Getting children involved in Environmental Science is very important to ensure our efforts carry through the next generation and those thereafter. Here are some ways to help you get children involved with environmental science.
There are lots of fun activities for children to get involved with environmental science depending on the specific part of environmental science you want to teach them about and their age group. For the purpose of this article, we will address different activities for elementary school aged children.
To Teach Children about Chemistry and How Certain Things Happen
Try this simple experiment. Place a slice of potato in a glass of hydrogen peroxide. Let the children watch it bubble, and come back to it the next day. Remove the potato, and sip it. The reaction with the potato turns the liquid to water.
Make slime with the kids. Using glue, water, food coloring and borax, you and the kids can make a fun, gooey slime to play with. Check out this for the recipe, and remember to store the slime in a plastic bag so it doesn’t mold.
To Teach Children about Recycling and Conservation
After explaining what recycling is and how it can help our environment, you should allow them to decorate their own recycling bins and help them to properly label each one for the right types of recyclables. Have a pile of recyclables ready for everyone to sort through and place items into the correct bins.
Other things you can do with children to get them interest in recycling: color pictures of recycling symbols, make collages, or have each child make their own sheet of recycled paper. For more on how to make your own paper check out this tutorial .
To Teach Children about Nature
Grab some worms and make a compost pile for them to live in. Have a fun time building the farm, and an even better time watching the worms move around and make it home.
Go on a nature walk in your local woods or even the backyard. Have fun with the children identifying plants and animals along the way, or create a scavenger hunt for the kids before you go and have them collect things you know they will be able to find. To make it extra fun, you could look at things you find under a microscope or a magnifying glass and see what you can discover.
Knowing about what the environment does and finding fun things to do with natural materials gives children an excellent reason to become interested in Environmental Science.
