About Us | Programs | Outdoor Recreation | Camps | Animals | Special Events
Prairie Park offers field trips programs that are 2 hours in length to grades kindergarten to ninth grade. These classes are correlated to meet Kansas state science core curriculum outcomes.
In most cases the two hour field trip programs include both an indoor presentation combined with outdoor hands on investigations. Selections can be adapted to different grade levels, but some classes do require grade appropriate skills. Some topics are seasonal.
- Teachers should be prepared to go outside with their classes for at least 1 hour of the 2 hour program. Students should dress appropriately for the weather and wear outdoor shoes.
- Guests may attend with class groups, but due to space limitations, teachers may be asked to limit adult guests.
Programs for Grades K-3rd
- All Around the Seasons (Year round): Explore the ways plants & animals are adapted to the daily and seasonal cycles of life. Students will see how the changing seasons affect plant growth, animal movements, and are linked together to enable living things to survive.
- Natures Powerhouses (Spring to Fall): Investigate how green plants turn air, water, sunlight and soil into living material, how they breathe and grow, and how critical they are to life on earth.
- Springtime Birds (Spring): Investigate the meaning of bird songs and how birds build their nests. Students will learn how birds bright colors help them find a mate, and the songs they sing protect their territories.
- On Butterfly Wings (May-Sept.): Discover the wonders of these unique insects. The focus will be on the lifecycles, roles in nature, relationships with plants, and butterfly migration. A Monarch Watch activity in the fall.
- Creepy, Crawly Critters (Spring to Fall): Explore the world of invertebrates with nets and hand lenses. The class will use simple classification to study groups of invertebrates and examine the roles of bugs in nature and our lives.
- The House that Nature Built (Year round): Investigate the shelters of wild things. Consider the many ways animals find and create shelters for predator protection, family life and winter survival.
Programs for grades 3rd-5th
- Surviving the Wild (Year round): Investigate the diverse adaptations of animals and plants that help to insure survival in the wild.. Students will learn about a variety of adaptations that aid plants and animals in their struggle for life.
- Water – Blood of Life (March-Oct): Discover the properties of water, study the water cycle and learn how all life on earth depends upon this essential compound. Lots of hands on activities in this exploration of the importance of water to life.
- What’s that Habitat? (Year round): Investigate the ways animals meet their needs for survival in an ever crowded world. Students will learn about how plants and animals are adapted to habitats, cope with changes to their environments and compete.
- Nature Recyles: What do earthworms, cockroaches, vulture and ‘possums have in common? They are part of nature’s recycling crew. Investigate the critical role of bacteria, fungi and others in returning nutrients to the food chain.
- Incredible Insects (Spring to fall): Students will learn about the great diversity of insects in the world. They will use bug nets to collect and examine insects up close and study their diverse adaptations to the environments in which they are found.
- Hard as a Rock, Soft as Soil (Year round): Students will examine properties of rocks, identify common minerals and investigate how erosion develops soil from rock layers. They will hunt outside for examples of common Kansas rocks . Part of this program is indoor hands-on laboratory investigations.
- Fossils – Ancient Life in Stone ( year round): A real hands on lab to investigate how fossils are made, identify A wide variety of Kansas fossils and compare modern life to that of our ancient Kansas past. Students will hunt for fossils in rock beds outside at the nature center.
Programs for grades 5th-9th
- Navigating Nature (Year round): Learn about how wildlife navigates using landmarks, scent, eyesight, magnetism and the stars. Investigate the ways human explorers expanded their knowledge of the world with similar navigation skills and special tools. Students will learn the basics of map and compass skills. (Math skills up to simple multiplication required)
- Life in the Forest (Year round): Explore woodland ecosystems of Kansas . Students will learn the basic elements of ecosystems with a focus on the structure, plants and animals of Kansas woodlands. They will use survey techniques for studying diversity, biomass, and carrying capacity.
- Prairies – Seas of Grass (Year round): Students will explore the concept of ecosystem while focusing on the unique qualities of the Kansas tallgrass prairie, its plants and animals. They will learn about biodiversity, food webs, and prairie adaptations.
- Wetland Wonders (Spring to Fall): Students will study the complex wetlands ecosystem from microscopic to macroscopic life. They will catch and identify invertebrates and learn how the chemical makeup of water is essential to the health of life in the wetlands.
- The Earliest Prairie People (Year Round): Special fee $6.00 per student. In this hands on programs students will learn how the earliest Americans used the natural resources of the prairie, rivers and woodlands to meet their survival needs. Students will study how plants and animals were used for food, tools, shelters, and what skills would have been most important to early native Americans.
For more information and scheduling call 785-832-7980.
COSTS AND SCHEDULING for 2 Hr Field trips:
- $5 per student with a mminimum charge of $100 per group.
- $6 per student for Prairie People program with a minimum charge of $110 per group.
- $2 per guests and parents of students