What's New at NOS
2024
Beginning on June 18, we began partnering with the Humboldt County Library to offer summer hiking programs for youth. On Fridays throughout the summer, youth who are participating in the library’s summer reading program have the opportunity to hike with us in Water Canyon. Each Friday’s hike brings a different theme such as a nature scavenger hunt and Leave No Trace. We are excited to give youth the opportunities to get outside and explore during the summer!
On March 29th, Winnemucca Americorps members Noah C, Sedric Zimmerman, and William Neff hosted a community geocaching workshop. Geocaching is a fun adventure focused outdoor activity that can be done almost anywhere. The members met members of the community at Pioneer Park and explained what geocaching is, told them the plan for the day, and explained Leave No Trace. As a group, the members and participants drove around town to different locations where they would group up and use a mixture of the location and hints to find the hidden cash. Afterwards they signed the geocache log and returned it to its position. The event was a great success, it taught a bunch of people a new hobby/activity that gets them active outdoors and can be done anywhere.
Early on Friday, March 29th, 5 students joined NOS Members Meghan, Noah D, and Kindra at Mountain View Park for the first Ride Safe, Ride Smart camp of 2024! This day camp led students through the importance of T.R.E.A.D Lightly principles, and actions people can take in order to protect themselves and others while riding ATVs! The day camp included a lot of fun activities from running games to arts and crafts! Overall, the youth involved each learned valuable information that they’ll be able to carry throughout their lives and help protect themselves and others around them!
On Saturday, March 16th, NOS Americorps members went to Battle Mountain to help NDOW and the school district clean up the duck pond next to the highschool. There was a really good turnout of volunteers, including a lot of highschoolers there for community service hours. At the start, members were pulling weeds from around the pond until NDOW got their skid steer going. The members then helped throw tree trimmings into a dumpster filled by raking and bagging leaves. Overall, it was an amazing event helping clean up a community pond and making it more accessible.
On March 13, 2024, Elko had their STEM fair and family night. It was a good turn out with plenty of children of all ages curious about Nevada Wildlife. With over 200 kids present, NOS AmeriCorps Outdoor Educators, Kindra and Leanna explained to the kids how elk see, some children loved the elk vision glasses and they were shocked to find out a big animal such as an elk was considered prey. Some children were very frightened to find out that NOS had a real elk pelt. Kids were also very excited for the CTIC booth where they could color and make their own pins.
On the 12 day of March, Nevada Outdoor School partnered with NDOW for their annual Trout Release with Winnemucca's 5th grade students. Sixteen classrooms of students attended a series of exciting, educational, stations up in the picturesque Water Canyon. There they released trout that they've been raising in the classroom, learned about stream habitats, local birds, riparian areas, local wildlife, and electrofishing. NOS provided two engaging stations for the students, Camp Oh No! and Just Passing Through. Camp Oh No! taught how we can camp with our Leave No Trace principles to have the best possible experience while leaving the environment impact-free. Just Passing Through showed students how erosion occurs and how plants and responsible land use can reduce this impact. The event went well with all participants leaving with new learning experiences, impactful knowledge, and outdoor time.
Photo Caption: Students learning about trout.
Photo Caption: NOS member Toni explaining Camp Oh No! To students.
On Friday, March 8th, Members of the NOS AmeriCorps program from the Elko Office headed over to Elko Peace Park to host the first Geocache Workshop with NOS. This was a super fun workshop, as Kaneisha led 22 Participants who showed up to learn about Geocaching in our area, and how it is a worldwide activity for EVERYONE! They started out with a geocache terminology quiz and then moved into a Geocaching 101 handbook that Kaneisha made for all the participants. It contained all kinds of information about geocaching, facts about how geocaching started, and information on Leave No Trace and T.R.E.A.D Lightly! Geocache is a perfect way to teach this outdoor ethics etiquette, and the participants were very intrigued about Leave No Trace and Tread Lightly! principles. As the day progressed, Noah and Leanna took the first group out to find a cache hidden right there at Peace Park as Kindra and Kaneisha stayed behind with the other group to make a geocache box of their very own. As group one came back from finding the cache; Kindra and Kaneisha led the second group out to find the same cache. Overall, this workshop was an absolute success! Noah, Kaneisha, Leanna and Kindra were very pleased with the outcome and felt that the participants had a blast! Kaneisha, Noah, Kindra and Leanna have worked super hard on NOS’s very own Geocache box and would like to say that in the next couple of days they will be hiding NOS's very first geocache box! Keep an eye out for their video on social media about the hidden box!
