Natural History Museum

Located in the foothills of Salt Lake City, the Natural History Museum is a beautiful hub to learn about Natural History in the state of Utah. The Natural History Museum is home to many diverse exhibits such as Paleontology, Archaeology, Entomology, Botany, and many more. As well as having educational and interesting exhibits, the Natural History Museum conducts research to learn more about the natural world, as well as continuing forward with energy efficient and environmentally friendly buildings and practices. After learning about the ancient history of the state of Utah, you can take a beautiful hike through the foothills to “The Living Room” right behind the Natural History Museum.

The Natural History Museum is a great location for a field trip, you can request a donation/ free admission for your classroom. The museum also offers summer camps and a variety of outreach programs including Museum on the Move (4th grade specific), traveling treasures, and youth teaching youth.

https://nhmu.utah.edu/

Teachers Field Trip Guide to Capitol Reef

This Field Trip Guide was gifted to NTTC volunteers from the National Park Service. Although a bit out of date, this guide has activities for K-6 that match up with core curriculum. Activities range in topics from flora, pioneer life, and geology to ecosystems, Native American cultures and conservation. These activities come with step-by-step instructions, some including worksheets. This is an excellent example resource that shows how to match core with experiential education. Selection of the following links will open the chapters of the field guide.

Kindergarten 1st Grade 2nd Grade 3rd Grade 4th Grade 5th & 6th Grade

Canyon Country Discovery Center

Located in Monticello, UT, Canyon Country Discovery Center offers experiential, place-based programs that engage students (K-12) and teachers with the local Colorado Plateau environment, community, and resources. The Canyon Country Discover Center’s website provides a great resource for activities and in-class instruction on a variety of topics.

The Canyon Country Discovery Center also provides training for teachers in K-8th grade schools across the Colorado Plateau (parts of UT, NM, CO, AZ), which includes school-year mentoring, a Science resource Center, a five-day Summer or Fall Institute, a three-day San Juan river trip, and an annual teachers’ conference in March. A fee of $5,000 per school per year is requested, but not required.  They also offer a two-hour, interactive workshop for teachers in Colorado Plateau schools and on our campus, and can be customized to teachers’ classroom needs.

https://ccdiscovery.org/index.php

Junior Ranger Program

“Explore, Learn, and Protect!”

— NPS Junior Rangers

Learn more about the National Park Service, and the natural and cultural resources our parks preserve. The Junior Ranger program includes programs, booklets, and interactive web activities that give youth the opportunity to learn about US history, science, nature, stewardship and the importance of educating others as a junior ranger. 

Remember, you can email or write letters to any NPS site for infomation from a real ranger!

https://www.nps.gov/kids/jrRangers.cfm

Project Wild

Bring the classroom outside!

Project WILD is a wildlife-focused conservation education program for K-12 educators and their students.

They are one of the most widely-used conservation and environmental education programs among educators of students in kindergarten through high school. There are many resources and activities that are offered through this organization!

“Fostering responsible action towards wildlife and natural resources.”

— Project Wild

https://www.nps.gov/kids/jrRangers.cfm

Project Learning Tree

PLT provides a wealth of up-to-date resources, support, and ideas for teachers and other educators. They also offer grants to schools and youth organizations for service-learning projects. Plus,their extraordinary network of State Coordinators and certified workshop facilitators provide local assistance and community connections. 
 

“MAKE LEARNING FUN!
Use the environment to engage children in learning – both outside and indoors. Engage students in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) as they learn about the impact invasive species have on ecosystems and biodiversity.”

— PLT

https://www.plt.org/

Canyonlands Field Institute Fundraising Tips for Teachers

Based out of Moab, UT the Canyonlands Field Institute hosts hundreds of school groups around the country. Their multi-day excursions are geared toward junior high through college aged students, while there day trips are appropriate for any age. These hands-on excursions occur on land and water!

Check out there programs and funding tips! The website has more information below. 

Countdown to Hatch!

Hatch a live chick!

For Grades K-6

Build suspense and get a sneak peek at embryo development inside a fertile egg with this colorful embryology kit. The kit contains 21 plastic eggs. Inside of each egg is a laminated picture and detailed developmental description of the chick growing inside. One egg should be opened on each day of the 21-day chick hatching cycle to give students an exciting look at the mysterious process that happens inside the egg.

