young Naturalists Club

Best of Bird Nests

When admiring a freshly made bird nest, my grandfather would whistle and say, “they put us to shame.” He was impressed with the nests’ efficiency, beauty, and that they make them without hands. Another amazing thing about bird nests? Almost every species makes a unique type of nest.

Today, we challenge you to find at least one bird nest and try to identify the bird species who made it. Key clues to solve this mystery are:

  • material the nest is made out of (leaves, moss, sticks, spit, dirt?)
  • habitat type in which you found it (the woods? Near water? A field?)
  • its size 
  • height off the ground (on the ground? In bushes? High in a tree?) 

Compare your clues to the descriptions of nests at allaboutbirds.org (which has lots of other great bird information too!). 

If you are quiet and patient, you might also see:

  • What the eggs or chicks look like
  • Parent birds coming and going

That will definitely help you figure out what kind of birds made the nest!

Some of the easiest nests to identify in Southeast Ohio are made by Baltimore orioles. They weave bag-like nests out of milkweed and other plant fibers. See the nest below on the left, and the male oriole on the right:

Continue reading “Best of Bird Nests”