Get Ready for City Nature Challenge!

Posted on by Finn Smith in Adults, Any Age, Earth & Space Science, Front Page, Life Science

At the end of this month, Fort Collins will be participating in City Nature Challenge; are you ready?

City Nature Challenge is a friendly competition between cities all over the world to see who can rally their population to log the most observations in iNaturalist in a set period of time. This year, City Nature Challenge is happening from April 25-28.

Joining the Fort Collins City Nature Challenge team is easy!

  1. Download the iNaturalist app
    1. Optional: You can also download Seek by iNaturalist, which has an in-app camera that helps identify species you point it at, and connects to your iNaturalist account
  2. Get outside the weekend of April 25th
  3. Upload pictures of plants, animals, bugs, or fungus to your iNaturalist account

Any observations uploaded to iNaturalist from within Fort Collins city limits between April 25th-28th will automatically count toward our score.

You can visit the City Nature Challenge project in iNaturalist by clicking here for all the details.

To learn more about how to use iNaturalist to contribute to ongoing biodiversity research, click through the link below!

iNaturalist and Participatory Science

If you’d prefer a hands-on tutorial, click here to sign up for our free iNaturalist workshop on Sunday, April 20th

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The Bias Inside Us Educator Toolkit

Posted on by Finn Smith in Any Age, Social Studies, The Bias Inside Us

The Bias Inside Us Educator Toolkit is a free educational resource, which contains a set of posters, and an educators guide used for facilitating conversation, and is intended to be used in conjunction with The Bias Inside Us exhibit.

This resource will help facilitate conversations on the real-world impacts of bias. It contains discussion questions to spark dialogue, links to interactive activities on the online exhibition, and articles expanding on the research of bias.

Click through the link below for access to the toolkit:

TBIU Educator Guide

Additional information about The Bias Inside Us can be found on the online exhibition website.

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Hi-Five Tetris Lesson Plan

Posted on by Finn Smith in Ages 6-8, Ages 9-12, Any Age, Life Science, Physical Science, Skin: Living Armor

As we have worked on developing programming to help our visitors engage with our special exhibition, Skin: Living Armor, Evolving Identity, we have also adapted those programs into classroom-style lessons that classroom teachers, home school teachers, or any educator can use to expand their students’ learning before and after visiting the museum. 

In this lesson, we are getting curious about why and how our skin conducts electricity, and how it compares to other conductors. Your students will play a video game controlled by hi-fives, then test different conductors to make their own controller!

Use the links below to access the lesson plan and any accompanying files or printouts: 

Hi-Five Tetris Curriculum

Conductivity Worksheet 1 (Younger Students)

Conductivity Worksheet 2 (Older Students)

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A closeup detail of Georges Seurat's "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte". There is a gloved hand holding a laboratory micropipette superimposed over the image.

Pipette Pointillism Lesson Plan

Posted on by Finn Smith in Ages 6-8, Ages 9-12, Any Age, Life Science, Skin: Living Armor, Visual Arts

As we have worked on developing programming to help our visitors engage with our special exhibition, Skin: Living Armor, Evolving Identity, we have also adapted those programs into classroom-style lessons that classroom teachers, home school teachers, or any educator can use to expand their students’ learning before and after visiting the museum. 

In this lesson, we are getting curious about the tools biologists use when they study skin. Your students will learn how to use micropipettes by filling in a pointillist paint-by-numbers, dispensing one drop of paint into each square of a grid. This lesson also teaches about pointillism and its connections to microbiology: just as our bodies are made up of organs which are made up of tissues which are made up of cells which are made up of organelles, pointillist paintings invite you to look closer at the components making up each figure.

Use the links below to access the lesson plan and any accompanying files or printouts: 

Pipette Pointillism Curriculum

Pipette Pointillism Presentation

Micropipette User Guide

Pointillism Grid Seurat Numbers

Pointillism Grid Seurat Colors

Pointillism Grid Blank

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A person is looking through the eyepiece of a microscope at a paper they are drawing on.

Micro Drawing Lesson Plan

Posted on by Finn Smith in Ages 9-12, Any Age, Life Science, Skin: Living Armor, Visual Arts

As we have worked on developing programming to help our visitors engage with our special exhibition, Skin: Living Armor, Evolving Identity, we have also adapted those programs into classroom-style lessons that classroom teachers, home school teachers, or any educator can use to expand their students’ learning before and after visiting the museum. 

In this lesson, we are getting curious about the tools biologists use when they study skin. Your students will learn how to use a microscope to make a tiny piece of art, then create a tiny class gallery!

Use the links below to access the lesson plan and any accompanying files or printouts: 

MicroDrawing Curriculum

Microscopy Intro Handout

Microscopy Intro Slides

Micro Gallery Frame

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A no food or drink sign featuring an icon of a hamburger and drink which has been crossed out with a red circle and slash. A paper lizard has been colored to blend in with the top of the arc of the circle.

Camouflage Menagerie Lesson Plan

Posted on by Finn Smith in Ages 6-8, Ages 9-12, Any Age, Life Science, Skin: Living Armor

As we have worked on developing programming to help our visitors engage with our special exhibition, Skin: Living Armor, Evolving Identity, we have also adapted those programs into classroom-style lessons that classroom teachers, home school teachers, or any educator can use to expand their students’ learning before and after visiting the museum.

In this lesson, we are getting curious about how animals use their skin to avoid predators. Your students will explore the advantages and disadvantages of having skin that is designed to camouflage with a specific environment by coloring in paper animals and hiding them in plain sight around your space!

Use the links below to access the lesson plan and any accompanying files or printouts:

Camo Menagerie Curriculum

Camo Menagerie Templates

Hide and Seek Slideshow

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