This kit can be used on its own but also makes a great complement to a classroom hatching project. Runs approximately $8 per set.

Field Trip Grants

Do you need some funds to get out and go on field trips? Grants can make that educational travel accessible and possible. Several foundations recognize the importance school trips through field trip grants such as Target, ING Unsung Heroes, SYTA Youth Foundation Road Scholarship, Big Yellow School Bus, Kohl’s Cares Field Trip Program.

Think outside of the classroom and apply for a grant!

Utah Geological Survey (UGS): Earth Science Resources

The Utah Geological Survey (UGS) provides many resources for teacher and students. The agencies and organizations within the UGS provides these things for teachers:

• Workshops

• Teaching kits

• Activities for grades 4th, 5th and 8th

• Slide sets

• PowerPoints for grades 4th-8th

• Maps, materials and other information for K-12

• Field trips (for teachers and children of all ages)

• In class speakers

There's a lot of cool resources on this page, navigate, explore and find out for yourself! Bring to light Utah's unique geology with interesting ways to teach it and have fun hands on activities that your students will not forget. 

Utah State University (USU) Physics Day

USU Physics Day at Lagoon is a an educational activity that gives High School and Middle School students the chance to explore the reality of physics in a fun way! What a way to excite your students about physics! This unique opportunity provides students with the chance to take concepts outside the classroom and into their memories forever.

This website is designed for teachers and students. It contains all the information they need to attend and enjoy the many activities and contests sponsored by Utah State University, Idaho National Laboratory, and others.

This year's Physics Day at Lagoon is on Friday May 12, 2017.

Utah Botanical Center and Utah House

Utah Botanical Center and Utah House is a comprehensive field trip program for elementary and secondary school students! There are many unique, hands-on field trips are available for each grade level. Programs are 1.5-2 hours long and begin at 9:30 am (available on Tuesday-Friday between April and mid-October). 

They can accept a maximum of 100 students and two adults per class. The cost for the field trips are $3.00 per student; chaperones and teachers are free! 

To schedule a field trip to the Utah Botanical Center and Utah House, Contact Jayne Mulford at 435-919-1265.

The Living Planet Aquarium

Do your kids love animals, water and hands on activities? Then the Loveland Living Planet Aquarium is the perfect fit for you. They offer three awesome, free, outreach programs that correlates with the Utah State Core Curriculum by grade level. 

The Rainforest Van Program is available for 2nd grade, the Utah Waters Van Programs is available for 4th grade, and the ecosystems van is available to 6th grade public/charter Utah Students. This is a great and purposeful program to help enrich your students! Take advantage of it! 

The Living Planet Aquarium also offers free professional development workshops throughout the year.

To inquire about an outreach program, please contact their education department at (801)-355-FISH (3474) or email outreach@thelivingplanet.com.

Thistle, Utah

What grabs a young student's attention more rapidly than tales of a Ghost Town?

In 1983 Thistle, Utah was eliminated by the most costly landslide in United States history. It is estimated that the disaster cost over $200 million dollars.

This is an incredibly interesting piece of Utah history. The Thistle Landslide is a great opportunity to show children the impacts that nature can have in a direct light. There are many photos available of the remains of Thistle, and it is treated in several documentaries, including the one below. Additionally, Thistle is fairly close to home for most Utah Valley students, so while it may not be worth a class trip, students could certainly visit the ghost town with their families. 

This video is just part of a documentary. This portion focuses on Thistle, Utah and the landslide of 1983. The original documentary is found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNkJoifqcLM

Tracy Aviary Nature Programs

Tracy Aviary has a wide variety of programs in place to help connect kids with nature. Today we want to focus on their Nature Programs. These activities focus on teaching children to interact and connect with the environment. Due to the large number of programs offered, it is easy to find things that can be tied in to core lessons already being taught in class.

“In these nature programs Tracy Aviary educators bring activities to school yards or local parks to help participants explore and discover the nature right in their backyards. Programs are 60 minutes long, and are limited to groups up to 30 participants. ”

— Tracy Aviary Website

Activities currently offered include:

• Mapping Your Park: Learn to create and read maps in a local setting.

