Field Trip Programs / A Benziger Family Environmental Education Program, serving schools who qualify for Title 1 funding
A Benziger Family Environmental Education Program, serving schools who qualify for Title 1 funding
Empowering students to become positive agents of change and regeneration!
Guided by Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) for California schools, Nature’s Design 7th grade ecology program is a multiple-visit field trip program focused on ecosystem dynamics and biodiversity. Over the course of 3 learning interactions (2 at school and 1 field trip to the park), students work in teams to explore questions like, “How can we mitigate some of the impacts of climate change in our communities now and how can we fortify our ecosystems for the future?”
DAY 1 – NATURE’S GROUND RULES: We come to you and lead this opening session to introduce the program and get kids outside and onto the schoolyard to collect our first data set. Through basic field collection techniques, students will observe and collect information on birds, invertebrates, and plant diversity. They will create three species lists in their own field notebooks.
DAY 2 – BIODIVERSITY BONANZA ~ We pay for your bus!: The hands-on investigations continue at Jack London State Historic Park with a 4 hour field trip through the beautiful redwood forests and oak woodlands of Sonoma Mountain. Using the same equipment and techniques employed on Day 1, students will collect their second data sets on birds, invertebrates, and plants, while they immerse themselves in the atmosphere of our local wilderness.
DAY 3 – THINK TANK: Our final session takes us back to your classroom where we review and crunch the data and create a master species list. Here, students get to see, through their own field research, the clear differences in biodiversity levels of a suburban site and a local wilderness area. We explore the role of biodiversity in ecosystem health and resilience and brainstorm ideas for increasing these levels on their own school campus, thereby envisioning avenues to re-wilding their own community.
REWILD MY SCHOOL Design Challenge: Now we get to take our new knowledge and apply the science to a meaningful project. Students are challenged to imagine a complete re-design of their school campus in ways that would encourage the steady increase of biodiversity there, while still honoring the human needs of a school. Through this exercise, students are encouraged to envision a variety of ways we humans can co-exist more harmoniously with Nature in our built environments.
Contest option!! – Many teachers have students create a poster of their designs as a graded assignment. For students who want to take things one step further, they can build and enter a model of their design in the Park’s Re-Wild My School Design Contest. Held at the park each May, entries are judged by biodynamic experts in farming and landscape design. Prizes are awarded to the top three student designs (student can enter individually or in small teams). Click here for contest entry packet (for students participating in program only).
Participation for schools is free and spaces are limited (must qualify for Title 1 funding).
Please explore links below for more details:
For questions about the program or to schedule an in-service, please call Tours and Education Manager Kristina Ellis at 707-938-5216 or email at [email protected]
