Naturalist Intelligence

Naturalistic Intelligence or "The Nature Lover" is a person who has the ability to identify and classify patterns in nature. During our prehistory, hunter-gatherers would rely on naturalist intelligence to identify what flora and fauna were edible, as well as which were not. Today, naturalist intelligence may be seen in the way we relate to our surroundings and the role that each part of our surroundings play. People who are sensitive to changes in weather patterns or are adept at distinguishing nuances between large numbers of similar objects may be expressing naturalist intelligence abilities. Naturalist intelligence allows people to distinguish among, classify, and use features of the environment.

• Enjoys nature
• Caring for pets
• Likes to be outdoors rather than indoors
• Knows all the names and differences of dinosaurs
• Collects rocks, shells, insects and knows the differences
• Likes boating, rock climbing, hiking
• Understands different weather patterns
• Fascination with the stars, moon, and galaxy
• Likes to build volcanoes

Natural intelligence individuals may work as farmers, gardeners, botanists, geologists, florists, and archaeologists, FBI agents who distinguish fingerprints. They all exhibit this intelligence, as do students who can name and describe the features of every make of car around them.

Lewis and Clark, Charles Darwin, George Washington Carver, Rachel Carson, John Muir, Rachel Carson, Luther Burbank, Annie Dillard, and John James Audubon.

Work in the naturalistic intelligence is only beginning. Student who have this intelligence may like to collect data and objects from the natural world, labeling & mounting specimens, observing nature, doing experiments in nature, sorting articles from nature, learning names of natural phenomena, learning characteristics of the natural world using magnifiers, microscopes, binoculars or telescopes to study nature hikes or field trips in nature, gardening, caring for pets, wildlife protection projects, setting up winter feeding stations for wild animals and birds, drawing or photographing natural objects, visiting botanical gardens and zoos, visiting museums of natural history, and drying flowers.

• Create categories to classify Civil War generals and organize them in a way that explains events
• Keep a journal of natural observations and compare with others
• Arrange student-drawn Mona Lisa's according to some framework
• Student share and explain a collection of cards, matchbooks, rocks
• Making a point on taking a field trip to a nature preserve
• Research plants and animals that are indigenious to the country, region studied in social studies

Click on a Link for Fun Instructional Applications for the Classroom

http://www.athena.ivv.nasa.gov/index.html, instructional material for use by students and teachers in the classroom. Major scientific topics include oceans, earth resources, weather, space, and astronomy.

http://spacelink.nasa.gov/Instructional.Materials/NASA.Educational.Products/Planetary.Geology/, a pdf document from NASA's Education Division with classroom activities in physical and earth sciences for grades 5 and up.

http://www.mii.org/teacherhelpers.html, Mineral Information Institute provides K-12 teachers with free geological, mineralogical, earth science, lesson plans & classroom materials about the Earth's ecology and natural resources

http://birdsource.cornell.edu/cfw/ and http://birdsource.cornell.edu/classroomBS/, Bird watching in the classroom

http://www.nceet.snre.umich.edu/classroomresources-directories.html, EE-Link is a WWW directory for Internet resources in environmental education. Developed for K-12 educators, EE-Link offers comprehensive information on organizations, classroom resources, literature, grants and jobs.