Photo Caption: Participants searching for a geocache at Elko Peace Park
On Friday March 8th, Winnemucca community members were invited to participate in a hike up Winnemucca Mountain to the “W”. NOS members Noah C, Sedric, and William all attended the hike. We had an amazing turnout of 13 people with both individuals and families. The weather was perfect for the hike. We met the participants at Veterans Memorial Park and went over Leave No Trace principles and a basic plan of what we were going to do. The hike did take longer than expected but with a big group we kept the pace slow so everyone could stay together. Overall the hike went awesome and everyone had a great time.
Photo Caption: Participants of Hike to the W pose for a picture while on the hike.
Winnemucca's weather cooperated, offering a lovely day for Art in the Park. Nevada Outdoor School members Toni, Sedric, and Noah C. shared the craft of Bottle Terrarium building with nine participants, adults and children on the 7th of March at James Kinney pond in Winnemucca. Community members were led through a step by step process of adding gravel, charcoal, and soil to their bottles. Afterwards they all added plants and decor to complete enchanting Terrariums. Overall the event was an enriching experience teaching the community creative ways to express themselves artistically while enjoying the outdoors.
Photo Caption: NOS member Toni explaining the different layers of a Bottle Terrarium.
Photo Caption: Community participants creating Bottle Terrariums.
Day 2 of Art in the park on March 5 at Vesco Park in Winnemucca focused on letters. Americorps members William,Sedric,Noah worked with two families teaching them how to create bubble letters and adding dinosaurs and other cool ideas.Overall,it was a blast! The kids had fun with their drawings and everyone got to spend quality time outdoors creating art together.
On Monday, March 4th, the Winnemucca community was invited to join us at Vesco Park to make bug crafts out of beads and pipe cleaners and learn some cool facts about bugs. 3 families showed up and everyone enjoyed making their own bugs. Even though the weather was a bit cold, they still had fun and got to take home their crafts. Along with the bug facts, there also were some bugs preserved in resin for the participants to see - the scorpion and the cicada were the kids favorites. Overall, the craft went well for everyone and the event was a success.
The Elko Sportsmans Expo was great for outreach! We had a booth at the convention center, Kindra and Noah had the evening shifts, while Leanna and Kaniesha had the morning shifts (3/2-3/3/2024). We helped youth make Tread Lightly! keychains with colorful beads. We also brought the NOS wheel of ethics for kids to spin and answer questions to get a sticker. We got a couple sign ups for the email send outs, and we had children who recognized us from prior lessons! The best part was how excited the kiddos were to spin the wheel. All in all, over the two days, we spoke to just over 500 people!
