Grades 3 to 5 Self-paced
online course
online course
Backyard Explorer
Backyard Explorer Grades 3 to 5
Free online outdoor science course · 12 weeks
- Grade
- Grades 3 to 5
- Ages
- Ages 8 to 11
- Price
- Free
- Format
- Self-paced online course at learn.lanternlearn.com
About this course
Backyard Explorer Grades 3 to 5 is a free 12-week online life science course done outside. Kids keep a field notebook, map a habitat, tell an observation from an inference, study the structures and behaviors of birds, insects, plants and other neighbors, trace a food web from the species in their own region, follow life cycles and seasons through real sighting data, and ask what happens when a habitat changes. Each week's field guide lists the species people record most in your region of the United States. Saturday is Explorer Day with the family.
12-week list
Each week has short lessons Monday to Friday and an Explorer Day outing with the family on Saturday.
| Week | Topic | Focus | NGSS |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Field Notebook | Observe, record and wonder like a naturalist | 4-LS1-2 |
| 2 | Map Your Habitat | Food, water, cover and space, drawn from above | 3-LS4-3 |
| 3 | Birds: Built to Survive | Feathers, beaks, feet and the things birds do | 4-LS1-1 |
| 4 | Insects and Pollinators | Six legs, four stages and a flower full of visitors | 3-LS1-1 |
| 5 | Plants: Built From Air and Water | Where the stuff of a plant really comes from | 5-LS1-1 |
| 6 | Signs and Safety | Reading the clues that mammals, reptiles and amphibians leave behind | 4-LS1-1 |
| 7 | Who Eats Whom | Producers, consumers, decomposers and the webs that link them | 5-LS2-1 |
| 8 | Living in Groups | Flocks, herds, schools and colonies, and why they help | 3-LS2-1 |
| 9 | Life Cycles | Birth, growth, reproduction and death, in four very different lives | 3-LS1-1 |
| 10 | Seasons and Migration | Reading the months as data | 3-LS4-3 |
| 11 | When Habitats Change | Move, adjust or decline | 3-LS4-4 |
| 12 | Citizen Scientist | Your records help protect living things | 5-ESS3-1 |