Neighborhood Explorers - Visit Our Neighborhood, Then Go Outside in Yours!

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has launched the Neighborhood Explorers (NX) website! Designed in partnership with Utah State University and LetterPress Software specifically for 8-11 year olds, their educators and caregivers, the website is geared to reach those children not currently participating in outdoor programs and activities.












Neighborhood Explorer Screen Shot
Visit Our Neighborhood, Then Go Outside in Yours!

Discovery is as easy as a click of the mouse. Exploring the Club-House, users can seek and identify birds by silhouette, learn about endangered and invasive species, find Sam the praying mantis, take “Lucy’s NX Challenge” and more. Just moving the mouse around the Club-House will take the user to new places. Explorers create nature reports and see their state’s Top Explorer. They earn patches as they complete projects, answer trivia questions and play games. Action projects include building bird houses, planting native plants, and adopting new habits, such as recycling and conserving water and electricity.

By earning all five patches, players can receive a free tree from the Arbor Day Foundation! After earning all five patches, participants will be directed to the Arbor Day web site, where they can provide their name and address to get a free tree with directions for planting. There are only 450 trees available, so players should get started winning patches right away!

The overall goal of the Neighorhood Explorer game is to meet the audience where they are – on the computer – and offer a “safe” place to explore nature. Then, as their comfort level grows, explorers are encouraged to go outside to explore their “real” neighborhoods.

One challenge faced by LetterPress Software was to develop a virtual Club-House that could become a real clubhouse. The hope is that nature centers, youth groups, schools, national wildlife refuges and others will use the website’s projects and activities to start their own real world Neighborhood Explorers Club.

Through its Neighborhood Explorers website and other activities of the Let’s Go Outside: Ensuring a Legacy of Conservation priority, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service creates a foundation to support Department of the Interior Secretary Salazar’s “21st Century Youth Conservation Corps”.

Check it out for yourself! Visit our Neighborhood Explorers website at http://www.fws.gov/neighborhoodexplorers. For more information, email us at letsgooutside@fws.gov

By Matt Gay, US Fish and Wildlife Service National Conservation Training Center.

Tags: U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Neighborhood Explorers, 21st Century Youth Conservation Corps, Arbor Day, Secretary Salazar, kids, children, nature, outdoors