The abundant Northwest forests hold four-seasons of secrets just waiting to be revealed by curious kids bent on making collections. The forest floor gives many clues, indicators of what lives there. In the process of uncovering clues, kids begin to develop necessary science skills. Jolene Hinrichsen, science-education researcher at the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, says looking at the forest floor can be like a detective game for kids, trying to figure out what birds and animals lived there, and how many. Northwest forests and woodlands provide a variety of items for kids to find, collect, organize, and classify.
Drawing helps to enrich the experience.
Another way is to make casts to bring home. It's also fun to talk about why the prints are the same or different from each other, and to guess the weight of the animal. Fur provides yet another possibility for making a collection, says Jolene. Many animals rub trees, or in bedding down for the night, they leave pieces of fur behind. Scientists look at fur and scat collections to track animals.