The Natural Inquirer
FIND Outdoors proudly partners with the Natural Inquirer to publish a variety of science education materials for students from Pre-K through grade 12
The Natural Inquirer uses peer-reviewed, published research conducted by USDA Forest Service scientists and their collaborators to create a variety of journals, monographs, readers, and scientist cards. At their website, you can browse all publications, download materials, access lesson plans and other activities to accompany those materials — like Science Hours and distance learning modules — and order copies of any of their publications at no cost (not even shipping!). They also provide additional teaching materials like interviews about the scientific process with USDA Forest Service scientists, science fair resources, and a huge list of other online resources.
Journals & Monographs
Middle/High School Level
FIND Outdoors helps create and produce a free science journal called Natural Inquirer that is written for middle and high school students. Natural Inquirer journals present research published by USDA Forest Service scientists and their collaborators and are written in the same format as adult scientific journals with Introduction, Methods, Findings, and Discussion sections. The journals cover a variety of topics from wildland fire to freshwater to citizen science to scientific modeling and more.
Investi-gator Journal
Upper Elementary Level
FIND Outdoors, in partnership with the Natural Inquirer program, also creates Investi-gator, a scientific journal written for upper elementary school students. This free journal follows the same format as the Natural Inquirer and presents peer-reviewed USDA Forest Service or a collaborating organization’s research to a younger audience.
Nature Science Investi-gator (NSI)
Upper Elementary Level
NSI: Nature Science Investigator was created by FIND Outdoors and the Natural Inquirer team for non-formal education settings such as campgrounds and environmental education facilities. NSI can also be used in a variety of ways including outdoor classrooms at traditional schools. These free, smaller-sized activity books, geared towards elementary school students, are designed to bring outside and allow students to become different types of natural resource scientists, like ecologists, entomologists, or wildlife biologists.
Natural Inquirer Reader Series
PreK-2 Level
The Natural Inquirer Reader series was developed by FIND Outdoors and the Natural Inquirer program to meet the needs of Pre-K through 2nd grade students. Each Reader is free and focuses on one USDA Forest Service scientist and their research. The Readers contain glossaries and activities, and are correlated to National Education Standards.
Scientist & Engineer Cards & Poster
FIND Outdoors and Natural Inquirer also produce a series of scientist and engineer cards that highlight more than 250 USDA Forest Service scientists and engineers. Displaying a diversity of people and professions, each card explains the scientist’s or engineer’s work and includes highlights of their research, tools used in that research, and how they became interested in science/engineering. Cards are free and can be ordered in random sets of 100 or specialty packs like Women in Science or Wildlife Science. The cards are also available to download in 11×17 poster size.
Visit the Natural Inquirer website for FREE access to all of these resources and more!
