Amaze Your Brain at Home: Earth Science and Sustainability
Keep our Earth healthy and happy when you experiment with any of these environmentally conscious activities! Prepare your palate for edible insects, learn to recognize local frogs by hearing their ribbit, and find a solution to pollution with a reenactment of an oil spill.
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All Ages
Sami Saves Seashells by the Seashore
Celebrate Earth Day with an experiment and discuss one form of climate change. Witness ocean acidification in action and evaluate how the increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere affects the homes of mollusks. Educators will also share why the ocean is important to them – can you tell us why the ocean is special to you?
Hydropower Challenge
Did you know hydropower— the utilization of water’s natural current and flow— produces 16% of the world’s electricity? Use household items to design and engineer your own hydropower turbine at home.
Wild Ocean
The film highlights one of nature’s greatest migration spectacles, plunging viewers into an underwater feeding frenzy, an epic struggle for survival where whales, sharks, dolphins, seals, gannets and billions of fish collide with the most voracious sea predator, mankind.
Global Warming
Watch as scientists break down what global warming is and how it affects our daily lives.
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DIY Scrappy Garden
Sustainability is simple and tasty! Become a super recycler and collect vegetable scraps from your kitchen to set up a garden that will yield home grown produce. Follow the instructions to begin and get ready to reduce food waste with our partner Kroger.
The Sky is a Highway
Be a friend to nature this season! You only need several household items to design a feeder for your backyard that will provide nutrition for birds migrating to the north. Enjoy the creatures that come to visit – they appreciate you!
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Career Connection: Gracie Ermi, Software Engineer
Meet Gracie Ermi and see how she’s using her career as a software engineer to save the planet.
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Early Childhood (Ages 18 months - 4 yrs)
Oil Spill Clean Up
Think green with your little one! Experiment like an environmentalist and find a solution to this pollution when you reenact a mini oil spill and learn how to best clean it up. WATCH ON YOUTUBE
Earth & Sustainability Book List
Plant yourself in a cozy spot and enjoy stories all about nature, its functions, and our planet. Let us know which is your favorite book!
Trash to Toys: Upcycled Puzzles
Don’t be wasteful! Try this activity and reuse something you would usually throw away to construct a new toy. From now on, ask yourself – is this trash or a treasure?
Compact Composting
Grow your toddlers mind when you follow this activity to make your own homemade compost! Work alongside your little one to collect fruit and vegetable scraps to create your fertilizer, then use it for your lush garden or as potting soil.
Grades K-3
Fantastic Frogs
There’s a fantastic diversity of amphibians in Texas. Watch this “ribbiting” video to find out how to identify some of the most common species of frogs in DFW through sight and sound. Discover more about their unique adaptations and how they are important indicators of environmental health. Take your field guide, grab your net, and let’s get looking for frogs!
Grades 4-8
Edible Insects
Take your taste buds on an adventure and watch a Museum educator cook up silk moths, ant eggs, and june beetles from around the world. Discover the nutrition behind certain insects and let us know if you’ve tried any of these nourishing bugs! WATCH ON YOUTUBE
Decomposer Scavenger Hunt
May the forest be with you during this quest! Use the provided chart when you search for commonly found creatures and objects out in nature, and be on the lookout for other decomposers not on the list. DOWNLOAD PDF
Grades 6-12
Denizens of the (not so) Deep
Learn about creatures that live in ephemeral ponds around DFW and understand their impact on the health of a pond. Dive into this topic with a Museum educator as tiny critters are identified from a small sample using a couple of household items and follow along with a handy bug picking data sheet.