Outreach

We bring nature to you!

We will bring our outreach program to your site! Topics include forests, worms, spiders, owls, food chains, food webs, weltands and the water cycle. Students will participate in hands-on activities, songs and games. Programs may be adapted to students in grades one through six and are correlated with Illinois State Standards. Student resources and teacher resources are available for these programs.

Call 847-985-2100 to invite one of our naturalists to visit your class for a fun-filled session today!

Programs

Food Chains

  • Explore food chains to develop a hypothesis to explain where energy comes from.
  • Experience energy flow and put together several different food chains.

Food Webs

  • Discover how energy travels from producers to consumers in a food chain.
  • Explore how energy travels between food chains to form food webs.

Forests

  • Take a woodland adventure discovering the layers in a forest and which plants and animals live in each.
  • Play a memory game and reconstruct the entire forest ecosystem.

Owls

  • Venture into the habits of owls. Dissect owl pellets, identify bones and skulls, graph data and analyze results.
  • “Become” an owl in a predator/prey simulation.

Spiders

  • Explore the concept of habitat requirements by learning about the remarkable life and adaptations of these important animals.

Worms

  • Learn all about worms while exploring their anatomy and habitat.

The Water Cycle

  • Discover the stages in the water cycle by putting together a giant puzzle.
  • Discuss the importance of the water cycle and participate in a simulation to demonstrate this.

Wetlands

  • Explore a simulated wetland to learn about pH, temperature and oxygen levels to determine whether their sample of macro-invertebrates can live in the water they've been given.

Programs by Grade Level

  • Grade 1: Food Chains; Spiders; The Water Cycle
  • Grade 2: Forests; Food Chains; Spiders; The Water Cycle; Spiders; Worms
  • Grade 3: Forests; Food Chains; Spiders; The Water Cycle; Spiders; Worms
  • Grade 4: Forests; Food Webs; Owls; The Water Cycle; Wetlands; Worms
  • Grade 5: Food Webs; Owls; The Water Cycle; Wetlands
  • Grade 6: Food Webs; Owls; The Water Cycle; Wetland Investigations

Program Survey

Take the program survey.