The properties of the various particle sizes of soil can be difficult to grasp - that’s why we get hands-on! Students will be given an introduction to sand, silt and clay before having an experience using senses of touch, sight and smell to explore the differences in each. We will also discuss properties such as porosity and permeability.
3 - 5;
Soils
Using a storyboard, students will be able to follow a drop of water through the water cycle. Along the way, they will begin to understand the concepts of evaporation, condensation and precipitation. Students will then be able to create their own mini water cycle in a bag.
K - 2;
Water
Aquifers are amazing and in this lesson children will find out why! We will discuss the Great Miami Buried Valley Aquifer, located right here in Ohio, and find out how it was formed. Afterwards we will examine more closely the different properties of aquifers, including how they provide and naturally filter our drinking water. Students will also discover how pollution and our daily actions can affect aquifers.
3 - 5; 6 - 8;
Water As they learn about drinking water resources, students will purify a contaminated sample of water to drink. Students will attempt to create their own filter with supplied materials and test its effectiveness. Students will explore water usage in the United States and steps we can take to conserve water. Thanks to Procter & Gamble, for their generous gift of the PUR water filtration packets.
3 - 5; 6 - 8; 9 - 12;
Water Through the friendship between Bob the caterpillar and Otto the worm, children will observe the very distinct roles of each organism in the world around them. Children will see that all living beings play a special part in their ecosystem and realize they are all interdependent. Afterwards each child gets to decorate their own cocoon and is given a butterfly to take home.
K - 2;
Plants and Animals Students use a cookie and "mine" chocolate chips to represent natural resources, making and losing money based on the amount of resources recovered and the amount of land destroyed. The students will learn the value of natural resources and explore the concept of renewable resources. **Please note: Food will be distributed that may cause allergic reactions in some participants.
3 - 5; 6 - 8;
Global Issues 
(May require teacher to purchase a minimal amount of supplies.)
Follow a boy named Liam as he changes a gray city scene to a lush garden world, inspiring the people around him along the way. Children will discover all that a plant needs to survive and learn that they aren’t too small to make a change. This story shows how humans impact the environment. Afterwards, they will have the opportunity to plant the seed that could start their own garden!
K - 2;
Plants and Animals Students will learn what six major components are needed to make soil and why it takes over 100 years to make an inch of topsoil. They will also learn how food is related to soil and some things they can do to help protect it. A soil horizon is brought into the classroom as a visual aid.
3 - 5;
Soils
In this learning activity, participants will get an introduction into the composition, layers and life forms in our soil. They will then get to use pudding, sprinkles, cookies and chocolate chips to learn about what soil is made from and how important it is to our everyday life. **Please note: Food will be distributed that may cause allergic reactions in some participants.
3 - 5;
Soils (May require teacher to purchase a minimal amount of supplies.)
How do frogs grow from a tadpole to adult and what do they do along the way? Students will learn all about the fabulous world of frogs through an engaging story time. Afterwards they will create their own life cycle craft, recall some things they learned and talk about how our actions might affect frogs and other amphibians in the water.
K - 2;
Plants and Animals This interactive story raises children’s awareness by following the story of a fish in a stream as it encounters human interactions. Students will learn how we can impact the world around us and see that we can negatively affect water with pollution or promote the health of water with positive actions.
K - 2;
Plants and Animals This interactive activity explores the economic decisions that countries and their citizens must make based on their resources. Students are individually given various amounts of money to shop in the Global Market, where they must make tough decisions in categories of food, water, health care, heat, education and luxury items. The class will examine the variety of decisions made and compare their monetary levels and choices to the countries they most closely represent while discussing societal and environmental impacts. Social Studies, Environmental Science, Reasoning, and Math skills are utilized.
3 - 5; 6 - 8; 9 - 12;
Global Issues By following the lifecycle of an acorn seed, participants learn the various ways that trees are vital to humans and other living organisms. After reading the story, the participants will be able to recount what they learn by creating their own tree and identifying some reasons that they think trees are awesome!
K - 2;
Plants and Animals In this Dr. Seuss book, children learn what happens when The Onceler’s greed takes too much from the forest of the beautiful Truffula Trees, affecting everything that depends on them. This environmental story is interactive and illustrates the interdependence of life and consequences of our behavior. Children enter into a Dr. Seuss tent with life-sized scenery and help to hang up characters and images from the story as it is being read. A crowd favorite! *10x 10 space needed for tent.*
K - 2;
Plants and Animals What kid doesn't love mud? This story celebrates the joys of mud and teaches children the properties of soil that aid in the change from winter thaw to a green spring. After reading about the fun of playing in the mud, the children have their own chance to explore when they create "mud finger paintings" after the story.
