Welcome to April, everyone, the most beautiful month in Austin. If you’re like many central Texans, you’ve already tried to maximize your time outside this spring, before the moderately hot weather turns truly hot.
One characteristic of our current era that alternately amuses and terrifies me is watching folks walk around with their heads down, looking at screens. On the one hand, I’m glad they’re outside, soaking up Vitamin D and listening to birds. On the other hand, “Look out for that car!” Sometimes, the screen-viewing is just an extension of what they were doing inside – checking social media, watching video, shopping. And sometimes, the app is specifically for the outdoors, like using a map to find a house, or playing Pokémon Go. I’d like to offer some other recommendations for outdoor app use, especially for those kids who aren’t otherwise inclined to head outside.
There are some remarkable apps that can help you identify plants, birds, rocks and even planes. Within the PBS realm, Nature Cat’s Great Outdoors app (free, iOS, Android, phone or tablet) offers 100 daily natural adventures for kids and the ability to log their findings by photo, sound, text and stamps in a virtual logbook. Nico & Nor Shadow play (free, iPad only) sends kids on quests to find cool shadows and monitor their changes, and Nico & Nor Plant Journal (free, iPad only) can be used to track growth and health in the garden.
There are some everyday features on phones and tablets that can also be used to have fun outside. Kids can take pictures of different shapes of leaves, then trace the outlines or the veins by drawing directly on the photo. They can transfer what they’ve learned to pencil and paper, replicating the outline and the veins within. Similarly, kids can take photos of animals, then use their photos to build Play-Doh models back at home. We know that some of history’s finest painters worked from photos – Monet, Georgia O’Keefe, even Leonardo da Vinci if you count the camera obscura – so have your kids snap a beautiful scene, then set up an easel in your kitchen!
Ben Kramer, PhD, is the director of education for Austin PBS.
