Tailored Program Options

You can select 2 of these programs for a half-day field trip ($2.50) or 3 programs for a full-day field trip ($5).

Habitat

A leopard frog sitting on the ground. The frog is green with black spots.As a group, students will deduce Wisconsin animals’ habitat based on information about what the animals eat and need. Students will play a relay game focusing on the migration of the monarch butterfly and its habitat needs. If time allows, students will look at two environments, survey resources available for animals and the life in those environments, and determine environmental richness as habitat.

1 to 1.5 hrs.


Standards

SCI.LS2.C.3 When the environment changes, some organisms survive and reproduce, some move to new locations, some move into transformed environments, and some die.

SCI.LS4.C.3 Particular organisms can only survive in particular environments.

SCI.LS4.D.2 There are many different kinds of living things in any area, and they exist in different places on land and in water.

SCI.LS4.D.3 Populations of organisms live in a variety of habitats. Change in those habitats affects the organisms living there.

SCI.ESS3.A.K Living things need water, air, and resources from the land, and they live in places that have the things they need.

SCI.ESS3.C.K Things people do can affect the environment…

Plant adaptations 

The twig from a Tamarack. It has green needles and red buds.

Adaptations are special features that allow a plant to live in a particular place or habitat. These adaptations might make it very difficult for the plant to survive in a different place. After discussing different plant adaptations students undertake a scavenger hunt to collect and look at different examples of plant adaptations. This scavenger hunt involves hands-on collecting of examples and is run as a competition.

1 to 1.5 hrs


Standards

SCI.LS1.A.4 Plants and animals have both internal and external macroscopic structures that allow for growth, survival, behavior and reproduction.

SCI. LS1.B.3 Reproduction is essential for every kind of organism. Organisms have unique and diverse life cycles.

SCI.LS1.C.5 ...Plants acquire material for growth chiefly from air, water, and process matter, and obtain energy from sunlight, which is used to maintain conditions necessary for survival.

The Water Cycle

rain drops falling into a lakeStudents will learn how the water on Earth moves through the water cycle and that there is no end of beginning of this cycle and that the water on Earth is the same amount as when the dinosaurs roamed the Earth. 

1 to 1.5 hrs.


Standards

SCI.ESS2.A.4,5  Four major Earth systems interact. Rainfall helps to shape the land and affects the types of living things found in the region. Water, ice, wind, organisms and gravity break down rocks, soils and sediments into smaller pieces and move them around.

SCI.ESS2.C.5 Most of Earth’s water is in the ocean, and much of the Earth’s freshwater is in glaciers or underground

Learn and Discover Animals (hands on Program)


Two green and black tiger salamanders sitting next to each other on a rock. One has its arm on the oThe biology and habitat of some Wisconsin animals will be discussed. Students will make connections between the structure and function of different parts of these animal using observations made during a hands on investigation.The animals used are kept here at the nature center, and how to respectfully handle and behave around animals will also be discussed during this program.

      1 to 1.5 hrs.


Standards

SCI.LS1.A.4       Animals have both internal and external macroscopic structures that allow for growth, survival, behavior, and reproduction. 

SCI.LS1.B.3        Organisms have unique and diverse life cycles. 

SCI.LS1.D.4       Different sense receptors are specialized for particular kinds of information; animals use their perceptions and memories to guide their actions. 

SCI.LS3.A.3       Many characteristics of organisms are inherited from their parents. 

SCI.LS3.B.3        Different organisms vary in how they look and function because they have different inherited information. 

SCI.LS4.C.3        Particular organisms can only survive in particular environments. 

SCI.LS4.D3         Populations of organisms live in a variety of habitats. Change in those habitats affects the organisms living there. 

ESL.EX5.B.e      Identify how animals are adapted to habitats.

A girl holding a box turtle. She is smiling.