Nature’s Needs

Students will have the opportunity to use their scientific skills to discover nature’s different needs! Students will investigate the needs of plants, animals, and humans and examine where they go if they cannot find what they need to survive.

Next Generation State Science Standards

K-LS1-1: Use observations to describe patterns of what plants and animals (including humans) need to survive.

K-ESS3-1: Use a model to represent the relationship between the needs of different plants and animals (including humans) and the places they live.

Weather…You are Ready or Not!

Ready or not, weather is coming! Students will have an opportunity to learn about weather and how to be prepared for a day of outdoor learning! Throughout the program, students will investigate the sun’s role in our changing weather, connect weather with seasons, and explore ways that humans can prepare for the weather, even when it is severe.

Next Generation State Science Standards

K-PS3-1: Make observations to determine the effect of sunlight on Earth’s surface.

K-ESS2-1: Use and share observation of local weather conditions to describe patterns over time.

K-ESS3-2: Ask questions to obtain information about the purpose of weather forecasting to prepare for, and respond to, severe weather.

Astonishing Adaptations

Through hands-on exploration of animal skulls and fur, students will learn different adaptations that help animals survive and thrive in their environment. Students will identify how some of these adaptations even inspired the creation of tools that humans use today!

Next Generation State Science Standards

1-LS1-1.Use materials to design a solution to a human problem by mimicking how plants and/or animals use their external parts to help them survive, grow, and meet their needs.

Making Waves: Light and Sound

Students will use their five senses to investigate light and sound waves. Through hands-on experiments and exploration, students will learn how living beings can use light and sound to thrive and survive. Students will be making waves as they use vibrations to play instruments and communicate!

Next Generation State Science Standards

1-PS4-1. Plan and conduct investigations to provide evidence that vibrating materials can make sound and that sound can make materials vibrate.

1-PS4-2. Make observations to construct an evidence-based account that objects in darkness can be seen only when illuminated.

1-PS4-3. Plan and conduct investigations to determine the effect of placing objects made with different materials in the path of a beam of light.

1-PS4-4. Use tools and materials to design and build a device that uses light or sound to solve the problem of communicating over a distance.

A Thistle & A Bee: The Story of Plant & Animal Interdependency

Students will explore the diversity of life throughout different habitats while making observations of the relationships between plants and animals required for growth and survival. While exploring three different habitats, students will identify plant and animal needs, understand their interdependence, and discuss how humans have an impact on living things and their habitat.

Next Generation State Science Standards

2-LS2-2. Develop a simple model that mimics the function of an animal in dispersing seeds or pollinating plants.

2-LS4-1. Make observations of plants and animals to compare the diversity of life in different habitats.

The Power of Water

Students will examine how the power of water is a driving force in changing the shape of the land. While exploring and experimenting, students will examine how water changes in the water cycle, discover where water is found on Earth, and learn how water impacts the land. Students will also construct models to investigate ways to prevent the impacts of water-related natural disasters and design models to mitigate the effects of these disasters.

Next Generation State Science Standards

2-PS1-4: Construct an argument with evidence that some changes caused by heating or cooling can be reversed and some cannot.

2-ESS1-1: Use information from several sources to provide evidence that Earth events can occur quickly or slowly.

2-ESS2-1: Compare multiple solutions designed to slow or prevent wind or water from changing the shape of the land.

2-ESS2-2: Develop a model to represent the shapes and kinds of land and bodies of water in an area.

2-ESS2-3: Obtain information to identify where water is found on Earth and that it can be solid or liquid.

Climate Curiosities

Curious about climate? In this program, students will engage in hands-on activities examining Colorado’s climate. Students will identify the differences between climate and weather, while exploring various natural hazards like avalanches and extreme cold.

Next Generation State Science Standards

3-ESS2-1: Represent data in tables and graphical displays to describe typical weather conditions expected during a particular season.

