Search for School Programs at Broadmoor

Through a combination of specific outdoor science education pedagogy, methodology based on the BEETLES professional learning sessions, and supporting teacher comfort and knowledge base in understanding local nature in the areas around the school, participants will build their confidence in instruction in the out of doors and practice skills they can use with students immediately. 

Students will visit the fields, forest, and marsh to identify how organisms relate with one another (predation, mutualism, competition, dependency, and parasitism) and delve into adaptations and trophic levels. We will also discuss and explore the temperate biome communities and patterns of change.

Follow the sun’s energy from producers through consumers and finally to decomposers. Students will conduct an experiment to test if plants transpire, while observing and connecting local plants and animals in a food chain. 

Fall and Spring

On school grounds or nearby natural areas, students will follow the sun’s energy from producers through consumers and finally to decomposers. Students will conduct an experiment to test if plants transpire, while observing and connecting local plants and animals in a food chain. 

Students investigate the forces that shape the earth on a large scale and small scale. They will apply learning by identifying evidence of erosion and weathering in nature or using samples in class.

You’ve learned about birds and adaptations in school and maybe even been on the trails to see them. That was during the day; what about birds who fly and hunt at night? Investigate some owl artifacts and then get an introduction to local nocturnal owls: great-horned, barred and screech. Plus learn about the other animals out and about from dusk to dawn, incluing mammals, amphibians and insects.

Then, take a walk on the dark side… in a group and led by a Teacher Naturalist, you will explore what it is like to be a nocturnal animal.  What do you see?  What do you hear?  How is it the same or different than the way a nocturnal animal experiences the night? We will try to call for owls and we will listen for other nocturnal animals too. 

Wrap-up the night with some cozy socializing over cookies and cocoa!

ideal in late Januray, February and March

Students will explore a freshwater environment as an ecosystem, considering biotic and abiotic factors, relationships in nature and how organisms fill various niches. They will use microscopes to look at macro-invertebrates and plants collected from the water, focusing on evolution, adaptations and classification. Students also consider complex avenues for energy to transfer from the sun through living things in this environment.

Have a Broadmoor Teacher Naturalist lead an interactive, hands-on lesson in your classroom, using natural materials, games, movement and inquiry to engage students in learning. May also occur on your school grounds or nearby outside areas.
Our staff can support student learning in life or earth science frameworks: water, diversity and habitat needs. We will custom design a program based on the standards you wish to meet.

Have a Broadmoor Teacher Naturalist lead an interactive, hands-on lesson in your classroom, using natural materials, games, movement and inquiry to engage students in learning. May also occur on your school grounds or nearby outside areas.
Our staff can support student learning in life or earth science frameworks: global weather patterns, life cycles, diversity, or species survival. We will custom design a program based on the standards you wish to meet.

Have a Broadmoor Teacher Naturalist lead an interactive, hands-on lesson in your classroom, using natural materials, games, movement and inquiry to engage students in learning. May also occur on your school grounds or nearby outside areas.
Our staff can support student learning in life or earth science frameworks: erosion and weathering, shifting plates, renewable and non-renewable energy, or adaptations. We will custom design a program based on the standards you wish to meet.

Have a Broadmoor Teacher Naturalist lead an interactive, hands-on lesson in your classroom, using natural materials, games, movement and inquiry to engage students in learning. May also include exploration and investigation of your school grounds or nearby outside areas.
We will custom design a program based on the standards you wish to meet in life or earth science frameworks: cycling of water or food energy on earth, and/or the functions and structure of plants. 

Students sweep net in a meadow, turn logs in the forest and observe wetlands to find plants and animals that meet their habitat needs for food, water, shelter and figure out why that environment is the best space.

Fall, Winter, Spring

Discover what animals and plants need to live and why their habitat is the best match through a combination of presentation and hands-on explorations of living samples from two different environments.

Exploring a meadow, a forest and a marsh as habitats, children observe signs of life and discover how plants and animals depend on one another, and are linked in food chains.

Fall, Winter, Spring

Survival in winter is challenging for plants and animals. Search for different seasonal animal signs such as deer tracks and beaver "chews," investigate the lives of wild animals and learn about their daily patterns of foraging and hunting. Explore the unique ways that plants and animals have evolved to survive cold, dry winter conditions. Learn about animals that escape winter by hibernating or migrating, and others that adapt with daily activities that are much different from their summer patterns. Identify which plants are sleeping and which stay active year-round, and why they can.
Late Fall, Winter, early Spring

Students investigate what makes something alive, comparing living organisms with things that exhibit some, but not all, characteristics of life. 

Have a Broadmoor teacher naturalist lead an interactive, hands-on lesson at your school, using natural materials, games, movement and sensory exploration to engage young children in learning.
Students can learn about almost any life or earth science frameworks, such as living and non-living, seasonal cycles, specific animals or plants, life cycles, etc. We will custom-design a program based on the concepts you wish them to learn.

Students explore for organisms in different life cycles stages and can compare those cycles. Investigations can include searching dipped up invertebrates from the water, exploring insects and birds in the meadows, and searching for seeds and plants.

Fall and Spring

Students will learn to look at the "big picture" and see the marsh as an ecosystem, where mammals, such as the beaver, use the marsh as their habitat. They will look at macro-invertebrates collected from the marsh, focusing on animal adaptations and characteristics. Students also learn how aquatic plants are adapted to live in the water and fill different niches.
Spring

Students sort through organisms dipped up from the marsh to see what lives in the water and how water provides a home. They also explore the water cycle on the sanctuary.

Fall and Spring

Students will become finches living on the Galapagos Islands. Through the use of hand-puppets, each student "bird" will try to feed on the islands using their specific behavioral and physical adaptations. Depending on success, the birds will decide if they stay or migrate to find the best environment to meet their needs. Through the simulation, students experience the variety of challenges, competition, and success that drive evolution and survival in nature. If time permits, they can also experience the influence of changes in the environment and attempt to be successful enough to reproduce and pass on traits to offspring. 

This lesson requires one location to set up, that provides open space for the islands and an area for students to process data on a worksheet and engage in discussion. Two teacher naturalists faciliatate this program for 1 class at a time.

Students examine plant structures,  behaviors for survival, and reproductive strategies. Depending on what is seasonally available, it includes local  flowers and seeds. 

Have a Broadmoor teacher naturalist lead an interactive, hands-on lesson at your school, using natural materials, games, movement and sensory exploration to engage young children in learning.
Students can learn about almost any life or earth science frameworks, such as living and non-living, seasonal cycles, specific animals or plants, life cycles, etc. We will custom-design a program based on the concepts you wish them to learn.

This program will combine elements of seasonal nature experiences that support the group's interests.

All programs can be customized to your group.

By manipulating different substrates, such as soil, sand, clay and stone, with water and moving air, students can investigate the effects of water and wind. Then they will work together to create and test solutions to prevent the erosion.

This program requires stations that classes can rotate through due to the amount of supplies that students can manipulate and resetting between groups.

Students have a hands-on look at erosion on hillsides, trails, and a stream bed. They'll investigate the make up of the soil, visit a volcanic island, find evidence of weathering by ice wedging, root pry, and rusting.