Fifty years ago today, people around the world celebrated the first Earth Day. Here are a dozen ways to learn more about Earth and things you can do to protect and conserve our natural resources by following the 3 R’s— Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. What else can you do for the planet? #EarthDayAtHome
Enhance soil with scraps. Compost kitchen scraps (mainly fruits, vegetables, eggshells and coffee grounds) to enrich the soil for plants in and around your home or your family’s garden.
Sort your recyclables. Build a recycling-sorting machine, with this sustainability project from Science Buddies. Use your machine to help make the job of sorting recyclable materials easier! Check out this video tour of a recycling plant that processes about 800,000 tons of recycling every day! Did you know recycled materials are used to make all kinds of things that we use every day! You can learn more about recycling around the house, what you can recycle, and how to “live green” in these resources provided by Gwinnett Clean & Beautiful and Gwinnett County.
Recycle for your garden. Reuse household materials— think milk jugs, boxes— and seeds left over from fruit to design and create an indoor garden or a container garden for outside.
Shrink your water bill. Review a recent water bill with your family. Use the data on the bill to set a goal and challenge family members to conserve water and help reduce usage (and costs!) around the house. Check out these conservation tips from the county’s Department of Water Resources, including leak detection at home and ways to protect waterways in our community. Learn about Water Science with Wade with these videos from DWR.
Help the critters! Create a birdfeeder out of pinecones to help support wildlife in and around your home. Using materials on hand, make an outdoor bug hotel to support the tiny critters that benefit our soil and ecosystems. Want more critter fun? Explore the Outdoors (ages 0-5) or play Backyard Bingo (Pre-K to Grade 5) with Zoo Atlanta.
Take the City Nature Challenge with Fernbank Museum. Around the globe, folks will observe urban wildlife and document biodiversity as part of this Earth Week activity (April 24-27). Online, download the free iNaturalist app for Android or in the App Store for iPhone and iPad. Then, observe, photograph, and upload your wildlife data to iNaturalist. Any plant, animal, or fungi you find and photograph in your yard, park, or neighborhood counts!
Rock it! Build a kindness rock garden at home. When we’re able to gather again with others, share some of your kindness rocks with neighbors, place in a community garden, or ask your teacher if you can add kindness rocks to the school garden.
Make Earth Day art! Practice recycling and reusing materials by creating a tin can wind chime. Make an Earth Day collage using old magazines and colored paper. Get out in nature and sketch what you see around you— trees, bushes, flowers, and wildlife!
Explore natural resources in Georgia. Take a virtual field trip to explore Georgia’s forests. Learn about forestland and the animals that live there, and hear from scientists who are trying to save these precious ecosystems.
Explore Earth and your neighborhood. Create a neighborhood safari with NatGeo@Home. Younger kids will enjoy these animal-inspired coloring pages and animal facts (including these weird, but true, facts!). Older kids will love these award-winning wildlife photos and can learn about their favorite animals with this encyclopedia. Follow along as Nat Geo Explorers present these Earth Day Animal Conservation videos for kids.
Explore Earth from space. NASA scientists are keen observers of our planet. NASA at Home offers a host of cool Earth Day activities for kids in grades K-4 and 5-8, and 9-12. Try the Earth science Webquest, then test your knowledge with a quiz. The “EO Kids” blog (ages 9-14) offers videos, activities, and articles from NASA’s Earth Observatory. Explore our national parks as a Junior Ranger Space Tech Explorer. Be inspired by beautiful night images of our home planet taken from space, including the iconic photo Earthrise. Find videos, Q&A, and more!
Take a single-use inventory. Take an inventory of single-use plastic bottles in your home. How many plastic bottles does your family use in a day? In a week? In a month? Think of a few ways that you could decrease the number of single-use plastic bottles used by your family. Next, look at how you can reduce your use of other throwaway items like bags, straws, and takeout containers.
We’ll be sharing more tips so watch for the next installment of DLD Daily Dozen!