Photo Caption: NOS Booth at Sportsman Expo
On Friday, March 1st, 8 members of the Elko Community joined Nevada Outdoor School Members Meghan and Noah at Elko’s Peace Park for the ‘Mountain: Rain or Snow? Weather Watchers’ workshop! Scientist Meghan Collins, with Desert Research Institute was unfortunately unable to attend the program, but provided NOS with plenty of valuable information and awesome tools so that the show could go on! During the workshop, NOS’s Meghan Strugell talked about rain, snow, and why we sometimes see snow falling above freezing temperatures. Then, Noah jumped in to share information about all of the different shapes snowflakes take on and how different conditions affect the formation of snowflakes as they fall from the sky. Once the discussion was over, Meghan then gave each participant the opportunity to become citizen scientists using DRI’s Mountain: Rain or Snow? App! This app allows anybody to record and report information about the weather in their current area. Luckily, the rainy weather was perfect for the workshop as participants were able to actively use DRI’s app to report information that goes to other scientists for them to analyze! Afterwards, NOS members passed around a goodie bag from DRI that contained a clip-on macro lens for phones, along with an exchangeable fisheye lens and a fancy card that would allow people to take close up pictures of snowflakes! Unfortunately, there wasn’t any snow available during the workshop, so NOS members gave everyone the chance to get a close up look of some salt crystals instead! Once everyone got a look at the crystals, they walked around Peace Park, taking close-up pictures of different rocks and vegetation! The workshop went astronomically well and participants left the workshop with a newfound fascination for science and weather!
Photo Caption:Participant using a macro lens to take photos of raindrops on vegetation
Despite the snowy weather on Wednesday,February 21st, Nevada Outdoor School AmeriCorps members were able to receive their Tread Lightly! Training. Tread Lightly! is also a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting responsible outdoor motorized and non motorized recreation through ethics education and stewardship initiatives. The 6 hour training was led by Meghan Sturgell, our master Tread Trainer. This training is also offered to members of the community for free! The core principles of Tread Lightly! revolve around responsible recreation, including practices such as staying on designated trails, respecting wildlife and their habitats, properly disposing of waste, and being considerate of other outdoor users. By raising awareness and providing educational resources, Tread Lightly! aims to preserve outdoor spaces for future generations to enjoy.
Photo Caption: NOS AmeriCorps members and Meghan S. with their certificates of completion.
It is always an adventure when staff members Meghan and Jacklyn teach hunter safety! On February 17th, 15 students and 4 parents attended Hunter Safety Education in Winnemucca. Each class that is taught is 8 hours long with a working lunch. During this class students are required to complete a workbook or an online course before coming to class. While in class we go over the following: an introduction to hunter education, knowing your firearm, basic shooting skills, basic hunting skills, primitive hunting equipment and techniques, being a safe, responsible and ethical hunter, preparation and survival skills, and wildlife conservation. Not only do we review the hunter safety handbook but we practice getting in and out of a mock vehicle and boat safely with a firearm, crossing a fence with a firearm and practice knowing our range of fire when walking in a hunting party. And of course we play trivia as a review! We really enjoy these classes and look forward to our next one in Elko April 5th!
Where do I start? This was such a fun lesson to create and teach. So much research went into this YNC lesson (Introduction to Science in Nature). We had four different types of science that we introduced to our friends. For the final lesson, we reviewed what we learned in the previous weeks; Botany, Sound, Potential and Kinetic Energy. To recap the previous week we did a couple of worksheets “The cycle of plant life” and a worksheet for sound ”Echolocation” showcasing how bats use their ears to find food or if they are being hunted as opposed to their eyes. We played ‘Ships to Shore ‘Botany' style as a lesson refresher, and we played marco polo blindfolded to show how echolocation works, and we made sound shakers as a take home activity for the students. This week we really focused on Kinetic Energy as we showed the kids how to reverse Potential Energy to Kinetic Energy, by heat transfer. For our final lesson, the research resulted in making homemade ice cream! Noah and I set out to make ice cream to show how kinetic energy can also turn into potential energy. This was a super fun experiment to do with the kids. K-2 we tried putting the ice cream in a bucket and rolling it down the hill, they used a lot of potential and kinetic energy for this session as they had to walk back and forth up the hill! For 3-5 as they are older kids we let them do the shaking of their own ice cream bag. Overall I feel this lesson was a success as the kids had tons of fun making Telephones, Planting their own bean plant and finally making ice cream and then getting to eat their creation! I also want to add that I attend church with some of the kids that attended our YNC. Each Sunday they come find me in the tech booth to tell me they really like our NYC and can't wait till the next one and then they give me a big hug and then they run off!