• Eco-Art: Creating art out of natural elements.

• Biodiversity Celebration: Explore local living things and learn about their specific adaptations.

• Soundscape: Use sense of sound to learn about the world around us.

• Nature Storytime: Nature-oriented story, games, activities, and free play outside (designed for younger children).

• Details Detective: Become a details detective and represent discoveries and experiences in a nature journal.

• Sensing the Seasons: Learn about how our senses enhance outdoor exploration and participate in Nature Show & Tell.

• Insect Safari: Hunt for local insects and learn about the role that they play in our environment.

• Stream Exploration: Explore water quality and learn about the plants and animals that depend on our local streams and rivers.

The cost is $60 for the first program and $25 additional dollars per program added on top of that. 

Staff from Tracy Aviary take students on a nature walk through a local park.

Air Quality Lesson

Everyone knows that the air quality in Utah (County) is one of the worst. Teaching children about this problem and potential solutions is one of the best ways that we can make sure our air improves in the future.

This website gives information about the air quality in Utah. It shows past and present air conditions, discusses particulate matter in the air, ozone, temperature, and wind It also has an air quality index with a table that shows what actions should be taken when our air dips below a certain quality. This website includes several children's activities to help them become more aware of our air.

Ozone and Air Quality Index on June 22, 2016 at 8:00pm.

Lakeside Learning

One of the truly unique things about living in Utah is our Great Salt Lake. The Lakeside Learning Field Trip is an awesome 2.5 hour educational tour at Antelope Island State Park. The website states that "the trips combine informal environmental education strategies while incorporating science, technology, engineering, art and math (STEAM) to reinforce the Utah Common Core State Science Standards."

Field trips are offered August-October and April-June. The trip includes exploration around the wetlands, wading in the Great Salt Lake, and bird watching. 

The instructional fee is free for public schools, the park entrance fee is paid for by Friends of Great Salt Lake, and there is even a transportation grant of $150 available per field trip. 

“Our typical field trip program starts off with a visit to the playa, where we talk about wetlands, adaptations, the water cycle, and the unique features of Great Salt Lake. Next, students learn how to use binoculars and we travel over the causeway for birding activities. Our trips conclude with a visit to the beach at Ladyfinger Point where students learn about oolitic sand and wade in the Lake for a hands-on experience with brine shrimp and brine flies.”

— Friends of Great Salt Lake

Pop Bottle Ecosystem

One of the most important things that anyone can understand about nature is how everything is connected. Once this fundamental concept is established, it creates a perfect environment for children to act in a mindful way in the environment, and in contact with other people.

Although there are many methods for teaching about natural connectivity, small ecosystems tend to be a favorite. This particular project hails from a homeschooling website.  The site outlines the entire process necessary for building a pop bottle ecosystem, including step-by-step instructions (with photographs), and excerpts on how to teach about the ecosystem. There is also an "additional layers" section that discusses methods of tying this project in with other subjects such as writing, reading, and responsibility.

Also, the example ecosystem includes goldfish! Who doesn't love goldfish?

Botany Bins

The University of Utah's Red Butte Garden offers the Botany Bin Program to all Utah public school teachers free of charge. 

Each kit comes with 16 bins, core-aligned lesson plans, related literature, real plant specimens, and reproducible materials. They also contain visual aides and background information, which makes the kits easy for both teachers and students to explore plants and study the fascinating science of botany.

Kits change throughout the year, but current offerings include Ethnobotany: People and Plants, and Conserving Water in the Desert. The bins can be picked up at the University of Utah or at one of 8 convenient locations throughout Utah. 

        Ethnobotany Bin

Red Butte Gardens

This eight-lesson curriculum is designed to teach segments of Utah’s new integrated core curriculum in science, language art, math, and visual arts. Activities are for inquiry based, hands-on teaching and learning.

The curriculum is given to the teachers at the teacher workshop. Every teacher who attends the workshop and arranges for a classroom visit will receive all the supplies and materials needed to teach the lessons the first year. Most of the original materials can be used year after year. A Red Butte Garden staff member comes to your classroom, teaches the first lesson on seed structure and germination, and plants the Wisconsin Fast Plant seeds with the students. The lesson is 90 minutes long.