School Programs

We are pleased to offer school programs tailored to classroom curriculum and reinforce lesson plans. Experiences target students in kindergarten through twelfth grade. Chose a half day ($3.00) or full day ($6.00) experience from the program options or talk to our instructor about designing your own program.

Nature Lady Hikes
Join the Nature Lady to see what is really under our feet and how it changes with the seasons. In either a series of seasonal hikes (fall, winter, spring) or one hike, discover how the natural world changes. Learn to read the signs left by the animals and unravel their mystery. Students are encouraged to explore, ask questions, use critical thinking to piece together evidence and form conclusions.

Hike themes include habitat diversity, plant and wildlife identification, animal populations and adaptations, ecosystems, biomes, and woodland management. Activities are chosen from Project WILD, Project Learning Tree, Project WET, the Leopold Education Project and LEAF.

Pond Peeking
What do a scud, snail, caddisfly larva, and an aquatic sowbug have in common? We use these organisms to develop an aquatic profile to see if a body of water is healthy or polluted.

Younger students will pull samples from the pond and explore water plants and organisms using microscopes and hand lenses to make identification. Older students can combine the physical testing with chemical testing of the water to obtain an accurate picture of the pond. Chemical tests include dissolved oxygen, carbon dioxide, pH, nitrogen, phosphate and hardness. Project WET activities will help the students travel through the water cycle as a drop of water.

Compass
Students will learn the parts of a compass and how to use a compass to keep from getting lost. Compass games will reinforce the concepts of taking a bearing, locating north, setting a degree reading, and pacing.

As students feel more comfortable with using the compass, activities will progress to orienteering. Along with the orienteering activities students will determine their individual pace to judge distance in the field. Their pace will be determined using a surveyor’s chain (66 feet). This measurement is used by foresters in the field when they are surveying property. Suitable for grades 4-12.

Forest Ecology
Students will use outdoor classroom areas consisting of hardwood and conifer forests, wolf tree, cord wood plot, and forest growth plot as their basis for discovery. Each outdoor classroom will help to increase their knowledge of forests, management concepts, forest inventory, planning and decision making. They will record data and take measurements using a forester’s tools to predict how the forest has changed and will change in the future.

Activities will be chosen from the LEAF Curriculum to reinforce concepts learned in the classroom. These activities fit perfectly with the completion of either the 5-6 or 7-8 Leaf Units.

LEAF Field Activities
LEAF (Learning Experiences and Activities in Forestry) is a Wisconsin K-12 Curriculum developed for use by the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point. Complete your classroom Leaf Unit with a trip to the Seno Center for the field activities. We are a LEAF certified site and can help you with both classroom and field activities.

Not trained in the LEAF Curriculum? Check out the LEAF website www.uwsp.edu/cnr/leaf for classes.

Team Building
Activities range from simple exercises like Knots and Hula Hoop Pass to more complicated problems like Zig zag and Elephant Shoes. These activities help students build trust and learn to work together as a group. All the activities are designed to require the maximum amount of participation by everyone in the group. The rationale is to increase confidence among individual members of the group and promote an atmosphere of mutual support and trust.

Geology
Students will learn the characteristics of the igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary rock families and test their skills with a rock hounding session. Learn about the glaciers that covered southeastern Wisconsin and formed the Kettle Moraine and Lake Michigan. We will also take core samples of the soil at various locations to see how the soil composition compares with the flora present in each location