Phyllis Davis and I attended one of your multi-day workshops in November 2020. It along with the Urban Ecology course you provided was the inspiration for Nature Detectives. Nature Detectives was a kit people registered for and then email blasts were sent out to encourage the exploration. We had over a 100 people register for our kits. Over half were actually picked up. The other half we gave to the appropriate age group of children. Some of the feedback we got was: ”this is a really great idea”, “my kids love nature” and ”it was fun exploring our neighborhood”.
Items in kit:
1 homemade nature journal made from copy paper and cardstock
1 tweezer
1 bug box (donation)
1 magnifying glass
2 zines from PLIX
1 Nature Walk information from PLIX
1 pencil (donation)
1 eraser (donation)
1 viewfinder
Cards about Missouri Animals (donation)
Costs:
Cost for items for 160 Nature Detective Kits $1.73 per kit
8 packages of 20 Plastic Tweezers from Amazon.com $71.92
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07L3DY31Q/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
7 Packages of 24 Magnifying glasses from Amazon.com $100.03
Amazon.com: IRCHLYN Plastic Magnifier, Mini Magnifying Glass 5X and 15X Handheld Reading for Kids Home, Classroom, Outdoor Science Observation Hand Lens 24 Pack : Arts, Crafts & Sewing
500 brown paper bags $17.99
Cardstock for 250 sheets from Staples $8.37
Copy paper for 500 sheets from Staples $12.90 $211.21
If you add bug boxes: Bug Viewers $12.99 for 32 $64.95
$276.16
8 Likes
I like your flier. How many kits did you make?
I am going to put the sensory walk into a passive activity kit for our library branches to give out during the month of April. We’ll have patrons create a field notebook out of recycled paper to take with them. I was wondering, in the sensory walk, the downloadable instructions state in the section for Touch: “Find an inorganic material. Water, rock, sand, clay. Describe its texture. Are these objects located near organic materials?”
Are those inorganic materials? Is there a different word for things that are not living but part of the earth’s environment?
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Any zines or other material with specific language we got from PLIX’s Urban Ecology. I think what you’re referring to came from another library. We did the Nature Detectives Take Outs. I am happy to help you with what materials we used in our kit if that would help.
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Oh got it, I am referring to the PLIX materials and it is really a general question for anyone. I just had a funny reaction to reading that water and rocks are inorganic. But it is correct. I had to read what organic really means: THE CHEMICAL DEFINITION OF ORGANIC
In chemistry, the definition is based solely on chemical structure. With very few exceptions a chemical is classified as organic if it contains at least one carbon atom, regardless of its source. This 
is why organic chemistry is called “the chemistry of carbon.” Generally that carbon atom is bonded to at least one hydrogen atom. Amino acids (image right) are the building blocks of protein, and a good example of organic molecules.
And minerals and water don’t necessarily have carbon. I learned something for sure!
@michelleb I would love any source materials that you would like to share also!
Jacqui,
This is a repost of what I had put on PLIX.
Phyllis Davis and I attended one of your multi-day workshops in November 2020. It along with the Urban Ecology course you provided was the inspiration for Nature Detectives. Nature Detectives was a kit people registered for and then email blasts were sent out to encourage the exploration. We had over a 100 people register for our kits. Over half were actually picked up. The other half we gave to the appropriate age group of children. Some of the feedback we got was: ”this is a really great idea”, “my kids love nature” and ”it was fun exploring our neighborhood”.
Items in kit:
1 homemade nature journal made from copy paper and cardstock
1 tweezer
1 bug box (donation)
1 magnifying glass
2 zines from PLIX
1 Nature Walk information from PLIX
1 pencil (donation)
1 eraser (donation)
1 viewfinder
Cards about Missouri Animals (donation)
Costs:
Cost for items for 160 Nature Detective Kits $1.73 per kit
8 packages of 20 Plastic Tweezers from Amazon.com $71.92
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07L3DY31Q/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 1
7 Packages of 24 Magnifying glasses from Amazon.com $100.03
Amazon.com: IRCHLYN Plastic Magnifier, Mini Magnifying Glass 5X and 15X Handheld Reading for Kids Home, Classroom, Outdoor Science Observation Hand Lens 24 Pack : Arts, Crafts & Sewing
500 brown paper bags $17.99
Cardstock for 250 sheets from Staples $8.37
Copy paper for 500 sheets from Staples $12.90 $211.21
If you add bug boxes: Bug Viewers $12.99 for 32 $64.95
$276.16
1 Like
