Egret Club
Parents supporting science education in schools
The activities, questions, and links below reinforce your child's learning adventures with Environmental Volunteers.To support the Egret Club, click Join Egret Club»
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Your child had an exciting learningadventure exploring our Energy & Natural Resources curriculum. We encourage you to ask them about this program and what s/he learned. To assist you and to help your child remember, we offer you these three follow-up questions.
Follow-up Questions and Answers
1) Name at least 3 renewable ways to create electricity instea
d of electricity from a coal-fired power plant. What is meant by the term “renewable?”
Answers can include: solar, wind, hydroelectric (dams), and geothermal. “Renewable” means it will still be there tomorrow, even if we have used as much of it as we can today. So long as the sun still shines, the wind keeps blowing, and rain keeps falling (and rivers keep running), then we have sources of renewable energy. NOTE: while hydroelectric dams are a source of electricity, many energy experts consider it to be a limited future source of power since almost all of the dams that can be built have been built.
2) What are some ways you can improve your home to make it more energy efficient (4th grade) and/or reduce its carbon footprint (5th grade)?
Answer: There are a wide variety of answers to this. Some examples include changing to CFL bulbs, installing a programmable thermostat, improving your home's insulation, turning out lights and unplugging electronics when they are not in use.
3) How does walking or riding your bike to school help the environment?
Answer: Walking and riding bikes use one of the best alternative energies -- human power! It also costs less because you don't have to buy fuel (or pay for servicing, or insurance). Plus, and even more importantly, legs and bikes don't emit any greenhouse gases (like CO2) or other pollutants into the air. Can you think of any others?
Thank you for sharing your wonderful student with us for this recent learning adventure.
Interesting links:
Driving vs. Flying: http://www.econewmexico.com/driving-vs-flying-co2
Carbon Footprint Calculator: http://www.zerofootprintkids.com/kids_home.aspx
Your child had an exciting learning adventure exploring our Early California Indians curriculum. We encourage you to ask them about this program and what s/he learned. To assist you and to help your child remember, we offer you this follow-up activity.
Follow-up Activity
Your child may have started making their own cordage in class, in which case, have them show you how they did it and help them to finish their cord. Otherwise you can begin this activity together.
What you’ll need: raffia, scissors, bowl of water, safety pin.
1. Get some raffia from a craft store and cut two lengths about 1 foot long. Soak the raffia in water for a couple of minutes to make it easier to work with.
2. Tie a knot in the two lengths and pin it to something like your jeans to hold on to it. Separate the two lengths so they form a “V”.
3. With your right thumb and first finger, grasp the top of the "V". Twist the fibers one tight turn away from you. Your child will show you how, or see figure D below, and follow steps 4 and 5.
4. Next, move the twisted strand toward you and down, over the bottom strand and under your left thumb. (See figure E)
5. Because you have rotated the top strands down, it now appears to be at the bottom of the "V". Twist the fibers on the top just as you did before and repeat the rotation toward you. As you continue twisting and rotating the fibers, you make cordage.
Thank you for sharing your wonderful student with us for this recent learning adventure.
Another quick, fun exercise: Drop a redwood cone in a glass of water - the water turns red thanks to acid in the seeds. Ohlone Indians used the dye to color their clothes.
Interesting links:
Replicas: http://www.outsideeducators.com/material_culture.html
Ohlone People: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohlone
Primitive Ways: http://www.primitiveways.com/teaching_Baugh.html
Your child had an exciting learning adventure exploring our Nature in Your Neighborhood curriculum. We encourage you to ask them about this program and what s/he learned. To assist you and to help your child remember, we offer you these follow-up activities.
Follow-up Activities
Included with every Nature in Your Neighborhood service is a Schoolyard Snoop where our volunteers take the children on a field trip to their very own schoolyard. They explore the spaces around their school looking for things that are alive.
1) Ask your child to take you on a Snoop of your backyard. Have them show you where they found the most interesting things (under rocks? on a tree trunk? around the garbage can?)
2) You can use things around your house to enhance the experience. Use a trowel, or an old spoon to dig into the soil. Capture small bugs in a bug box, or just a small jar, like a baby food jar. Be sure to return your captives gently to where you found them.
3) You can even take your child on special snoops. Go on a Color Snoop to look for things of a certain color. Or a Smelling Snoop to look for things that smell. How about a Touching Snoop to look for things of different textures? Or there’s a Litter Snoop to find things that don't belong where they see them. A Litter Snoop is the one kind of snoop where you want to take the things you find-and put them where they belong!
Thank you for sharing your wonderful student with us for this recent learning adventure.
Interesting links:
http://richardlouv.com/children-nature-resources#activities
http://fun.familyeducation.com/outdoor-games/childrens-science-activities/34986.html