- Naturalists study nature and teach others about the environment.
Visit a park or nature center and talk to the naturalist. Find out
why she chose this job, what her typical day is like and what she
had to study in school to be a naturalist.
- Naturalists, wildlife biologists and zoologists study animals by
putting them into categories. Make a list of animals or cut pictures
out of magazines. Learn about domestic animals and wildlife. Divide
the animals into a group that lives in the wild and a group that
depends on people for their food, water and shelter. Divide the
wildlife pile again. Separate the animals that live in Maryland from
the non-native animals. Can you divide the piles even more by
putting similar animals together?
- Learn about the tracks and signs of animals that live in Maryland or USA.
What things can you see outside that will tell you an animal was
there? Some examples are nests, burrows and tracks. Go for a walk
and look for tracks in the mud or the snow and use a field guide to
identify them. You can also choose to use track stamps to learn
animal tracks.
- The US has a large variety of habitats such as freshwater swamp,
shore, mountains, grasslands, and estuary. Visit two different
habitats and compare them. How are they similar and different? What
plants and animals live in these habitats?
- Much of New Jersey's unique landscape was formed by glaciers.
Learn about the Wisconsin Glacier. Look in a state map and locate
areas that were formed by this glacier. If possible, visit a one of
these areas to see the landscape first hand. Use the following
activity to demonstrate how glaciers change the landscape. Fold
several towels lengthwise and place them on top of each other. The
towel represents the soil and your hands represent the glacier. The
different layers of the towel are similar to the layers of
sedimentary rocks. Press in the sides so that the towel forms folds.
This shows how glaciers slide across land and form mountains.
- Find out the names of the Native Americans that lived in Maryland.
Learn how they used Maryland's plants and animals.
- When people think about wildlife, they usually think of animals
that live on land and forget about sea creatures. Visit the shore
and look for signs of animals that live in the ocean. Take a field
guide with you and identify sea shells.
- * Visit a local park or natural area
and go on a hike or scavenger hunt. Look at nature up close. You may
also choose to go on a scavenger hunt in your backyard and discover
that plants and animals that also call your yard "home."
- * Wildlife have adaptations, or
characteristics that help them survive. Learn about the adaptations
of five animals that live in Maryland. For example, the opossum,
pretends that it is dead when it feels threatened. Play the opossum
and coyote game with your troop. Chose one girl to be the coyote.
The rest of the girls are opossums. The coyote will turn on music
and the opossums will dance. When the coyote turns off the music,
the opossums will "play dead" by freezing in place. The
coyote will then try to make the opossums move, smile or giggle. The
first opossum to move or make a sound will become the new coyote.
- There are many animals that live in Maryland that are active
during the night. Learn about three nocturnal animals that live in
our state including bats. Bats hunt for insects at dusk and during
the night using echolocation. Learn how echolocation works. Play the
bat and moth game. All the girls will form a circle. Chose one girl
to be the bat and one to be the moth. The bat and moth enter the
circle. The bat closes her eyes and says "bat." The moth
will respond by saying "moth." The bat will try to tag the
moth inside the circle.
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