GORE — While kids romp around the Gore Elementary School grounds, a whole other world goes through life cycles under their feet.

From seeds to sprouts to plants.

From eggs to tadpoles to frogs.

Students in kindergarten, first and second grades discovered such a world Wednesday when educators from the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History’s ExplorOlogy program came by. ExplorOlogy encourages students of all ages to “do science” by getting outside.

Museum Education Officer Holli Langlieb and educator Kristi Carlucci took each class on scientific expeditions in the school playground to look for frogs, spiders, insects and other life forms.

“There is so much out here growing,” Langlieb said, as she guided second-graders outside to see what they could find.

Almost immediately, students found a tiny frog swimming around in a puddle and yelled, “I found something.”

Langlieb held the frog, barely the size of her knuckle, by its tail and showed it around to the kids.

“It’s a leopard frog,” she said as she discouraged kids from touching it. She said amphibians breathe through their skin and that touching them would dry out their skin.

Kids also found part of a tree branch shrouded with silky webs.

Some students yelled out, “I found a snake hole,” then were told snakes cannot dig holes because they have no hands.

“Snakes use holes that others dig up,” Langlieb said.

While the second-graders looked for tiny animals, kindergartners wearing child-sized white “lab coats” looked for other creatures in another part of the yard.

Before the school-yard venture, Langlieb had second-graders put on aprons that labeled the different life stages of frogs, ants, deer and plants.

“Life has lots of different stories,” she said. “What are these different stages called?”

Children yelled out “learning,” or “changing,” though the answer she sought was “life cycles.”

Second grade teacher Jennifer Tootle said she sees her students learning about more than life cycles during the educators’ visit.

“I think they’ll be more interested in science and in becoming scientists,” Tootle said.

The ExplorOlogy visit came as a result of a visit Gore kindergarten teachers Angie Carter and Suzanne Caudle made to the museum’s Science Institute 2008. They were among 25 teachers who spent a week at the Norman museum to learn how to include more inquiry-based science in their classrooms.

“I learned ho to help kids do hands-on activities, help them learn how animals move from babies to adults,” Caudle said.

“My children really enjoyed getting to see real specimens of animals,” Carter said.

Caudle said Gore students also will get a field trip to the museum.