3-ESS2-2: Obtain and combine information to describe climates in different regions of the world.

3-ESS3-1: Make a claim about the merit of a design solution that reduces the impacts of a weather-related hazard.

Finding the Fittest Flyers

Students will engage in hands-on activities that help them understand that animals have unique characteristics and life cycles. Students will learn that these unique abilities help them interact with and survive in their specific environment.

Next Generation State Science Standards

3-LS3-2. Use evidence to support the explanation that traits can be influenced by the environment.

3-LS2-1: Construct an argument that some animals form groups that help members survive.

3-LS3-1: Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence that plants and animals have traits inherited from parents and that variation of these traits exists in a group of similar organisms.

3-LS4-2: Use evidence to construct an explanation for how the variations in characteristics among individuals of the same species may provide advantages in surviving, finding mates, and reproducing.

3-LS4-3: Construct an argument with evidence that in a particular habitat some organisms can survive well, some survive less well, and some cannot survive at all.

Fun with Fossils

In this in-school program, students will examine fossils to discover what they can tell us about organisms that lived long ago. Students will transform into paleontologists and learn about how some of these organisms still look like organisms living today.

Next Generation State Science Standards

3-LS4-1: Analyze and interpret data from fossils to provide evidence of the organisms and the environments in which they lived long ago.

Earth’s Changing Landscape

Students will travel back in time to explore how Colorado’s landscape has changed over time, while uncovering the mystery of how Earth’s major systems can interact to influence the current shape of our landscape. In addition, students will use inquiry during a fossil exploration to investigate some of Colorado’s ancient organisms. From reading the rock layers to reading maps, students will learn the story of Colorado’s prehistoric environments and gain an understanding of how the landscape is continuing to change today.

Next Generation State Science Standards

4-ESS1-1: Identify evidence from patterns in rock formations and fossils in rock layers to support an explanation for changes in a landscape overtime.

4-ESS2-1: Make observations and/or measurements to provide evidence of the effects of weathering or the rate of erosion by water, ice, wind, or vegetation.

4-ESS2-2: Analyze and interpret data from maps to describe patterns of Earth’s feature.

3-LS4-1: Analyze and interpret data from fossils to provide evidence of the organisms and the environments in which they lived long ago.

Sustainable Energy

Students will experiment with energy while engaging in hands-on engineering projects to learn about the advantages and disadvantages of wind, solar, and hydro energy. Students will identify types of energy, witness the Law of Conservation of Energy, and engage in critical thinking skills as they compare and contrast renewable and nonrenewable energy sources.

Next Generation State Science Standards

4-PS3-1: Use evidence to construct an explanation relating the speed of an object to the energy of that object.

4-PS3-2: Make observations to provide evidence that energy can be transferred from place to place by sound, light, heat, and electric currents.

4-PS3-3: Ask questions and predict outcomes about the changes in energy that occur when objects collide.

4-ESS3-1: Obtain and combine information to describe that energy and fuels are derived from natural resources and their uses affect the environment.

3-5-ETS1-1: Define a simple design problem reflecting a need or a want that includes specific criteria for success and constraints on materials, time, and cost.

3-5-ETS1-2: Generate and compare multiple possible solutions to a problem based on how well each is likely to meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.

3-5-ETS1-3: Plan and carry out fair tests in which variables are controlled and failure points are considered to identify aspects of a model or prototype that can be improved.

Energy in the Ecosystem

Students will explore an  ecosystem while observing energy cycling through different trophic levels. Students will learn how living and nonliving components interact and depend upon one another to maintain a healthy ecosystem. Students will further investigate ecological cycling by learning about the importance of the carbon and nitrogen cycles.

Next Generation State Science Standards

5-PS3-1: Use models to describe that energy in animals’ food (used for body repair, growth, motion, and to maintain body warmth) was once energy from the sun.

5-LS1-1: Support an argument that plants get the materials they need for growth chiefly from air and water.

