Nature Detectives at Different Ages
Websites for Kids
Books for Kids
- Field Guide to Tracks
- How to be a Nature Detective
- In the Woods: Who's Been Here?
Contact Us
Contact the Discovery Center and Living Lab staff at livinglab@mos.org
Nature Detectives: Older Children & Adults
Nature Detectives can be a fun science activity for people of all ages. We provide these generalizations as guidelines about what children at different ages might do during a Nature Detective exploration at the Discovery Center, in the kitchen at home, or at school. Listed below are science and technology process skills that children may be practicing during their explorations. Please remember: each child develops at a different rate, so some children in each age group may be able to do some of the things described in the age group before or after their own.
How might older children become Nature Detectives?
Scaffold - Older Children & Adults
Older children and adults can talk with younger children about the things they find. They can assist them in looking at things in nature safely, for both them and the wildlife.
They can also teach children of all ages to use tools correctly and which ones to use to gather particular kinds of information. Using the tools to examine clues more closely can also help the older child or adult assist the young child in hypothesizing what could have happened.
Older adults and children can help explain the food chain, since often they may come across evidence of an animal used as food.