Photo Caption: Kaneisha and students work on Plant Life Cycle worksheet
On February 14th, Valentine’s Day, the community in Winnemucca was offered the opportunity to join NOS at the rec center near Vesco Park for a glass painting event celebrating Valentines Day. NOS members Sedric and Noah provided glasses and paints for participants and gave participants tips for painting their designs, instructions were also provided for curing the designs at home if they wanted their glass to be both decorative and functional. 6 participants came to the event and all had fun getting creative and painting their own unique designs, the 2 children who participated even got to do an extra painting on a small canvas as well. The event was a success, as the whole group of participants who came and the members leading the event enjoyed getting to paint their own decorative glasses and socialize while celebrating Valentine’s Day.
Photo Caption: Sedric and participants painting glasses for Valentine’s day.
As the community geared up to celebrate their love with the special people in their lives, Nevada Outdoor School and the California Trail Center partnered together to host a romantic night hike on February 9th at CTIC! 10 people showed up to participate in a self-lead hike, standing around a nice hot fire, gourmet s’mores, a photobooth, and fun trivia about animal mating habits! Clouds covered the night sky, and luckily plenty of flashlights were available for hikers as they departed to explore the many walking trails the museum has to offer. As the night progressed, the clouds started to clear, creating pockets perfect for stargazing! Evie, the California Trail Center’s telescope expert, was able to roll out one of the museum’s high-powered telescopes to allow event-goers to peer through the scope to catch a glimpse of the planet Jupiter! Noah also retrieved a cell phone from the hot fire pit!
Photo Caption: NOS Romantic Night Hike Welcome and S'mores Booth
On February 9th, K-2 students met Elko NOS Members Kaneisha and Noah at Angel Park for a fun lesson about kinetic and potential energy! Many stations were set up that allowed students to observe how kinetic and potential energy plays into everyday life. First, they had a discussion to refresh students’ minds about the definitions of kinetic and potential energy, and they drew pictures of different things that utilize these energy types such as rollercoasters, a ball being dropped, running up and down a hill and many more! After this refresher, Noah and Kaneisha taught the students about frisbees and how potential and kinetic energy help frisbees travel long distances. Each student got a turn to throw 2 different frisbees; a lightweight one and a heavier one. Noah measured the distance of each throw, and one student threw a frisbee 54 feet across the play zone! After frisbees, the group moved to a new station where they received hand powered popsicle stick propellers and they tried to spin them as high into the air as possible! It was a bit tricky, especially with cold hands, but those propellers managed to get some air! The next activity was the star of the show: Paper airplanes. Planes are a fantastic example of potential and kinetic energy! Each student received their own paper airplane equipped with a small hook for launch. Students launched their planes from a variety of different launch sites, including a cardboard runway! To wrap up, the students were given a handheld launcher (a short dowel with a rubber band tied to one end) and a popsicle stick cotton ball catapult to take home with them! The afternoon lesson for 3-5 graders unfortunately had to be moved indoors to the Elko NOS due to bad weather. Planes were flying across the office hallways and students took turns throwing a frisbee back and forth with Noah. Overall, each group enjoyed a fun and valuable lesson that got them thinking more about the world around them!
Photo Caption:Students Exploring Kinetic and Potential Energy by Rolling Down a Hill
On February 7th the Winnemucca members Noah, Sedric, and William went to the Healthy Habits Walk at the walking path by the Splash pad. There was a small turnout of 1 family but the members were able to make it enjoyable by showing the children workouts and having them join in. They finished the walk pretty quickly but to make up for the extra time they had the kids use the monkey bars on the play equipment. The weather was a little overcast and a little windy.
