Old Lyme - Attention, glossy eyed children glued to the TV or computer or smartphone or Wii.

It's summer out, if you haven't noticed, and the outdoors beckon.

Intrigued by that thing called nature but unsure how to navigate it? Shannon Chapman is here to help you. For her Girl Scout Gold Award project, the recent Lyme-Old Lyme High School grad has been holding a series of outdoor awareness workshops for elementary- and middle-school students in Lyme and Old Lyme.

Chapman's last workshop before she wraps up her project is Saturday, so if you want to learn more about maximizing your fun beyond the four walls of your bedroom, head over to the Lymes' Youth Service Bureau for a tutorial. You'll get a trail booklet that contains maps of six local trails and blank pages to fill with stamps once you get going on your outdoor expeditions.

"I want more students to be getting out on the trails," Chapman, 18, says. "Because of all the technology keeping kids indoors and everything."

The Gold Award is the highest award available to Girl Scouts and requires the scout to develop "a sustainable project in the community," says the Old Lyme resident.

The idea for the Gold Award project came about somewhat accidentally. Though she'd always been keen on community service and the outdoors, Chapman says she developed the project after she realized there was a trail right behind her house that she hadn't even been aware of. It was the Bartholomew Preserve, one of the six Old Lyme trails Chapman is focusing her project around.

"After walking it, I was like, 'How many people know that these are out there?'" Chapman says.

The other five trails included in Chapman's project are: Mile Creek Preserve, Champlain North, Champlain South, Goberis Chadwick Preserve and George & Woodward H. Griswold Preserve.

Chapman got her high school's woodshop class to build trail boxes for the six trails, where she'll leave stamps students can use in their trail booklets to mark their visits.

"That's just to get students to want to get the stamps in the booklet and to get to the next trail," says Chapman, who joined the Girl Scouts in kindergarten.

There'll also be a sign-in form so the Old Lyme Land Trust can keep track of how many people are visiting their trails as well as an observation sheet for people to note interesting flora and fauna.

Chapman hopes the town will continue to distribute her trail booklets and use the trail boxes after she finishes up her project and leaves for college in the fall. She plans to pursue a combined five-year bachelor's and master's program at Boston University for painting and art education.

j.cho@theday.com

Outdoor Awareness Workshop

Who: Shannon Chapman

What: A workshop to teach children in grades 2 to 6 about enjoying the outdoors

When: 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. on July 23

Where: Lymes' Youth Service Bureau, 59 Lyme St., Old Lyme

Cost: $4 per student

What else: Pre-register by contacting Chapman at (860) 575-2669 or schapman_11@yahoo.com