Resources and Activities For Home and Outside The Classroom
Lesson Plans
- Quick Family Activities (inside or outside)
- Educator Lesson Plans
- Hudson River lesson Plans
- I Fish NY Lesson Plans
- Invasive Species Lesson
- NY Recycles Lesson Plan
Printable Activity Pages For Backyard Adventures or Your Local Park
Local DEC Partners
DEC's Partnership with Hudson River National Estuarine Research Reserve and the Hudson River Estuary Program are working on virtual content to help students, teachers, and families stay in touch with the River that Flows Both Ways with weekly videos about the Hudson River, ties to complimentary videos from partners, and lesson plans that tie in with some of the videos.
WXXI, the PBS channel in the Greater Rochester area & Finger Lakes, is curating resources for families, including modifying their programming schedule to a "Learn At Home" schedule for 6:00 AM to 5:00 PM. For when you and your household are participating in outside activities in the Greater Rochester Area, you can participate in the WXXI Community Observation Challenge through iNaturalist. WXXI also curated Nature Exploring Apps for families and created tips and lists to help caregivers build a fun Camp @ Home atmosphere for young learners.They also have curated a list of online teaching resources.
And speaking of PBS, their Learning Media Lab has a plethora of resources, including virtual field trips, on every school subject and grade level you might need.
Community Science: Places to Find Fun Projects to Get Involved With
Learn more about community science, also called citizen science. The websites below offer thousands of opportunities for all ages and all abilities to get involved in sciences. Some just require a computer and reporting on what is seen in videos, some projects are transcribing data, others involve getting outside and making observations. Girl Scouts can connect troops to projects in SciStarter to earn badges.
SciStarter is an online community dedicated to improving the community [citizen] science experience for project managers and participants. Over 3,000 projects and events are searchable by location, scientific topic, and age level, and by joining SciStarter, members can track their contributions and provide valuable feedback. SciStarter also supports researchers in managing projects, including best practices for engaging participant partners.
The Zooniverse is the world's largest and most popular platform for people-powered research. This research is made possible by volunteers-more than a million people around the world who come together to assist professional researchers. Zooniverse's goal is to enable research that would not be possible, or practical, otherwise. Zooniverse research results in new discoveries, datasets useful to the wider research community, and many publications.
Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies (Millbrook, NY) recommends Nature's Notebook as a fun community science project to track spring.
A tool commonly used in community science, iNaturalist (iNat) is an app for smartphones & tablets or also on a computer with a digital camera. One of the world's most popular nature apps, iNaturalist helps you identify the plants and animals around you. Get connected with a community of over 750,000 scientists and naturalists who can help you learn more about nature! What's more, by recording and sharing your observations, you'll create research quality data for scientists working to better understand and protect nature. iNaturalist is a joint initiative by the California Academy of Sciences and the National Geographic Society. Parents & educators alike will find a ton of help in the iNat Teacher's Guide.
And while iNat needs an account, iNat's app, Seek, does not and was created as more of a high-tech hunt & ID game for youth of all ages.
Where You Can Go to Watch Wildlife
To find interesting places to view wildlife, visit the Watchable Wildlife webpage. There are also tips on watching wildlife and some "Watchable Wildlife Species" info pages.
You can also visit the Outdoor Activities webpage to find more places to go around NYS, sorted by activities such as fishing, hiking, and animal tracking.
Before you head out to visit Five Rivers Environmental Education Center print out the Five Rivers Trail Scavenger Hunt (PDF). And the best part? You can use this fun seek & find adventure sheet at any park or even your backyard or tree-lined street to find things. You may not find everything on the list, so write down other fun things you do find in the blank space provided!
Educational Videos (Environmental Topics and Live Cams)
(links below leave DEC website)
We Have a DEC YouTube Channel!
You can learn about different careers, "On the Front Lines."
You can learn how to tell Lake Ontario Trout & Salmon apart with this fish ID video.
You can watch the amazing egg-take processes at a couple of our DEC hatcheries.
