Eye on Nature trips occur in the spring and summer. Students visit Billy Frank Jr. Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge for two outdoor activities on the Refuge trail system: ethnobotany walks and nature mapping. During the ethnobotany walk, students learn about about the traditional cultural and medicinal uses of native plants. During the Nature Mapping activity, students record the animals they see along the trail. This data is later entered into the eBird database.
Check out the Eye On Nature Field Guide we will be using on the trail during the field trip!
Pre-trip Presentation
You can use this presentation to prepare students for their Eye On Nature field trip.
Data Collection
Looking to practice data collection before the field trip? Here is a copy of the data sheet we will use at the refuge, as well as an example of a school specific block map. The map allows your students to practice the art of moving around and keeping track of where they are located, which can come in handy during the field trip!
Below are sample graphs generated from student data collected during Eye on Nature Trips, and some sample questions for students to answer.
eBird
We upload all bird data from our EON trips to eBird.org. eBird is a fantastic citizen science tool we use for uploading much of our field trip data. Student data is added to this massive biodiversity database used by scientists to better understand how birds move through and use habitats on a large scale. This tool is a wonderful way to show students how important citizen science observations is to the scientific world! If you would like to access previous years of EON data please use our log-in information below to do so. Please remember to not change or delete any past information. Feel free to create an account for your class and practice making scientific observations of birds at school to upload before coming out to the refuge!
Username: Eye On Nature Field Trips
Password: Nisqually
Additional Resources
Looking for more resources for Eye on Nature Trips? Click here!