Nevada Outdoor School offered the community an opportunity to learn some basic Crochet skills for an Outdoor Skills Workshop. This event was held indoors, as the weather was cold, at the Recreation Center. NOS member Toni walked the 46 participants who joined our event through the basics of crochet. Where community participants learned how to make a slip knot, start a chain, and a single crochet stitch. Toni also shared information on where patterns and basic techniques can be found, along with tools they will be needing for each project. All participants got to take home their own crochet hook, yarn needle, and yarn ball to practice with.
Photo Caption: NOS member Toni showing participants how to make a slipknot to begin crochet.
For the Young Naturalists Club this past Friday due to weather we had to move our lesson to the NOS office. For this week's lesson we talked about sound and all the different ways sound travels. To get a better understanding we went on a quick nature walk so the kids could use their senses to hear all the different sounds. Students played a game to get a better understanding of how sound travels, where the students were blindfolded and they had to identify where the sound of their object was coming from. It was really fun to watch them find the sound. To wrap up the class we gave each kid a harmonica made from popsicle sticks that helped them with vibration sound. Overall this was a really fun lesson to gather and present to the kids, they loved it!
Photo Caption: Student listen to conch shell with Noah D.
On January 27th, NOS Members Noah Doyle and Kaneisha Smith met with participants at the Northeastern Nevada Museum for a fun-filled workshop all about Nature Journaling! To get started, Noah discussed the practice of mindfulness. Everyone took a nature walk outside and played I Spy to help center and ground themselves. It got the students thinking about their surroundings and really paying attention to things near and far. Once the group returned inside, a Quickstart Guide to Nature Journaling booklet was passed out. Together, they discussed what nature journaling is, and different ways to journal about experiences in nature. Once they finished going through the booklet together, students received a small journal of their own that they were able to decorate and take home! During the workshop, students got to practice nature journaling skills, examining different items, randomly pulled from a tote full of objects, ranging from pinecones to small, plastic animals. With their item, they zoomed in to see all of the little details that they may have otherwise missed. They documented the size, colors, and names of their objects in their journals. Although most of the students had to leave early, one student stayed for the entire workshop and spent the last hour walking around and journaling about different exhibits in the Wildlife Wing of the Museum. Overall, the event was successful! The participants had fun, and left with a newfound joy for nature journaling.
Photo: Participant deep in thought while journaling.
On the morning of January 27th, NOS held their largest hunter education course yet! With 21 students and 13 parents in attendance, the class was full of amazing conversations and excitement. Students were taught many different skills and concepts including; safe gun handling practices, Nevada hunting laws, wildlife conservation, hunting ethics and much more! These hunter education courses are made possible by partnering with the Nevada Department of Wildlife and we look forward to bringing more of these courses to our community!
Photo: Participants and parents listening to NOS staff member do introductions.
On January 26th, students met NOS members Kaneisha Smith and Noah Doyle at Angel Park for a fun lesson on Botany! Last week’s nature club covered three different topics of science, and this lesson was a deep dive into the study of plants. For the k-2 group, a student read the story of Jack and the Beanstalk to students, and got to take home a fun activity packet. After the story, students played a fun hide and seek tagging game where one student was the giant, chasing and trying to ‘catch’ all of the Jacks that were running around his castle! The weather was quite frigid, so the kids got to go play with nature and on the playground equipment to keep them warm and moving! During the lesson for the 3-5 graders, the lesson focused on parts of a plant, and even worked on learning how to identify plants! After a short worksheet, NOS members took the students over to the playground to play a fun seeking game where each kid got a picture of a plant to hide. When they were finished hiding it, they came back to grab an informational card describing a plant and they had to match the information card to one of the hidden plant pictures! This game was a big hit as the students wanted to keep playing more rounds right up until time was up for the lesson! Next week, students will meet back at Angel Park for a lesson on Sound!
