Think Like a Scientist:
Discover Your Park
Discover Your Park
Location:
Kittatinny Point, Hardwick Township, NJ
Goal: Think like a scientist to observe and discover your national parks and the natural places around where you live.
Accommodation: you can do many of these activities in your own backyard or in any outdoor space to study the science of nature
How to Think Like a Scientist!
Follow these fun activities to think like a scientist while in nature. The tasks herein will encourage you to pause and ask questions about why and how things are, craft hypothesis, discover new ideas, and share your findings.
Please share with our ESU Pocono Writing Project @ __________ or on Twitter @ ________
If you have 5 minutes
If you have 30 minutes
If you have 1 hour
If you have a whole afternoon
Or if you have the entire weekend!
Printable Version
I’ve got 5 minutes ...
Who Lives Here
Supplies: Hand lens, binoculars, paper, pencil
Scientists observe the world around them and record data about what they find. There is a lot you can discover about your national park when you look closely.
Activity: Explore Kittatinny Point. Use you magnifying lens and binoculars to look closely at the natural world around you. On a sheet of paper record as many different plants, animals, or evidence of animals that you can find in five minutes.
Accommodation: Even if you aren’t at Kittatinny Point, you can find evidence of life in any natural space. In your backyard or local park, how may plants, animals or evidence of animals that you can find in five minutes.
Intersections
Supplies: binoculars, park map or Guide to the Gap
An intersection is a point where two or more things intersect or come together. Kittatinny Point is a place of intersections. From here you can can stand within Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, stand on the Appalachian National Scenic Trail, and look out on the Middle Delaware Scenic and Recreational River. These three nationally significant resources are all part of the park. This is also a place where the river, the mountains and, and HWY 80 intersect.
Activity: Open the park map and see if you can find Kittatinny Point, the Appalachian Trail, HWY 80, and the Delaware River. Use your binoculars to see if you can find the Appalachian National Scenic trail running along the mountains rising up on either side of the river.
Accommodation: Even if you aren’t at Kittatinny Point, you can find intersections among land formations and human structures in many natural spaces. In your backyard or local park, can you find a place where different land formations intersect?
I’ve got 30 minutes …
Poet-Tree
Supplies: a pen or a pencil, something to write on
Activity: Take a short walk around the grounds of Kittatinny Point (or another natural space) and discover the sights and sounds. Spend about 10 minutes jotting downs notes of what you see and hear. Find a spot to continue observing the natural world around you and craft a poem to share your observations.
Pay particular attention to the trees, the leaves, the colors, the birds, the water, etc. As with any park, you will notice the life surrounding you. Think of the different types of poems you can write - a haiku, an acrostic, or simply a free verse - and record your experience through creative expression.
Accommodation: You can view nature and write poetry anywhere so explore where you can!
Share @...
Examples:
HAIKU:
Look around and see
The water is still like brick
The trees blow at me
ACROSTIC:
Tall and green and cool
Reaching to the sky
Every leaf is perfectly made
Each one unique like a snowflake
FREE VERSE:
Flora are flowers that grow in the ground
Lillies are graceful and beautiful
Orchids are colorful and unique
When you walk in the forest it is magical
Every day I go outside
Replant seeds and make nature beautiful
Are Leaves Alive?
Supplies: a clear container, fresh leaves (2-3, already fallen from trees), a small rock for weight (2-3, or the same number as leaves you have collected), writing supplies and notebook
Activity: While walking the grounds of the park (or another outdoor area), collect several fresh, green leaves already on the ground (so as not to disturb the resources around you).
Fill a clear container with clean water (not water from a natural body) and gently place the leaves inside. Submerge the leaves and use a rock to weigh down each one. Leave the leaves in the water for approximately 10 minutes before returning to make observations and answer the question.
View the water surrounding the leaves. What do you notice? Is it bubbly? Flat? Motionless? What do you think this says about leaves - are they alive? Record your observations and conclusion in a notebook. What evidence supports the conclusion you have made?
I’ve got 1 hour ...
PLANET DIVERSITY
Supplies: tape measurer, string, writing supplies, magnifying glass, writer’s notebook
Imagine you have arrived here from a foreign universe and your task is to report back to home base the ecosystem of your newly discovered land. Using your tape measurer, determine a semi-large space of land, approximately 10 ft X 10 ft. Mark off this are with your strong. Walk the perimeter of this area and slowly work your way in. Use your magnifying glass to get a close-up look at all that is there to see - the soil, the grass, the leaves, the ants, water, etc.
Record specific, even seemingly minor, details that can visually recreate to home the place you have arrived at. Consider the diversity of even this small space and imagine what varitions exist beyond this small scope. Share this hypothesis as part of your writing.
Share prompt with us @ ___________
I’ve got the whole afternoon! ...
Explore Another Area of the Park
Supplies: Park Map, Guide to the Gap
Delaware Water Gap National Recreation area is very big. It’s so big that park of the park is in New Jersey and part of the park is in Pennsylvania. If you paddled a canoe down the river through the middle of the park it would take you two to three days to get from one end of the park to the other. Because it is so big, there is a lot to see and do.
Grab a park map or Guide to the Gap. Locate Kittatinny Point on the map and then pick another location in the plark that you would like to explore. How long do you think it will it take to get there? Compare the new location to Kittatinny Point. Identify three things that are the same as Kittatinny Pont and three things that are different.
10 Things You Can Do in the Park
1. Go for a swim at Smithfield Beach
2. Take a bike ride on the McDade Trail
3. Explore the EcoZone at PEEC
4. Go fishing at Hidden Lake
5. Explore Millbrook Village
6. Hike to Dingmans Falls
7. Become a Jr. Ranger
8. Hike on the Appalachian Trail
9. Paddle a canoe on the Delaware River
10. Have a picnic at Tom’s Creek
I’ve got the entire weekend ...
Explore Another National Park Site
Supplies: Every Kid Outdoors pass, car, national park map
National park sites come in all shapes and sizes, they can be big wild places, like Yellowstone National Park or small special places, like Thaddeus Kosciusko National Memorial in Pennsylvania that is only 0.002 acres. Even the White House is a National Park.
Within a two hour drive of Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area there are over twenty-two National Park Service sites.
Activity: Pick another National Park Service site that you would like to visit and plan a trip with your family. If you are interested in U.S. history, you might want to visit Federal Hall National Memorial. If you are an artist, you might want to visit Weir Farm National Historic Site. If you love trains, take a trip to Steamtown National Historic Site. You can reserach which park to visit at NPS.gov or Findyourpark.com
National Park Areas Close to Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area:
Do you have more to suggest?
Post your ideas to #writeout