- Pacific Salmon (Chinook & Coho) Egg-take at Salmon River Fish Hatchery
- Walleye Egg-take at Oneida Fish Hatchery
NYS Wildlife Webcams
- Cornell Lab of Orthithology's Bird Cams
- Wild Center (Tupper Lake, NY) Live Cams
- Mid-Hudson Bridge Falcon Webcam
- ECHO: Leahy Center for Lake Champlain has livestreams of Invasive Aquatic Species and their Animal Ambassadors.
Zoos and Science & Nature Centers Doing At-home Projects & Videos
- Seneca Park Zoo, right here in Rochester, has a Zoo Projects web page you can check out with a number of videos and activities. You can also help them identify species of wildlife they found in their camera traps as part of the Urban Wildlife Information Network program (this is an iNaturalist project and you will need an iNat account).
- Utica Zoo has a Uti-kaZoo Kid's Academy Zoo, with STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, & Math) activities and videos about their animals.
- Rosamond Gifford Zoo in Syracuse, NY has great YouTube content, including Ask a Keeper videos.
Organizations and Agencies Working on Virtual Content
Water-Focused: Rivers, Lakes, and Oceans
Center for the Urban River at Beczak, at Sarah Lawrence College has some great resources, including an at-home lab, Exploring the Estuary in your Kitchen, exploring properties of water, and looking at a watershed model video with explanation of the Hudson River Estuary. They also have a listing of podcasts and online videos, mostly for older learners.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Education's Hands-On Science Activities are ones that take 15 to 30 minutes to get young scientists thinking about how things work. NOAA's Ship Okeanos Explorer also has online lessons and resources in marine and ocean literacy. Some of them are also available in Spanish.
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution's education section for K-12 has articles and videos on water-related topics, as well as coloring pages, classroom activities, teacher packets, Dive & Discover with Online Expeditions, and tons of fascinating videos, slideshows, and interactive science.
Billion Oyster Project, a NY Harbor project to increase biodiversity and a healthy harbor built with education now includes over ten thousand volunteers, more than six thousand students in over 100 NYC schools, and 75 restaurant partners. They created a remote learning support page with activities.
The Waterfront Alliance has education resources and at-home lessons.
ECHO: Leahy Center for Lake Champlain has an ECHO at Home section full of activities, community/citizen science fun, and stories.
Wildlife-Focused: Fin, Fur, Feathered, Scaled, and Exoskeleton
National Wildlife Federation's Ranger Rick is offering free access to their online activities for youth. And you can learn about different wildlife and plants around the United States in their online Wildlife Guide. They also have free lessons plans by topic and grade level.
Project WILD has numerous activities and lessons for parents and caregivers to do with their kids of all ages.
The Wild Center in Tupper Lake, NYhas a Digital Hub with great content and resources for all.
American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) has a science website for kids, Ology. There are a number of "ology"s to explore, including biodiversity, marine biology, climate change, earth, water, and zoology.
Cornell Lab of Ornithology has tips to help identify birds, using four key tips. You can practice them with a series of videos they created on their All About Birds website. You can also play Bird Song Hero to learn bird songs. And participate with your youth in community science with Project FeederWatch.
Flora-Focused: Trees, Plants, and Leaves
Project Learning Tree has a number of free Activities for Families that can be easily printed and done at home.
NY Botanical Garden has NYBG at Home resources where families can watch a video of spring unfold in the garden, talk with fellow plant lovers through the Plant Talk Blog, learning about growing things at home from plant experts and videos, or dig into teacher resources and try new recipes. There are also ways to connect with NYBG collections, including 360-degree virtual access to some of the garden's collections like the Palm Dome or examining Steere Herbarium specimens. You can even get involved with a virtual research expedition or help transcribe projects.
The US Forest Service has its Natural Inquirer magazine with resources for youth and educators. There is also Discover the Forest where you can learn about identifying plants and trees, explore places with the game Agents of Discovery-an augmented reality (AR) game, find places to hike near you, and even the tried and true activity: cloud gazing!
