Kindergarten, Birds and Bird Nests: This series of activities forms a module that guides students to consider the different characteristics of bird’s nests and the purposes they serve. Students will engage with visual resources, individually build a model, answer questions based on direct field observations, and answer the question “What are different characteristics of birds’ nests and what purposes do they serve?” They will express their understanding by sharing their models with their peers and explaining any adjustments they made because of their field observations. In the culminating activity, students share what they have learned with each other, in order to learn from each other’s understanding.

Kindergarten, Pollinators: This series of activities forms a module that guides students to explore four different types of pollinators in the Mojave Desert and their role within human food production. Students will engage with visual resources, play a pollination game as a whole group, make first-hand observations on a field experience, and understand the importance of pollinators and what humans can do to help them, including planting native seeds during the culminating activity. They will express their understanding by sharing their observations with their peers and explaining their thinking.

1st Grade, Biomimicry: This series of activities forms a module that guides students to consider how people can be inspired to solve human problems by studying possible solutions in nature.  Students engage with a video resource, participate in a matching game, and collect and analyze data in order to gather information to propose answers to the question, “How can ideas from nature help us solve human problems?” They will express their understanding by sharing their ideas with their peers. In the culminating activity, students create a new product based on the data collected, draw a model, and share what they have learned with each other in order to learn from each other’s understanding.  This program will take place over two one hour-long programs, an associated field trip, and an hour-long culminating program.  

1st Grade, Coyotes: This series of activities forms a module that guides students to consider how coyotes have used both what they have learned from their parents and their instincts to survive throughout most of North America, including the harsh climate of the Mojave Desert. Students engage with video resources, participate in a matching game, and rotate through learning stations, and create a short booklet based on the information collected and how it relates to their own experiences with their own family members, and share what they have learned with each other in order to learn from each other’s understanding.  

2nd Grade: This series of three classroom programs and culminating field trip forms a program that guides students to consider how seeds are dispersed through nature. Students participate in an observation activity, analyze information, and participate in an engineering design challenge to propose answers to the question, “How do plants spread their seeds without the help of humans?” They will express their understanding by recording data and their ideas by writing in a field notebook and by engineering a device that mimics natural seed dispersal. In the culminating activity, students will revise their designed seed dispersal method after their field trip to a native plant nursery.  

2nd Grade, Plant Adaptations: This series of three classroom programs and culminating field trip forms a program that guides students to consider how different plants are able to survive in different locations. Students will study images and other media, analyze data, and propose answers to the question, “Why are there different plants on Mt. Charleston than Las Vegas?” They will express their understanding by recording data and their ideas by writing in a field notebook and by revising their initial argument in the culminating activity.

3rd Grade, Floods and Flood Plans: This series of activities forms a program that guides students to consider floods as a natural disaster. Students engage with video resources, explore ways to understand and reduce the impact of floods, and collect and analyze data in order to gather information to propose answers to the question, “How can a community best deal with floods?”  They will express their understanding by sharing their ideas with their peers, recording data and their ideas by writing in a field notebook, and by creating a plan of action that helps them stay safe. In the culminating activity, students share in order to learn from each other’s understanding.

3rd Grade, Water Levels of Lake Mead: This series of activities forms a program that guides students to consider There is more water being used from Lake Mead than what is being replenished, as well as one or more ways this problem could be addressed. Students engage with video resources, explore ways to understand and reduce the impact on our water supply, and collect and analyze data in order to create their own explanation of "why the water level in Lake Mead is dropping?". They will express their understanding by sharing their ideas with their peers, recording data and their ideas by writing in a field notebook, and by revise their thinking in the culminating activity.

4th Grade, Weathering and Erosion: This series of activities forms a program that guides students to consider that even though we may not usually notice it, the Earth is always changing.  Students will engage and participate in a card game, rotate through learning stations and collect and analyze data in order to gather information to propose answers to the question, “Why is the Earth changing and what factors increase/decrease the rate at which the Earth changes?” They will express their understanding by sharing their ideas with their peers, recording data and their ideas by writing in a field notebook, and by making predictions about a site that they visit and how the various changes they learn about may affect the land in the future. In the culminating activity, students share what they have learned with each other, in order to learn from each other's understanding.

4th Grade, Burrowing Owls: This series of activities forms a program that guides students to discover that because of Burrowing Owls physical and behavioral adaptations, they have been able to survive in the Mojave Desert. Students will engage with a variety of media, generate their own list of questions, rotate through learning stations, and make first-hand observations in order to gather information. They will express their understanding by sharing their ideas with their peers, recording data and their ideas by writing in a field notebook. In the culminating activity, students share what they have learned with each other, in order to learn from each other's understanding.

5th Grade, Biodiversity and Food Webs: This series forms a program that guides students to consider energy and matter, in particular, the energy and matter transferred among desert organisms. Students will engage with various plant and animal images, perform a biodiversity game, join a field trip, and collect and analyze data that will help them make their own food chain model.  Throughout the four programs, they will be guided to answer the standard question “How does matter move among plants, animals, decomposers, and the environment?” They will express their understanding by sharing their ideas with their peers and recording data and their ideas through writing in a field notebook.  In the culminating activity, students share what they have learned with one another, in order to learn from each other’s understanding.

5th Grade, Habitat Destruction: This series forms a program that guides students to consider the many things causing habitat destruction here in the Las Vegas Valley. Students will engage with various resources, including data from a local scientific study, a variety of media and specimens, and a field trip experience, to create a blueprint for success in balancing human needs with those of our Desert Tortoise population. Throughout the four programs, they will be guided to answer the standard question “In what ways individual communities use science ideas to protect the Earth's resources and environment?” They will express their understanding by sharing their ideas with their peers and recording data and their ideas through writing in a field notebook.  In the culminating activity, students share as a group what they have learned with one another, in order to learn from each other’s understanding.