NATURE AWARENESS & SERVICE
Nature Awareness and Service is a youth education program catered to students in grades K-8. It is designed to help students learn techniques to understand and enjoy the nature in their neighborhood. It will help instill an early interest in conservation, foster scientific curiosity and build life-long stewardship of local natural areas.
Drumstalk game at Gotter Prairie
The program begins with a visit to your classroom where a Volunteer Naturalist from the Riverkeepers will introduce the concept of nature awareness, through age and benchmark appropriate activities. This component is followed by a field-trip to a local natural area (more) where students will have the opportunity to put the concept of nature awareness into practice. Volunteer Naturalists lead small groups through various activity modules including animal tracking, botany and ethno-botany, and food web simulation. The culmination of classroom and field experiences is the community service project (more). Following the field trip, a representative from the Riverkeepers will visit your classroom with the purpose of helping students brainstorm project ideas based on their needs and interests. The Naturalist will guide them to formulate a project and from that point, will serve as a resource for you and your students, connecting you with relevant organizations.
We encourage teachers to work with the Riverkeepers prior to the program. This allows us to make adjustments in our curriculum choices that will link the program most effectively to your classroom curricula and benchmark needs.
FIELD-TRIP FORMSNATURE AWARENESS IN ACTION
Curiosity
Predator-Prey Fun