Naturalist Jim’s 3 Steps to Discovering Nature

1. Naturalist Jim’s3 Steps to Discovering Nature • Identify something • Look it up • Keep learning about it next

2. There are three main ways to “IDENTIFY SOMETHING” • Have someone tell you its name • Use an illustration-based field guide • Use a technical identification key next

3. How do we get things identified? Teachers, park rangers and others can tell us what things are. However, here we’re interested in how to teachourselves. One way to do that is to use a field guide. The picture shows someone using a field guide to identify a snake. More info online HERE next

4. You can figure out how IDENTIFICATION “KEYS” work by studying this one: A Key to Five Objects on A Tiny Pacific Island A Object nonliving.................................. B AA Object living.................................... C B Object massive, irregularly shaped, opaque, composed of natural minerals..............................ROCK BB Object slender, artificially shaped, made of transparent glass............................. BOTTLE C Object rooted, with green leaves.................. TREE CC Object not rooted, with legs, no leaves........... D D Object feathered, able to fly...................BIRD DD Object featherless, unable to fly............. HUMAN But useful keys are much, much, much more technical , more challenging – and more fun-- than this one... More info online HERE next

5. Once you have a name, thenlook it up in books(more info online about field guides, general books on nature, magazines, and scientific journals) on the Internet(More info online here) next

6. Then organize your information and keep adding to it for the rest of your life. You can do this in your Nature Study Notebook or... on your computer. (More info online here) next

7. Backyard Naturalists can use some simple tools A scanner, to create great images such as the one shown above; More info online BINOCULARS: More info online MAGNIFIERS: More info online The End