Middle School Education Programs
Middle School Programs
Animal Encounter | 30 minutes | Indoors
Meet one of our animal ambassadors up close and personal in this private, 30-minute encounter led by an expert naturalist. Age-appropriate and engagingly delivered, the program includes time for Q&A and hands-on exploration of biofacts such as pelts, skulls, and wings. Connect to your curriculum by selecting one of the following themes: Adaptations, Habitats, or Human Impacts on Wildlife.
Available: Year-round at SLNSC or your site
Human Impacts on Wildlife | 45 minutes | Indoors
Human behavior can have positive or adverse effects on wildlife populations. Through up close encounters with two live animals, students explore examples of human impacts and some working and potential solutions to reverse negative influences. Through a follow-up activity, students design solutions to minimize environmental problems caused by human behavior.
Available: Year-round at SLNSC or your site
Forest and Field Ecology | 1 hour 30 minutes | Outdoors
What characteristics make fields and forests such different natural communities? Through hands-on scientific examination, teams of students measure wind speed, temperature, soil pH, humidity, and other factors. Students review data and then compare and contrast the results between the two communities. Meet a live animal to discover how the factors measured during the program influence where the animal lives.
Available: Fall, Spring, Summer at SLNSC
Lake Exploration | 2 hours | Outdoors
Study Squam Lake aboard a floating classroom. Using hands-on measurements of pH, dissolved oxygen, water hardness, clarity, and temperature, student teams assess the lake’s health. Students also examine lake sediment and collect plankton to observe with a high definition projection microscope. All data are posted on the Science Center’s website for teachers to compare with results from past years.
Available: Fall, Spring, Summer at SLNSC
Next Generation Science Standards Connections
- MS-LS1-6 From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes – Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence for the role of photosynthesis in the cycling of matter and flow of energy into and out of organisms.
- MS-LS2-1 Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics – Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence for the effects of resource availability on organisms and populations of organisms in an ecosystem.
- MS-LS2-3 Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics – Develop a model to describe the cycling of matter and flow of energy among living and nonliving parts of an ecosystem.
- MS-LS2-4 Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics – Construct an argument supported by empirical evidence that changes to physical or biological components of an ecosystem affect populations.
- MS-ESS3-4. Construct an argument supported by evidence for how increases in human population and per-capita consumption of natural resources impact Earth's systems.
