At Early Bird, we believe in sharing experiences and knowledge so we can grow as individuals, and a community. In keeping with that spirit, we have consolidated this list of resources. It encompasses organisations and initiatives from India and across the world, so dive in for inspiration! We hope that it will nudge you along in your journey as an educator, you can also access our compiled resources for birders here.
TO TEACH ABOUT BIRDS OR ENGAGE WITH SCIENCE
- Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Bird Academy has a number of online games for different age groups to explore various aspects of birds.
- Small Science is a series of innovative primary science textbooks developed by the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education. Freely available for download.
- iWonder is a science magazine brought out by Azim Premji University for middle and high school teachers, to which you can also ask for hard copies.
- Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s K-12 programme has a variety of resources that have been tested with schools around the US. Look for their free downloads relating to different grades, under ‘Lessons and Activities’.
- ‘Indian Birds’ – a colouring Book by Centre for Environmental Education.
- Arvind Gupta Toys has a fantastic set of resources for educators, compiled from various groups. In particular do check this otherwise hard-to-find Joy of Learning handbook.
- Vigyan Pratibha is an effort to advance science and mathematics, units are available for free download including one called ‘Rediscover, Describe and Draw Birds’.
- A four-part series on birds that was published in ‘Teacher Plus’ magazine: Part 1: Why Study Birds, Part 2 and Part 3: Discover, describe and draw birds, Part 4: A Fancy for Flight.
- Twinkl has worksheets on various subjects including Science, sorted by age group. We’ve been featured as part of their Earth Day blog series.
TO CONNECT KIDS WITH NATURE
- The Teachers of India website aims to build a vibrant community of teachers through the sharing of knowledge and experience on a common platform.
- Seasonwatch is an India-wide citizen science project which encourages schools, children and adults to observe and collect data on fruiting/flowering of common tree species with a number of resources available in English, Telugu and Tamil.
- iNaturalist is a global biodiversity database hosting user-generated photographs and observations of the natural world, which also has a child-friendly app called Seek.
- The North American Association for Environmental Education features a variety of resources, webinars and learning opportunities for professional growth of educators.
- Children & Nature Network is a global movement to get children outdoors and connected to nature. Articles, research papers, and resources for educators are available online.
- NCF has made available a series of nature based outdoor activities for children, available for free download and use as well as those that you can purchase here.
- The Nature Classrooms team at NCF works towards integrating elements of nature learning with the existing EVS curriculum. Learn about them and download their resources (for e.g. Hidden Housemates activities) and learn about their pedagogy on their website.
- Nature stories from StoryWeaver, a digital repository of multilingual stories for children from Pratham Books.
- Nature journaling and drawing tutorials as per the legendary John Muir and YouTube videos here.
- Biodiversity Booklet published by the Wipro Earthian school programme, featuring activities and games for grade 7-12 students.
- Nature Vidya is a bilingual (English/Hindi) portal for environment education in the Western Himalayan region, developed by Nature Science Initiative.
- Biodiversity Explorer Kit by WWF is about backyard biodiversity in India.
INDIAN WILDLIFE-RELATED EDUCATIONAL GAMES/BOOKS (for purchase):
- Last Wilderness Foundation has a wildlife bingo and dominoes game, along with books that can be purchased on their site.
- Snake-a-doo is a Snakes and Ladders game, created for awareness about snakes and snakebites, and is available in English, Hindi and Marathi.
- Shell Shocker is a card game on Indian turtles, produced by the Turtle Survival Alliance (India program). Some of these games are also available on the Pashoopakshee store.
- The Wilderness is a card game based on Indian biodiversity, produced by the Palluyir Trust in Chennai.
- Books from CEE can be purchased on their online store here.
ONLINE RESOURCES: ON INDIAN WILDLIFE AND NATURE
- Round Glass Sustain
- Nature InFocus
- JLR Explore
- Sanctuary Nature Foundation
- Conservation India
- Indian Birds
- Saevus
- Wild Sojourns
- Youth for Nature (Magazine for kids)
- Ektara
- Current Conservation Kids (Magazine)
- The Youth Cosmo (print and digital periodical for kids)
ORGANISATIONS (that work on nature education and outreach in India)
- Auroville
- Bombay Natural History Society
- Center for Environment Education
- Eco Edu
- Kalpavriksh
- Salim Ali Center for Ornithology and Natural History(SACON)
- World Wide Fund for Nature India
- Zoo Outreach Organization
- Palluyir Trust
- Nature Science Initiative
This list is by no means comprehensive, do let us know if you know of others that should be included here.