What's New at NOS

2024

February 21st, 2024
Tread Lightly Training 

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.

February 17th, 2024
Hunter Safety Education 

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!  

February 16th, 2024
Young Naturalist Club: Science in Nature

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

February 14th, 2024
Valentine's Day Paint Event

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.

February 9th, 2024
Romantic Night Hike 

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

February 9th, 2024
Young Naturalist Club: Science in Nature 

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

February 7th, 2024
Healthy Habits Walk

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.

Febraury 3rd, 2024
Beginner Crochet workshop

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.

February 2, 2024
Young Naturalist Club: Science in Nature

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.

January 27th, 2024
Scribes of the Wild:Nature Journaling Workshop

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.  

 

January 27th, 2024
Hunter Safety Education 

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. 

 

 

January 26th, 2024
Young Naturalist Club: Science in Nature

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!

 

 

January 19th, 2024
Young Naturalist Club: Science in Nature

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. 

 

 

January 18th, 19th and 20th, 2024
Youth Wildlife Conservation Experience at the Reno Sheep Show

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.

 

 

January 12th, 2024
Elko Snowshoe Hike 

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. 

January 2, 2024
Winnemucca Bird Feeder Workshop 

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.  

 

 

 

See More!

ABOUT US


Nevada Outdoor School inspires exploration of the natural world, responsible stewardship of our habitat and dedication to community.

Youth Focused Programs

Training Focused Programs

Community Focused Programs

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

STAY INFORMED