K - 2;
Soils Participants will talk about the creation of fossils and get to know the unique history of Cincinnati during the Ordovician Period. Using fossils gathered locally, the group will identify some dominant fossils of Ohio, discussing some that are similar to present-day organisms. Everyone will get the opportunity to make their own fossil cast using playdoh and plaster-of-Paris and be able to take home their own fossils.
3 - 5; 6 - 8;
Rocks and Fossils Working in 'response teams', participants will hypothesize which method is best used in an oil spill, and then attempt various real-world methods used for oil clean ups. Students will test their hypotheses, learning the pros and cons of each, and discuss their findings with the group. Along the way they will learn how weather affects spills and what we can do in our day-to-day lives to lessen individual oil contributions in our waters.
3 - 5; 6 - 8; 9 - 12;
Global Issues Follow a pumpkin seed from germination to jack-o-lantern and eventually back to seed again; tracing the life cycle and illustrating plant heredity. After reading about pumpkins, the children will be given supplies to create their own paper jack-o-lantern to take home.
K - 2;
Plants and Animals Students will travel as a mineral through the rock cycle in this fun, educational game. During the activity, students will learn the way rocks change from metamorphic to sedimentary to igneous and back again.
3 - 5; 6 - 8;
Rocks and Fossils This activity explores the rock cycle and the properties of igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary rocks. Formation, grain/crystal size and foliation are shown and explained before students use their knowledge to visit stations and use a dichotomous key to help them identify an assortment of rocks.
3 - 5; 6 - 8;
Rocks and Fossils Through this adapted Project WET game, students will become a molecule of water and travel through their own water cycle. Along the way, they will understand the concepts of evaporation, condensation, precipitation and transpiration.
K - 2 (2nd grade only); 3 - 5;
Water See how decisions by humans affect the water quality for everyone using this interactive Project WET activity. Students will learn how the decisions we make can contribute to the pollution of a watershed, the difference between point and non-point source pollution and discuss actions they can take to positively affect water quality.
3 - 5; 6 - 8; 9 - 12;
Water Students will learn what contour lines are, how to read a topographic map and how maps are developed. Working in teams, students will make their own topographic maps from models brought into the classroom. This program works best over a two-day period.
6 - 8; 9 - 12;
Soils This activity will demonstrate the process of erosion and how human impact can increase or decrease the amount of erosion that occurs. Students will work in groups to perform an erosion experiment and learn how erosion can be minimized.
3 - 5; 6 - 8;
Soils Students will identify ways oil spills can adversely affect birds; and describe possible negative consequences to wildlife, people, and the environment. Students will work together in groups to examine feathers in three conditions, dry, wet, and dipped in oil. Students will then try to remove the oil from the feather to see how difficult it really is.
3 - 5; 6 - 8;
Water; Plants and Animals Students will get to see the movement of groundwater through a sand-tank model that depicts a cross-section of an aquifer and the world we inhabit above it. They will get a visualization of how our actions can contribute to groundwater pollution as we discuss how pollution affects them and ways we can prevent groundwater contamination.
3 - 5; 6 - 8; 9 - 12;
Water Students will be challenged at various stations and discover some of the amazing talents of water! From cohesion and adhesion to capillary action - water has many abilities that can amaze all. Pollution and watersheds will be lightly discussed also.
3 - 5;
Water Using a 3-dimensional watershed model, students can easily see the relationships between human activity and the environment and what we can do to help protect local water quality. They will understand the concept of a watershed and learn the difference between point and non-point sources of pollution.
K - 2; 3 - 5; 6 - 8; 9 - 12;
Water What is the difference between a food chain and a food web? Who are the producers and consumers in Ohio? Two options for this program are available to students based upon prior knowledge.
Option 1 will be vocabulary based and help students to understand the components of an ecosystem (producers/consumers, herbivores/carnivores/omnivores). Students will be a part in learning about what lives in our local rivers and will work together to create food chains, discovering why biodiversity and all the components of a community are important.
Option 2 will be available for those students who have previously reviewed the vocabulary and will include “The Energy Pipeline,” an interactive activity illustrating how energy moves through a food chain.
3 - 5;
Water; Plants and Animals Students will discover the world of worms with the story “Tunneling Earthworms”; they will learn what they eat, how they survive, and what environment they live in. A worm bin will be brought into the classroom for kids to have a hands-on experience with worms and soil and investigate why the underground world is so important to us.
K - 2;
Plants and Animals As they learn about drinking water resources, students will purify a contaminated sample of water to drink. We will examine the issue of water scarcity and learn about drinking water availability throughout the world, being exposed to images and information about children in developing countries. Students will explore water usage in the United States and steps we can take to conserve water. Thanks to Procter & Gamble, for their generous gift of the PUR water filtration packets.
3 - 5; 6 - 8; 9 - 12;
Global Issues; Water