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Check Out Two Air Quality and Energy Choice Activities for Educators from the Environmental Protection Agency and MIT

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Environmental Protection Agency researchers participate in educational outreach to schools, museums, and other locations to teach students about air quality and climate change research that EPA and partners conduct to protect the air we breathe and provide the knowledge and scientific tools to respond to a changing climate. As part of the outreach, researchers have developed several hands-on activities for teachers and others to use in the classroom and other educational settings.

Particulate Matter (PM) Air Sensor Kits

Particle pollution, known as particulate matter (PM), is one of the major air pollutants regulated by EPA to protect public health and the environment. EPA researchers developed a PM air sensor kit as an educational tool to teach children about air quality and air science. MIT extended the work and developed a kit that you and your students can build together. Learn more and order the kit.

Generate: The Game of Energy Choices

EPA scientists developed an interactive board game called Generate: The Game of Energy Choices, which enables players to explore energy choices and the environment and gets students “energized” in some friendly competition. The game is a teaching tool that can be used to understand the costs and benefits of the energy choices we make; find out what happens if the mix of energy sources changes in the future and learn what energy choices mean for our climate, air, water, and overall environmental quality.

The Incredible Journey Game: Understanding the Water Cycle One Drop at a Time

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Kristina Watts

There’s nothing on this earth more essential to life than water. Seventy-one % of the globe is covered in water, so it seems like we have an endless supply. However, about 97% of our water is in the salty oceans, and about 2% is currently stored in ice caps and glaciers. That leaves 1% of our water available as the freshwater all of us land-dwelling animals and plants require. Water scarcity is a real problem in many parts of the world, and as our global climate changes, conflicts are likely. Current U.S. leaders don’t seem to take the need for water conservation seriously. Is a lack of understanding of the water cycle at least partially to blame for this? 

Enter environmental education for our future generations. The water cycle is one of my favorite topics to teach to children, but the typical cyclical diagram may be misleading in its over simplification. Plus, children tend to learn best by doing. That’s why I really like the Incredible Journey water cycle game by Project WET (Water Education for Teachers). It teaches the participants that there isn’t just one path that a water molecule might take, and there are certain places where water is more likely to stay for a long time than others. If you’re looking for fun environmental lesson activities to do with a group of children, this game is for you.

The premise of the activity is simple: you are a water droplet, about to travel on your journey around the Earth. The activity area (I like to use a large lawn space or big empty room) is set up with stations: ocean, lake, river, clouds, glacier, plants, animals, soil, and ground water. Each station has a cube (a die), marked with various stations. Each participant starts in one location, then rolls the die to determine where on their journey they’ll go next. The dice are not entirely random – they are weighted to approximate the likelihood of reaching anther spot (for example, the oceans cube is likely to keep you “trapped” in the ocean for a while rather than sending you on to the clouds.)

The method of tracking where each water droplet goes can be adjusted for the age of your group. Older students can track their journey on a worksheet, and then after a certain number of turns, the students can graph and statistically analyze the group’s results. But for younger kids – which is the audience I usually work with – the activity turns into a fun game when each child is given a piece of string to start with and collects a bead at each station (each station has a designated color bead). The children create a colorful necklace tracking their journey. At the end, no two participants’ necklaces are the same, but when we look at all the necklaces together, we can see that certain colors are more prevalent – telling us, for example, that a water droplet spends more time swimming around in the ocean or frozen in a glacier than in a stream or inside of an animal.  You can focus your introductory and concluding discussions however you like – the energy that powers each transition, the effect of the water in each location, potential pollution sources at each stage, etc.

I’ve led this game with Girl Scout troops, for a church Earth Day celebration, and at nature center summer camps, and each time I’m actually surprised at how much fun the kids have, running from station to station and growing their collection of necklace beads. (Make sure you have enough beads!  I’ve had to end the game not because the kids are ready to stop but because the supply runs out.)  It’s education in motion.

This activity is available for purchase at https://www.projectwet.org/resources/materials/discover-incredible-journey-water-through-water-cycle (assembly required). Or you can borrow it from the Fairfax County Soil and Water Conservation District; see https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/soil-water-conservation/enviroscape-watershed-model-classroom-presentation-lesson-kits for details.

Have fun!

Hoot Owl Hoot, by Peaceable Kingdom

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Reviewed by Marilyn Kupetz

I heard about Hoot Owl Hoot from a colleague with a 3-year-old, and I live in a neighborhood with lots of small fry who come visit. A cooperative rather than a competitive game (think oxytocin rather than cortisol) to play with my guests? Eco-friendly packaging? Nature-friendly theme? Fifteen-minute time commitment?

Had to try it out. My test subjects over several sessions were one 3-year-old, three 8-year-olds, one 33-year-old, one 56-year-old, and me.

The goal of Hoot Owl Hoot as a game is to help six young owls make it back to their nest before the sun rises. The goal of Hoot Owl Hoot as an activity is to make it possible for the players to help each other help those owls. 

Because the luck of the draw tends to interfere in competitive games, in this one, any player can move any owl. In fact, the instructions suggest that players be encouraged to talk about their hands and plan their strategy together. The game dynamics otherwise lend themselves to the skills and emotional cadence of pre-school- and elementary-age children and others who are young at heart. No reading necessary as the board and pieces are graphical.

Feedback from the test group: 

  • “I want a sun card!” (3-year-old)
  • “Oh, wow, we can help each other?!” (8-year-old)
  • “Cute!” (56-year-old)

Pluses: if you lose a piece, Peaceable Kingdom will replace it gratis. The entire kit is biodegradable.

The game reinforces the most central message of the human role in nature and nurture: We are all in this together.

 

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Edge of Extinction, by Two Sisters in the Wild  

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Reviewed by Kristina Watts

Looking for a fun and low-maintenance game to play with young naturalists or to get kids excited about nature? On a whim, I picked up Edge of Extinction (2017, 15-30 minutes playing time) for my kids, because visiting national parks is one of our family’s big things and anything that teaches about ecosystems is fun to us. I was afraid that it would be one of those educational tools that the kids can see right through and refuse to play. I was wrong. My three sons, nature lovers all, immediately opened their packs and started to play. And LOVED it.

At first, the rules seemed complicated, but in this age of Pokémon and Magic the Gathering, the 10-year olds had no trouble. The object is to earn the most points by building the most complicated ecosystem within 10 rounds. Each player must have their own deck of cards, which represent a park or regional area. The cards depict ecological regions (e.g., forest, running water, grassland) plants, animals, fungi, and humans (e.g., botanist, woodsman) that are likely to be found in that area. Each card represents something that affects the ecosystem, either positively or negatively. Each turn, players draw a card and play as many from their hand that they can.

Players start with a region, the foundation of the ecosystem. The plants are the next easiest to play, as they may simply require a region. It gets more complicated as animals require certain combinations of regions, plants, and other conditions. The human cards have powers of protection (e.g., the botanist protects ecosystems from invasive plant species.) Within several rounds, the ecosystems grow robustly. (Competitive players can always throw out a multi-player card like Early Frost to slow down their opponent.) Players learn about relationships and dependencies within their ecosystem as they play. Different decks introduce players to different species and conditions of that area. My son Logan particularly enjoys the “Did You Know” questions on the Region cards with fun facts that he can share.

This game is recommended for ages 10 and up, with each game taking 15-30 minutes. The fact that the game was invented by two young nature-loving girls  just makes it more appealing. My 10-year olds had so much fun with it that I ordered two more decks so my husband and I could join in.

I would recommend this game as a tool for teachers to have in their classrooms as well as for young master naturalist-in-training family fun night.

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