Do your children enjoy being outdoors? According to a recent study from the Nature Conservancy, 82 percent of American parents feel that spending time in nature is “very important” to a child’s development, second only to reading. Despite that sense of priority, 65 percent of parents in Brazil, China, France, and Hong Kong as well as the U.S. regard lack of time outdoors as a serious problem. The Children and Nature Network has compiled research connecting what it calls “nature deficit disorder” to attention problems and diminished awareness of the senses as well as physical inactivity and obesity.
Ironically, both of these organizations responded to this problem by developing websites. Naturerocks.org, a partnership between the Nature Conservancy and Disney, offers a rich collection of activities that will get kids outdoors to engage with the natural world, as well as an interactive map that points families toward beaches, campgrounds, aquariums and zoos. The Children and Nature Network has a list of nature clubs for families (childrenandnature.org/movement-directory).
Going online in order to strengthen your family’s connection with the great outdoors may seem counter-intuitive, but in our wired age, it does not make sense to ignore the many websites and apps that promise to inspire and support a deeper involvement with the world beyond the screen.
Where to go
Yes, you can explore the natural world in your own backyard or in the park down the street. But when you have the urge for a bigger adventure, these apps can guide you:
NatureFind pinpoints all sorts of places where families can satisfy an appetite for exploration. In addition to nature centers and natural history museums, the website provides descriptions and directions for zoos, botanical gardens, and wildlife refuges. A mobile version makes it easy to find activities on the go (naturefind.com).
Parkfinder provides concise information about city, state, and national parks. A menu of activities allows you to search for parks where your family can pursue your favorite pastimes (ohranger.com).
All Trails is a source for information about 50,000 trails in the U.S. and Canada. In addition to information about level of difficulty and scenery along the way, you’ll have access to comments from other hikers. The basic app is free. For $50 a year, you can get very detailed maps produced in a partnership with National Geographic (alltrails.com).
Get involved
A number of apps motivate users to take the next step and become citizen scientists, reporting their observations and taking action to preserve threatened species and habitats:
Project NOAH (Networked Organisms and Habitats) encourages wildlife lovers, young and old, to take photos of what they see and upload them to a website. The photos help scientists track wildlife populations. And a global community is ready to help your child identify unknown plants and animals (projectnoah.org).
Nature’s Notebook takes a different approach to observation. Your family can sign up to record changes in a specific site such as a favorite park or your own backyard. Then use the app to make regular field notes. Specific questions encourage children to notice seasonal changes for plants, birds, and other creatures. Those observations become part of a database that helps scientists track migration patterns (usanpn.org/natures_notebook).
iNaturalist, an app and a website, is the brainchild of college students whose ambitious goal is a “living record of life on Earth that scientists and land managers could use to monitor changes in biodiversity, and that anyone could use to learn more about nature.” Younger kids may need help in uploading photos, but they will have the satisfaction of knowing that they are contributing to a massive database that records life on the planet (inaturalist.org).
Think of these apps as bridges that will connect the virtual world in which most kids spend most of their time and the natural world where there are miracles waiting to be discovered.
Carolyn Jabs has been writing Growing Up Online for 10 years and is working on a book about constructive responses to conflict. Visit www.growi
Copyright, 2014, Carolyn Jabs. All rights reserved.