5-LS2-1: Develop a model to describe the movement of matter among plants, animals, decomposers, and the environment.

At Home in the Hydrosphere

Students will examine how climate change is impacting the hydrosphere and its cascading effects on earth’s major systems (biosphere, atmosphere, and geosphere). Students will investigate how our changing climate is affecting water availability in the mountains and tackle the current issue of how communities can protect this precious resource.

Next Generation State Science Standards

5-ESS2-1: Develop a model using an example to describe ways the geosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and/or atmosphere interact.

5-ESS2-2: Describe and graph the amounts and percentages of water and fresh water in various reservoirs to provide evidence about the distribution of water on Earth.

5-ESS3-1: Obtain and combine information about ways individual communities use science ideas to protect the Earth’s resources and environment.

Weather & Climate

Students will learn how weather systems interact to shape Colorado’s continental climate. Through hands-on investigation of snowpack, students will discover how our changing climate is affecting winter and natural hazards in Colorado. Students will explore how humans are impacting and being impacted by climate change.

Next Generation State Science Standards

MS-ESS2-6: Develop and use a model to describe how unequal heating and rotation of the Earth cause patterns of atmospheric and oceanic circulation that determine regional climates.

MS-ESS3-2: Analyze and interpret data on natural hazards to forecast future catastrophic events and inform the development of technologies to mitigate their effects.

MS-ESS3-5: Ask questions to clarify evidence of the factors that have caused the rise in global temperatures over the past century.

MS-ESS2-6. Develop and use a model to describe how unequal heating and rotation of the Earth cause patterns of atmospheric and oceanic circulation that determine regional climates.

Ecology: Biodiversity Research

Students participate in hands-on field research protocols as they explore the interactions within an ecological community. By conducting a biophysical monitoring project, students will have the opportunity to investigate and compare the diversity between two unique ecosystems.

Next Generation State Science Standards

MS-LS2-1: Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence for the effects of resource availability on organisms and populations of organisms in an ecosystem.

MS-LS2-2: Construct an explanation that predicts patterns of interactions among organisms across multiple ecosystems.

MS-LS2-3: Develop a model to describe the cycling of matter and flow of energy among living and nonliving parts of an ecosystem.

MS-LS2-4: Construct an argument supported by empirical evidence that changes to physical or biological components of an ecosystem affect populations.

Geology

Students will investigate the natural constructive and destructive processes that shape the Earth’s landscape. Students will explore content such as tectonic plate interactions, chemical and physical weathering, erosion, deposition, and stream dynamics.

Next Generation State Science Standards

MS-ESS2-1: Develop a model to describe the cycling of Earth’s materials and the flow of energy that drives this process.

MS-ESS2-2: Construct an explanation based on evidence for how geoscience processes have changed Earth’s surface at varying time and spatial scales.

MS-ESS2-4: Develop a model to describe the cycling of water through Earth’s systems driven by energy from the sun and the force of gravity.

Ancient Geology: Written in Stone

Students will learn to read rock layers while exploring the McCoy Fossil Beds unearthing evidence of the previous environments and the organisms found in Colorado thousands of years ago. Students will also have the opportunity to investigate the major geologic events that are responsible for the changing landscape.

Next Generation State Science Standards

MS-LS4-1: Analyze and interpret data for patterns in the fossil record that document the existence, diversity, extinction, and change of life forms throughout the history of life on Earth under the assumption that natural laws operate today as in the past.

MS-LS4-2: Apply scientific ideas to construct an explanation for the anatomical similarities and differences among modern organisms and between modern and fossil organisms to infer evolutionary relationships.

MS-ESS1-4: Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence from rock strata for how the geologic time scale is used to organize Earth’s 4.6-billion-year-old history.

MS-ESS2-3: Analyze and interpret data on the distribution of fossils and rocks, continental shapes, and seafloor structures to provide evidence of the past plate motions.