Search for School Programs at Broadmoor

Children embark on a multi-sensory exploration of the natural world, comparing how various local animals use senses. Students use their
observation skills to investigate the characteristics of living and nonliving
things found at the sanctuary.

Fall, Winter, Spring

Explore diversity amongst and within groups of organisms. Compare shapes of leaves, growth patterns, bird shapes or birds in water and birds in trees. Students will learn that these adaptations help organisms survive better.

fall and spring

Explore diversity amongst and within groups of organisms. Compare shapes of leaves, growth patterns, bird shapes or birds in water and birds in trees. 

fall and spring

Students investigate local plants for physical and behavioral adaptations
that help them survive, such as competing for sunlight, avoiding being eaten, and many ways to make more plants.

Fall: investigate seed dispersal strategies 

Spring:compare flower shape, color and function 

Students will compare a variety of animal parts, such as skulls, talons, and skins, along with life cycles models to discover the many ways animals survive. 

By searching for seasonal animals signs, students learn the variety of ways that animals body parts and behavior allow them to survive the cold winter. Children work together to apply learning to ensure their own pretend small mammal survives the cold!

Late Fall, Winter, and Early Spring

Children will see how beavers change the landscape to meet their own needs. They will meet our mounted beaver, find chewed trees, and learn to tell the difference between a lodge and a dam, while investigating around the ponds in our brook.

Fall 

Students will observe wild birds in a field, a forest, and a marsh. They will explore how these areas meet the habitat needs -- where birds find food, shelter, water and space -- and learn about food chains and other interrelationships among birds and other organisms within these three natural communities. Students may learn about how scientists study birds throughout their migration range. (*Abundance of birds cannot be guaranteed.)

Fall and Spring

Through a close look at a taxidermy beaver and decomposers, students will explore some of the ways animals change the environment. 

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

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: seasons, adaptations, or diversity. 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: 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 challenmging 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.

Investigate your local river or other water body by canoe. Staff will provide an orientation to equipment and techniques, use fun games to learn paddling skills, and offer correctional instruction throughout the trip. Using hands-on activities such as "ponding" for invertebrates, observing other animal life, identifying plants, and looking for impacts to the environment, students will see real life examples of the nature and science they study in class. They can also link the organisms they find to see how energy moves in the ecosystem.

We can accomodate up to 14 individuals at a time, including school chaperones.

This program is subject to cancellation or rescheduling due to:

1. unsafe water conditions
2. weather systems involving high winds, heavey rain and/or lightening
3. illness of qualified boating staff

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.