Outdoor Activities

Outdoor Activities Folder Contents

Date	Title	Summary
	Bear Habitat Checklist	Search for items that make up a good habitat for bears, and evidence of bear activity.
	Bear Habitat Checklist Lesson Plan	A lesson plan for the Bear Habitat Checklist.
	Bosque Plant Guide	A plant guide of endemic and invasive plants along the Rio Grande bosque, designed for use at Whitfield Wildlife Conservation Area in Belen, New Mexico.
	Bosque Scavenger Hunt	A scavenger hunt to search for natural things that make up the Rio Grande bosque ecosystem in New Mexico. Designed originally for usage at Whitfield Wildlife Conservation Area in Belen, New Mexico.
	Bosque Tree Key	A dichotomous tree key for identifying tree species along the New Mexico Rio Grande bosque. Designed for use at Whitfield Wildlife Conservation Area in Belen.
	Buggin' Out Lesson Plan	A lesson plan for an activity to have students discuss arthropods and then search for insects and other arthropods in an outdoor ecosystem.
	Busqueda de servicios ecosistemicos	Search for parts of the ecosystem that fill different ecosystem roles in this spanish version of the Ecosystem Services Field Hunt.
	Busqueda divertida	A spanish version of an Ecosystem Fun Hunt, an outdoor scavenger hunt.
	Clave para identificar los arboles	A Spanish translation of a dichotomous tree key for identifying tree species at around 7,000 feet in the Sandia mountains of New Mexico.
	Connection Selection	An activity to search for decomposers, producers, consumers, and non-living things in an ecosystem to understand the connections between them.
	Connection Selection Lesson Plan	Activity to discover connections in the schoolyard (or other) ecosystem.
	Connection Selection Team Cards	Cards for usage in Connection Selection group activity.
	Decomposition in the Forest	Activity to observe and classify trees by decomposition stages and what factors are breaking them down.
	Decomposition in the Forest Lesson Plan	A lesson plan to observe and discuss trees that have died, and do the Decomposition in the Forest activity.
	Differentiated Instruction	A document regarding different learning styles, and accommodations that can be made during SMNHC programs to help students with different kinds of challenges.
	Eco Jenga Lesson Plan	A lesson plan for using the game Jenga to demonstrate parts of an ecosystem and how important the connections are among them.
	Ecology Field Program Unit Lesson Plan	A lesson plan for the entire Ecology Field Program developed by environmental educators at the Sandia Mountain Natural History Center by 5th graders. This plan details the introduction and introductory activity discussing the parts of an ecosystem and connections among them, field activities, and informal evaluation used along the trail throughout the outdoor day program.
	Ecosystem Scavenger Hunt	A scavenger hunt for searching for natural things in an ecosystem and understanding their importance.
	Ecosystem Services Field Hunt	Search for things found in a natural ecosystem that play different roles and fill particular niches.
	Ethnobotany Adventure Activity Cards	Activity cards detailing different species of plants found in the Sandia Mountains and other New Mexico ecosystems, with the ways parts of these plants have been used by humans for medicinal purposes. For use during Ethnobotany Adventure Activity.
	Ethnobotany Adventure Lesson Plan	A lesson plan detailing Ethnobotany Adventure, an activity in which a script is read and plant cards are matched up to be used with different injuries and symptoms throughout the story.
	Ethnobotany Adventure Skit (student copy)	An Ethnobotany Adventure Skit to be read and acted out by an instructor and students to learn about human uses of plants for medicinal purposes. This skit is the student copy.
	Ethnobotany Adventure Skit (teacher copy)	An Ethnobotany Adventure Skit to be read and acted out by an instructor and students to learn about human uses of plants for medicinal purposes. This skit is the teacher copy.
	Fossil Hunt Lesson Plan	A lesson plan for a Fossil Hunt activity, for finding and observing fossils in the Sandia Mountains, and discussing what these fossils tell us about the ancient ecosystem they're from.
	Fun Hunt	A fun scavenger hunt to search for things in the natural ecosystem.
	Fun with Forestry	Fun with Forestry activity for researching forest health by measuring tree density with a cruiser angle, observing plant ground cover with a quadrat, counting plant species in the area, and determining whether the forest is healthy and what can be done to help it be healthier.
	Fun with Forestry Lesson Plan	Fun with Forestry Lesson Plan for studying the health of a forest ecosystem using forestry tools.
	Geology Rocks	Geology Rocks activity to carefully inspect a rock, study its geologic properties, and gain understanding as to the ancient ecosystem it comes from and its role in the modern ecosystem.
	Geology Rocks Lesson Plan	A lesson plan for Geology Rocks activity, to study geologic properties of a rock, and gain understanding as to the ancient ecosystem it comes from and its role in the modern ecosystem.
	Habitat Exploration	Describe a habitat you are in, determine animals that live there, and figure out what they use for food, water, and shelter.
	Juego de busqueda	Spanish translation of an ecosystem scavenger hunt.
	Lichen Key	Use this key to identify different rock and tree lichens that grow in the Sandia mountains.
	Lichen Key Lesson Plan	Lichen key lesson plan to learn about what lichen is and identify species of it in the Sandia mountain ecosystem.
	Life Zones	Life zone activity that has students look at trees around them in the Sandia mountains to determine which life zone they are in, and understand the importance of life zones on tree species.
	Loupe and Microscope Analogy Activity	An activity to look at natural objects under magnification using hand lenses, loupes, or microscopes, to examine the form and details, create analogies for what they look like, and consider why they are that way and their function.
	Oh Deer!	Oh Deer! is an active group activity where students play the role of deer in an ecosystem, trying to obtain food, water, and shelter in their habitat when resources are limited.
	Quadrats	Quadrat activity in which students observe everything present in a square quadrat placed on the ground outside, draw and record their observations and fill out a data sheet.
	Quadrats Lesson Plan	Lesson plan for observing and recording producers, consumers, decomposers, and non-living things in a quadrat randomly placed on the ground in an ecosystem.
	Scat Chat Lesson Plan	Scat chat lesson plan to observe and discuss animals' scat, diet, and connections to producers and other parts of their ecosystem.
	Snag Exploration	Explore a dead tree snag and the area around it to notice its details, evidence of consumers using it, and understand its ecosystem importance.
	Soil Turmoil	Learn about soil's importance in the ecosystem, examine a soil core sample, separate out soil components, and test percolation and erosion properties.
	Tree Exploration	Learn about a tree in the ecosystem through identifying it, observing the parts of it closely, and identifying what it needs to survive and what things need it to survive.
	Tree Key	A dichotomous tree key for identifying tree species at around 7,000 feet in the Sandia mountains.
	Tree Key Lesson Plan	Tree key lesson plan for closely observing and comparing/contrasting different species of trees in the Sandia mountains at about 7,000 feet while using a tree key to work on identifying the species.
	Weather Scavenger Hunt	A weather scavenger hunt to search for and record evidence of impacts and changes to an ecosystem from weather variables like rain and sunlight.
	Winter Scavenger Hunt	Winter scavenger hunt to find, observe and record things in an ecosystem during winter and when snow covers the ground.
	Winter Scavenger Hunt Lesson Plan	Winter scavenger hunt lesson plan for discussing and observing how abiotic and biotic parts of an ecosystem change and survive during the winter.
	Fossil Hunt	Use this Fossil Hunt Guide to identify and learn about limestone fossils that can be found at the SMNHC. These fossils are of animals found in an ancient ocean that was here about 300 million years ago.