Find Out About Naturalist Outreach!

What does the Naturalist Outreach Program do?  We give free enthusiastic, informative, hands-on biology presentations about nature, biodiversity, ecology, and conservation to K-12 classes and community groups in Central NY.

Who are the Presenters? Cornell University students who are taking Dr. Linda Rayor’s Naturalist Outreach course. The outreachis designed to help students develop their communication and teaching skills so they will give dynamic, interactive presentations to students.  The college students are  accessible role-models who excite children and teens about biology, nature, — and college.

Why do we do science outreach in the community? The big goals of the Naturalist Outreach Program are to help improve science literacy in the community, to help attract young people into science careers, and enhance appreciation for the environment.  Additionally, our mission is to help train college students improve their ability to communicate science and teach effectively.  Our Naturalist Outreach students are the civically engaged outreach leaders of tomorrow!

For Teachers – On this website, you will be able to:

Presentations are only available in the Fall Semester and preferably in from 2nd grade on up.

Our presentations can be requested at:  https://blogs.cornell.edu/naturalistoutreach/presentations/request-a-presentation/.  You can also find out more about the student presenters, and provide online reviews of their performances here.

Access curricular materials and resources related to the presentations.  We have organized the resources by key concepts, type of organisms, and type of resource (short STEM videos, Presentation guides, Educational Games or worksheets).  Next Generation Science Standards and Common Core goals are now being linked to each resource or unit of resources.  They will be made Open Educational Resources (OER) for your use, but please feel free to access anything now.

Want to know more about the kind of presentations done by Naturalist Outreach presenters?  Take a look at the appealing Naturalist Outreach Nature Videos which cover powerful concepts in ecology, conservation, and biodiversity. Each nature video was based on in classroom presentations by my students (but enhanced with video, imagery, and animation). The 36 gorgeous videos were designed to be played in classrooms to enliven elementary science curricula.  Videos range from 3 to 15 minutes long.  The videos have been viewed over 3-million times and some have won awards!!

Why Cornell students should take this course!

Cornell students who want to take the Naturalist Outreach Practicum course [Entom 3350, 4 cr} should contact Dr. Rayor by email (LSR1) as soon as possible to get an enrollment code for pre-enrollment or prior to the course in the Fall.  I want to know more about you and learn about your desire to share your interest in biology with the public.  Send me a short introduction to why you want to take the class (besides oral comm credit!!).   I’ve posted expectations in Outreach course .

Dr. Linda S. Rayor, Director of Naturalist Outreach Program

Alan Mata, Associate Director, and Scheduler, Naturalist Outreach Program