These slides can be used for a lesson exploring compost. They introduce what compost is, show a time-lapse video of earthworms turning food scraps to organic mush for soil and explain how to make a compost system and what can/ cannot be put in it (in English and Spanish)

• What Goes Into Compost Handout- ENG/ SPA

• Compost Critters Handout (from Do The Rot Thing)- ENG/ SPA

NC Rock Slides and Map (ENG/ SPA)

For more information about rocks and minerals of their state, we created a website geared towards a Grade 3+ audience (English and Spanish version links below):

Rocks and Minerals of North Carolina for K12 (website)

Rocas y Minerales de Carolina del Norte para Niños (página web)

Exploring Mosses and Lichens- Introduce the differences between mosses and lichens using these slides, then have the participants look for mosses and lichens in the surroundings and identify them. Simple digital microscopes are great for this since they are wireless and have an adequate magnification for the specimens.

• Mosses and Lichens ID Sheet

• Mosses and Lichens Observation Sheet

Lichen Model- Make a lichen model in a clear cup using water beads, cotton wool and felt, to better understand the structure.

• Lichen Model Instructions

Making a Mossarium- A "mossarium" is a terrarium featuring mainly moss. They can be made in many different types of container, either open, closed (open once in a while to let air in/out), or partially open. Cupcake take-out containers or "clam shells" (like the one shown) are great to use with kids. We added pieces of fallen branches that had lichen growing on them.

• Moss Terrarium DIY pdf (from https://www.mygardenlife.com)

Students are introduced to aquatic stream life and why it's important to protect it, including not stacking river rocks.

• Protecting Stream Habitats slides (ENG/ SPA)

Students then explore the nearest body of water to them and record some observations. Other than physical attributes of the stream or pond and noting any environmental issues that might affect it, students can measure water quality using these simple digital multimeters for temperature and total dissolved solids (at this age, we use TDS as a proxy for salinity, explaining the relationship between parameters). They can also note streamflow, turbidity, state of the riverbank or pond edge, vegetation, etc. Aquatic macroinvertebrates can also be collected and used as biodindicators (see stream macroinvertebrate PDF cards and chart below).

• Stream Macroinvertebrate Cards

• Stream Macroinvertebrates PDF chart

• Stream Observations Student Handout

For more water education activity ideas, check out the Water On the Move Elementary lesson plans.

The "Incredible Journey" about the water cycle by Project WET is also a wonderful activity to do in an environmental science club outdoor setting with audiences of any age grades 3+.

For this lesson, students can be divided into 3-4 groups with the same number of rotating stations, each one focusing on one aspect of biodiversity or local invasive species.

• Biodiversity Headbandz (see the rules of the game here)

• Biodiversity Taboo (in this version of Taboo called "Speedword"

The Threat of Invasive Species video and How Do We Fix This? video.

Invasive species fish game (for older students)

USDA Hungry Pests curriculum and activities

Building and installing bird and bat boxes is another great way to extend participants' learning beyond the club!

Make Recycled Paper- Wooden frames with window screen mesh can be used as mold and deckles for making recycled paper. The pulp can be made using small scraps of used office paper and newspaper soaked in water for a few days. An old blender can speed up the process and make the pulp finer. An example of a tutorial can be found here.

Make a DIY Solar Oven- Mini solar ovens can be made using a pizza box, cookie box or empty Pringles container. After a discussion about what colors reflect and absorb heat energy and how these concepts can be applied to the making of a solar oven, the Pringles containers or boxes are painted black on the outside and colored silver (or covered in aluminum foil) inside. The mini ovens can be used to melt marshmallow and chocolate on top of a Graham cracker for s'mores.

Some great tutorials about DIY solar ovens can be found on YouTube, for example: https://youtu.be/nsXhfpE5NCY

Invite a local beekeeper to talk about their craft and learn about the importance of pollinators. Students can then learn about non-bee pollinators such as birds, bats and non-honey producing bees, like the mason bees. They can make recycled mason bee hotels using cans and rolled up paper strips cut out of grocery bags. The slides below will help with the introduction, the mason bee hotel tutorial can be found here.

• Mason Bees Hotel Slides 🐝

Cut Up 6-Pack Plastic Rings

This is a good activity for the first part of a lesson/ while the students are having a snack. The slides can be used for discussion of what happens to plastic waste (eg. from the snack wrappers) and why it's important to properly dispose of 6-pack plastic rings. The slides include a video explainer about how to cut up the plastic rings, which the kids can each have a go at.