4 ways to get kids outside more often: It's a key to raising successful children, says ecological engineer

Nadina Galle, Ph.D., is an ecological engineer, technologist and author of the book

It’s a common plea of the modern parent: Put down your devices and go outside.

Spending more time in nature can have numerous benefits to kids’ mental and physical health, from decreasing anxiety and improving concentration and memory to sparking creativity and helping manage symptoms of behavioral disorders like ADHD, research shows.

But not all screen time is bad. In fact, the secret to fostering your child’s connection to nature may be behind a screen, says Nadina Galle, an ecological engineer and author of the book “The Nature of Our Cities.”

“The same way that you might use a dating app to meet someone, you use the technology to be able to facilitate that first interaction,” Galle tells CNBC Make It. “But, hopefully, if the relationship progresses, it moves into real life — being out in nature more, and hopefully increasing that appetite for more.”

Because scientists believe humans have an innate desire to commune with nature, parents should only need to introduce that spark to get their kids interested in spending more time outdoors, says Galle. Doing so can set them up to be happier and more successful in the long run.

That could mean using an app to identify millions of types of plants and animals in nature, or an augmented reality game that sends children on educational missions around your local parks. Here are four of Galle’s top recommendations, all available to download for free on iOS and Android:

iNaturalist

The iNaturalist app is a helpful tool for sharing and learning information about the plants and animals that populate your local area, Galle says. It’s run by a nonprofit organization, and last month, people in hundreds of cities around the world participated in its City Nature Challenge — logging and sharing as many urban plants, animals and other organisms as possible over the course of four days.

The annual challenge is a great example of ways kids can use digital tools “before, during and after” going outside to increase their connection to nature, says Galle.

“Before, you might look into, ‘What are natural protected areas in and around my community that I could visit during those four days?'” she says. “During, you’re on location. You’re using iNaturalist, the app, to photograph and identify and then upload these findings. The after period might be doing a lot of research, and trying to identify what it is that you did, and seeing how your city scored.”

Agents of Discovery

“Agents of Discovery” is an augmented reality game that turns your child into “a top-secret Agent, dedicated to solving mysteries about science, culture, technology, history, nature and much more.”

Much in the way “Pokemon Go” inspired millions of players to go outside and track down fictional characters, “Agents of Discovery” sends kids on “geo-triggered challenges that are completely local … like a scavenger hunt, trying to find this type of bird that’s known to be in [your] area,” Galle says.

The point isn’t to encourage kids to run around parks with screens in their faces, she notes: Rather, it’s “an easy, educational way to get the kids outside, immersed in their environment, and learning something.”

EarthSnap

This nature identification app uses a smartphone or tablet’s camera to identify more than two million different plants, animals, bugs and other aspects of nature. Tools like EarthSnap are useful for nurturing kids’ interest in nature, especially if you aren’t an expert outdoorsperson yourself, says Galle.

Use it to keep the conversation when you’re back inside, she recommends: “Once you identify that species … say, ‘When we get home, let’s do some more reading on this. Let’s look up some more photos.'”

NatureDose

Similar to fitness trackers that monitor your step count, NatureDose bills itself as a “personalized nature prescription” app that tracks how much time you spend outside.

Humans should spend a minimum of roughly 2 hours in nature each week, or about 17 minutes per day, research shows. That “shouldn’t be that difficult to do, yet a lot of people still find that it is,” says Galle, who’s an unpaid scientific advisor to NatureQuant, the maker of NatureDose.

When people don’t reach that minimum, they miss out on mental and physical benefits like reduced stress and lower risk for obesity and high blood pressure, Make It reported in 2019.

Try using the app as a family, Galle advises: Kids often learn behaviors from their parents.

“A large part of parenting [is] leading by example,” she says. “It’s easy to say all these things that our kids should do. But if we don’t do it ourselves, how are you really going to have that come across in your parenting?”

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