Student Contributor -B.Sayler
The purpose of this organization is to connect students of all ages to nature through experiential learning. This is a safe place for schools to bring their students and to bring life into learning. Students come here on field trips or open house to learn more about animals and their habitats.
This organization is a perfect place to bring students to help them actively learn about nature and animals. They have many different animals that helps kids visually learn about their habitats and actions that the animals take. They provide private programs for classes with a variety of topics. They have programs from HOOT shows which introduce participants to the incredible world of raptors. Outreach programs include two live raptors, and an educator to visit your facility with an interactive presentation. Programs are designed to increase awareness about wildlife as well as enhance classroom units on ecosystems, food webs and adaptations to Macro Invertebrate Investigation which is a hands-on field investigation, students determine the quality of the OLC ponds and streams by discovering which kinds of tiny organisms live there. Students collect aquatic macro invertebrates (water bugs) using nets and buckets, and then work to identify the bugs they find. What makes this organization so special is that there is something for every grade!
I chose this organization because this is a place that my students love. They choose to go here on their free time along with all sorts of field trips we have done there. I thought it would be neat to do something for them in return. My class chose to “adopt” a pet. We decided to do a coin drive for a month, Kids brought in all the change they could find laying around the house and we collected it in a jar with the name of our pet on it. Once our coin drive was over we delivered the money to the outdoor learning center to go towards the food for that animal. This was a great way for our students to give back to their community and help an animal in need. This was a way to contribute to an organization that gives us so much opportunity to learn in such a fun engaging way. This is a perfect local organization to build a personal connection with. They provide so many fun recourses for the kids to learn and explore.