How exciting it is to be able to be doing our second Young Naturalist Club here Nevada Outdoor School. For this club session, we are doing introductory to Science in Nature. I would like to say that it has been a joy to do all this research for this lesson gathering all the materials and to see it all come together week after week. There are three different types of science we will be exploring; the lessons are geared around Botany, Sound, Kinetic and Potential Energy. As we go through each week we will explore each specific topic in its entirety. For our first week of Young Naturalist we went over all the topics, for botany we took a closer look at different types of plants and how they function and what purpose they serve to us and our nature. For a fun activity we planted a bean and talked about “How To Grow a Plant”. The kids were super excited to plant their very own bean plant and to take home a Botany book to document the growth process of their plant. We then moved on to sound where the kids made their own cup phones and then to finish we walked up the hill and they rolled down the hill to see what kinetic and potential energy is.
Photo: Participants learning about energy while rolling down a hill.
On January 18th- 20th Nevada Outdoor School member Noah Clymens and programs coordinator Maclyn Crnkovich went to Reno, Nevada to attend the sheep show 2024. They took the wheel of ethics and quizzed participants on outdoor trivia. While there they interacted with about 650 people over the course of the weekend. They were able to reach a lot of children and quiz them about their outdoor knowledge. Many of the adults that stopped at our booth were very interested in what we did but wished we did things closer to Reno.
Photo caption: Americorps Member Noah Clymens standing in front of the NOS booth.
Nevada Outdoor School members Meghan, Kaneisha, and Noah set out on the brisk morning of January 12th, buzzing with excitement for the first snowshoe hike of the new year! 10 members of the community met NOS members in Lamoille Canyon. One participant had even traveled from Winnemucca to join the hike! Originally, the group was going to meet at the Powerhouse Picnic Area and hike the Talbot Trail from there. However, the amount of snowfall in the days leading up to the hike had caused the roadway into the canyon to become too dangerous to drive. Instead, everyone met at the Ruby Dome Ranch entrance. NOS brought snowshoes along for anybody who needed them, but many participants had brought their own! Once everyone was geared up and ready to go, the group began their trek into the canyon. At the end of the group, Noah and Kaneisha kept their eyes on participants at all times, making sure no one was left behind. Strong winds blew sharp snowflakes into the air, and a biting cold nipped at any uncovered skin. Although the winds made hiking more of a challenge, the group stopped for plenty of breaks. Some of the hills in the canyon provided good cover from the wind too! The group eventually made it down into the Lamoille Power House Picnic Area, which was packed with snow. Elko Daily Free Press reporter, Lydia Snow, was among the participants, and everyone snowshoed onto the bridge to snap a group photo for the newspaper. A few of the participants trekked around the area to take a look at the scenery, and snap a few photos to preserve the memory of the experience. Even though NOS wasn’t able to provide the typical s’mores and hot chocolate experience that they typically implement into their programs, participants thoroughly enjoyed the hike!
Photo: Participants and AmeriCorps members pose for a picture before the snowshoe hike.
On January 2, AmeriCorps members William Neff and Sedric Zimmerman and Winnemucca Program Coordinator Maclyn Crnkovich celebrated the new year by hosting an eco-friendly do-it-yourself bird feeder workshop. The workshop was held at the Winnemucca City Park and there were 12 participants. The main objective of the workshop was to create a way to feed wild birds in the winter that is both friendly for the environment and birds. The way we accomplished this was by collecting pine cones around the city, rolling them in peanut butter, and coating them with a wild bird safe feed mix. We used jute twine, which is biodegradable, to hang them. The participants loved the activity and their parents were happy with the outcome and social interaction.
Photo: AmeriCorps member William Neff helping participants thread a pinecone on to a piece of rope for their birdfeeder.
ABOUT US
Nevada Outdoor School inspires exploration of the natural world, responsible stewardship of our habitat and dedication to community.
CONTACT US
Winnemucca Office:
655 Anderson Street
Winnemucca, NV 89445
(775) 623-5656
Elko Office:
2363 N. 5th Street, Unit 102
Elko, NV 89801
(775) 777-0814
