Fall Trip ~ Students identify and measure prairie grasses and forbes, organize their data into graphs, and write in their nature journals while sitting on the prairie.  On a nature hike through the woods, they look for seeds and identify the different ways they are dispersed.  The also collect examples of the leaves they assembled in their annual leaf collection to make rubbings.  Through a scavenger hunt inside the visitor center, they learn about bats, snakes, turtles, pollution, and listen to the birds at the feeders.

Winter Trip ~ We come home smelling like campfire smoke and the, outdoors, but we learn a lot, and “Mother Nature” once again is the teacher. Students are taught tracks and signs of animal life and on a nature hike, they look for those signs applying what they have learned.  Students once again spend time writing in their journals, this time with the woods as their setting.  They photograph what they see, and also take time to use a GPS to hunt for a local "geocache".  Students dress warm and we work at not complaining about the cold.  It is all rewarded with hotdogs cooked over the fire, chips, fruit, and homemade cookies.