This document outlines educational programs and activities at a wildlife park and conservation center. It describes the park's acreage and facilities for walking tours and animal enclosures. The conservation center covers 108 acres used for field trips, community projects, and natural areas like a pond and wetland. The center offers multi-topic educational sets and field lessons on subjects like mapping, plants, and soil science. Lessons are hands-on and aim to foster understanding of ecology, systems thinking, and sustainability. Sample lessons are provided on leaf litter monitoring and plant diseases. Educational standards are referenced to ensure appropriate skills and knowledge are built up progressively from kindergarten through high school.

1. A center for enthusiastic, hands on, conservation education.

2. NorthWest Trek Wildlife Park
• 740(ish) acres
• Walking and tram tours
• Carnivores in enclosures
• Herbivores are free-roaming
The Hundred Acre Woods
• Also referred to as the CC
(Conservation Center)
• 108 acres used for conservation
field trips
• Community restoration projects
• Natural resources include:
• Pond with breeding toads
• Large wetland and stream
• Steep ledge overlooking
landscape

4. Progressive Set By Topic Sets
(3 hour long, annual visits) (Set 2 lesson plans are 1.5 hours
Set 3 lesson plans are 3 hours)
 K - Soil Science
 Cryptogams (lichen and
 1 - Cryptogams
 2 – Mapping bryophyte)
 3 - Life Cycles  Map Making
 4 – Ornithology  Ornithology
 5 - Soil Erosion  Soil Science
 6 - Native Plants/Botany  Botany/Native Plants
 7 - Life Cycles
 Nature Mapping
 8 - Nature Mapping
 Amphibians
 9 - Fluvial Geomorphology
 10 - nature mapping  Pond Dipping
 11 - Soil Science  Life Cycles
 12 - Leaf litter monitoring

5. Essential Academic Learning Requirements
 The program should be hands on at all levels, engaging each student’s head, hands, and
heart in what they are doing.
 The program should be progressive, ensuring programs for higher grades build off
previous learning and offer new challenges for each age group.
 At certain grade levels, student groups may benefit from ongoing projects, completed
over many years.
 Students should leave feeling a sense of responsibility for the land, enthusiasm, and a
feeling of connection to nature.
 The program should foster an understanding of “interconnectedness and
interdependency of ecological, social, and economic systems” at an appropriate level.
(IESLS, Standard 1, page 4)
 The program should encourage Systems Thinking: an approach to problem solving that
facilitates the analysis and understanding of complex phenomena (IESLS, Standard 2,
page 5)
 Students should be able to apply their knowledge to make personal and collective
decisions that promote sustainability. (IESLS, Standard 3, page 5)
 Students should use their skills of communication, collaboration, and imagination,
as well as a mindset of flexibility, commitment, appreciation, confidence, humor, and
determination. (IESLS, Standard 3, pg. 5)

8.  LS3C(k-1)
 “External features of animals and
plants are used to classify them into
groups.”
 PS2A(2-3)
 “Objects have properties including
size, weight, hardness, color, shape,
texture, and magnetism. Unknown
substances can sometimes be
identified by their properties.”
 LS3A (2-3)
 “There are variations among the
same kinds of plants and animals.”
 LS3C (2-3)
 “Sometimes differences in
characteristics give individual plants
or animals an advantage in surviving
and reproducing.”

10.  Linus

11.  Purpose
 The purpose of this lesson is to engage students in the hands
on work of monitoring leaf litter in the forest. They will
primarily use skills of classification, measurement, while also
having the chance to challenge themselves by analyzing the
data and making assumptions about the health of the
environment. Students will learn more about plant diseases
in the process.
 Schedule
 Students collect leaf litter samples
 Students sort, weigh, and record data.
 Analyze Data
 EALRS
 16 Science EALRS for grades 9-12

12.  linus

13.  Intro to different grade levels
 K-3 soil Linus
 4-8 soil Brooke
 9-12 soil Brooke