Take a Child Outside

Seek Challenge "Plants"

  • Saturday, September 26, 2020

It's Take a Child Outside week! Each day, a new activity will post on the event calendar to inspire your family with ideas and activities to get outside together.

Let's have a scavenger hunt at the next level! So often on a scavenger hunt, we just ask participants to find an acorn or find a butterfly. Dive deeper into what you are finding by using a cool app like "Seek by iNaturalist."

While I've used "iNaturalist" before, Ms. Joy shared "Seek" with me recently and I'm hooked! The app is very friendly to use. I signed in using my iNaturalist account which is quick to set up if you don't already have one. Once in the app, I found September's challenge - the Herbivore Challenge. You can join in the challenge if you like a to do list (like me!) or just open up the camera and start exploring what you see around you.

The nice thing about this type of scavenger hunt is that you can get help identifying what you see on your nature walks whether in your neighborhood or out in a local park or natural area. It is a great way to go from "look for a butterfly" to "you've found a black swallowtail butterfly!"

Seek app screen

Saturday's Challenge

Whether you decide to download the app or not, Saturday's challenge to go outside and find 10 plants! You can decide if they need to be flowering plants or edible plants, green or variegated plants, or whatever criteria you can think of!

If you do take your phone with you, tag #TakeAChildOutside and #JCRA so you can share with us what you are doing this week with your families.

Take a Child Outside, September 24–30

An initiative of The North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and inspired by Richard Louv's book Last Child in the Woods, Take a Child Outside week was founded to help connect children with nature.

Visit the Museum's Web site to find out more about this annual week and other locations to go explore the outdoors with your children.

Age
All Ages.
Questions
Please contact Elizabeth Overcash, children's program coordinator, at elizabeth_overcash@ncsu.edu for more information about this program.