Join citizen scientists using technology to track arrival of spring.
Seasonal change is all around us. Children see it in the length of a day, in the appearance of a flower, in the flight of a butterfly. Journey North is a free, Internet-based program that explores the interrelated aspects of seasonal change. Through interrelated investigations, students discover that sunlight drives all living systems and they learn about the dynamic ecosystem that surrounds and connects them.
- Sunlight and the Seasons: Children study seasonal change in sunlight in a global game of hide and seek called Mystery Class.
- Plants and the Seasons: Children explore tulip growth in their own gardens, running an experiment that tracks the arrival of spring.
- Seasonal Migrations: Children follow animal migrations. They observe, research, and report findings and watch journeys progress on live maps.
Journey North for Kids: A simple, student-directed entry point to Journey North studies. Engaging stories, photos, videos, and slide shows from the natural world build observation skills, inspire scientific thinking, and create fertile ground for discussions and new questions!
Journey North engages students in a global study of wildlife migration and seasonal change. K-12 students share their own field observations with classmates across North America. They track the coming of spring through the migration patterns of monarch butterflies, robins, hummingbirds, whooping cranes, gray whales, bald eagles— and other birds and mammals; the budding of plants; changing sunlight; and other natural events. Find migration maps, pictures, standards-based lesson plans, activities and information to help students make local observations and fit them into a global context. Widely considered a best-practices model for education, Journey North is the nation’s premiere “citizen science” project for children. The general public is welcome to participate.
For information about this spring’s free projects see:
http://www.learner.org/jnorth/