The Nature Conservancy. Protecting nature. Preserving life.™

We already know that getting outdoors is good for the mind, body and spirit. But visiting Kentucky’s forests, fields and rivers is also good for the brain – especially when paired with the Conservancy’s new Nature Works Everywhere partnership with Discovery Education.

Available any time of the year, Nature Works Everywhere helps teachers, families and children learn about how the science behind how the natural world makes our everyday existence possible – including the air we breathe, the food we eat, the water we drink and the products we buy. The website includes videos, interactive lesson plans and even a game designed to teach about how nature is more than just a pretty landscape – it’s a fantastic factory that produces the building blocks of our lives.

During this last month of summer and throughout the year, get outside and then check out Nature Works Everywhere. Here are some ideas for pairing this new tool with fun and educational visits around the Bluegrass State:

• Pay a visit to the Jim Beam Nature Preserve to witness a small-scale sustainable forestry operation that benefits the local community with an annual Christmas Tree Giveaway. Then download a lesson about the role forests play in our everyday lives.
   
• Explore the Davis Bend Preserve to witness how a unique mix of moist bottomlands, relatively dry uplands, two sinkholes and springs work together to benefit the water quality of the Green River. Follow up with a Nature Works lesson about how natural areas filter water.
   
• Visit the mighty Mississippi River by canoe or car and then follow up with a lesson about how the Conservancy works with farmers in the Obion Creek and Bayou du Chien watersheds to improve the river’s water quality. Then it’s time to watch a Nature Works Everywhere video about the pollinators that keep the farms operating throughout the landscape.