Ever hear of “nature-deficit disorder?” Coined by Richard Louv in his book “Last Child in the Woods,” this term has been appropriated to describe a growing alienation from the outdoors, prevalent in modern culture. Even if you’re in the middle of a city, you can help students, or your own children, appreciate and become more aware of the natural world around them.
Hopefully, this type of activity will eventually culminate in a series of field trips so that the kids in question can experience the outdoors for themselves. But you’ve got to work with what you have available, so if an immediate wilderness trip isn’t an option, consider these other activities:
Visit a park. Most large cities have at least a bit of green in them. Take your students there and challenge them to see who can observe the most: The most different plants, the most insects, the most animals, and so on. You can also send them on a scavenger hunt for plants, animals and insects you know are present in the area. Your list might include bumblebees, red squirrels, jackrabbits and daffodils.
Play observer. Task your students with identifying one species of wild critter — animals work better for this exercise than plants — and watching it for as long as possible. Have them keep a log of what the animal does. The point is to introduce the students to the idea that animals have their own distinct mannerisms and ways of meeting their own needs; when the class comes together to share, they’ll get to see the differences between species.
Grow a plant. Although this hardly makes up for lack of outdoor time, you can link the benefits of house or garden plants, like cleaner air and habitat for birds and butterflies, to the benefits of preserving wilderness habitat for wild animals, and the importance of plants and animals to each ecosystem.