Science teachers in urban schools often serve students whose experiences with the natural environment are more obviously constrained by human factors than their suburban or rural counterparts. At the same time, parents and teachers are contending with an increase in sedentary indoor activities that have affected youth of every demographic. Coupled with the shrinking opportunities many children have for experiencing nature in an unbounded form, these factors can lead to a lack of familiarity with the fundamental features of ecology and the natural world. Journalist Richard Louv (2005) has called the resulting situation "nature deficit disorder." How can teachers build student comfort with the natural world without seeing city-raised students as "deficient"? Rather than viewing students as having nature deficit disorder, teachers can develop students' naturalist intelligence and critical consciousness by building on the ways they actually experience the world. Educators can extend Louv's ideas into formal science classrooms (without the deficit language baggage) by seeking to cultivate more opportunities for natural experiences.