City Blossoms, a DC-based non-profit organization, fosters healthy communities through community-engaging programming and green spaces. They have activities and resources, in English and Spanish, to help build a safe community green space, or to explore and enhance your own backyard for your family.
Resources, Kits, & Lists
Rochester Museum & Science Center, with Cummings Nature Center, has created a series of Science at-home activities families can do.
Smithsonian Institute has a ton of activities, games, and collections for youth of all ages to explore on topics covered in their museums & zoo; whether it be air & space, art, portrait gallery, American history, or natural history.
The Nature Conservancy has the Nature Lab, a youth curriculum platform, where they are hosting week-long thematic family teaching guides to explore nature right inside your home.
National Geographic has classroom resources, including a resource library with filters by grade level, content type, and subject. They also are doing Monday through Friday broadcasts in the Explorer Classroom. In addition to those resources, they offer online professional development courses on a number of topics.
National Environmental Education Federation (NEEF) has an EE at Home to help parents and educator to keep getting families outside with safe activities to do, with activities, infographics, and educator resources. They also have a Greening STEM Hub to help educators add nature and outside learning into STEM education.
Learning Supports, Special Education, and English Language Learning Resources
Special Education Resources
TASH Distance Learning has a great YouTube video and Padlet of resources on "Educators Share Distance Learning Strategies for Students with Significant Support Needs".
Edutopia has a great article on student engagement with remote learning, "Keeping Students with Learning Disabilities Motivated at Home". They also have another fantastic article by a teacher on "How to Forge a Strong Community in an Online Classroom".
Spanish/English Resources
PBS Learning Media has resources in Spanish.
Our Magazine, Conservationist for Kids, now offers issues in Spanish.
The Nature Lab is available in Spanish.
City Blossoms has gardening resources for all ages in English and Spanish.
World Wildlife Federation (WWF) has weekly activity plans available in English and Spanish.
Designing For Accessibility
Smashing Magazine has a great article about "Designing for Accessibility and Inclusion" as we create more resources for educators and students, even the general public to engage with online.
NYC Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities has some great resources on accessibility and design for digital resources.
Educator Resources & Professional Development
Professional Development Opportunities
Project Learning Tree's E-Units: if you are a teacher involved in in-class learning in New York state, please contact the NYS Coordinator, Betsy Ukeritis, to discuss access to K-2nd grade; 3rd-5th grade; or 6th-8th grade E-unit online opportunities. These links are to provide an overview, if you are interested in the online training, please reach out to Betsy at either [email protected] or 315-314-0768 (before you purchase them).
BEETLES has a series of Professional Learning Opportunities for lead staff, programs, and organizations to help inspire a learning culture with their staff.
North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE) virtual PD options and webinars listing.
City Parks Alliance has been pulling together webinars and resources for urban park professionals, including educators, and you can view older ones.
Mercy College's Center for STEM Education has a STEM Resources library of free online resources.
Beyond Benign, a non-profit organization in partnership with New York State Pollution Prevention Institute that empowers students and educators related to greening chemistry, offers online green chemistry courses for high school science teachers.
Lesson Plans & Resources
Outdoor Classroom Day Organization may be based in the United Kingdom, but they have participants from the US and all over the world. Their resources, activities, and materials are helpful to US educators.
The US Botanic Garden, working with City Blossoms and National Center for Appropriate Technology, created a Greenhouse Manual for Educators; this manual helps educators integrate greenhouses into their curriculum during both in-school and out-of-school times. These are lesson plans, basics of operating a greenhouse, tips for growing seeds, IDing and treating common diseases and pest management in greenhouses, and even covers basic budgeting.
Lawrence Hall of Science's MARE program has online lessons and resources in marine and ocean literacy.
World Wildlife Federation (WWF) has weekly activity plans to help educators and caregivers keep youth in grades 3rd-8th learning.
