2nd Grade Life Science In-Class Programs
In-Class Programs for 2nd Grade Life Science
Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics / Biological Evolution: Unity and Diversity
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| Provider Name | Resource Link | Provider Location | Abstract |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bay Area Discovery Museum | Try It Truck | Sausalito | The Try It Truck is an engineering lab-on-wheels that travels directly to schools, libraries, and community organizations throughout the Bay Area to provide hands-on early engineering experiences to young learners. Try It Truck programming introduces children in grades kindergarten through fifth grade to the engineering design process and high- and low-tech tools while encouraging them to take risks and try new ideas. We offer two types of Try It Truck programs, which vary based on number of workshops and group size. |
| Big Break Regional Shoreline | Naturalist in Class | Oakley | Can’t make it to Big Break? They'll come to you and bring Delta animals, plants, science, and history to life in your classroom. |
| CuriOdyssey | Fur, Feathers, Scales, or Exoskeletons - In-Class | San Mateo | Explore the basic coverings of mammals, birds, reptiles, and arthropods. Students can touch and talk about similarities, differences, and functions of each type of covering, plus see some wonderful live examples of animals that are covered in fur, feathers, scales, or exoskeletons. Live animals vary and may include: Rabbit, rat, bird, snake, blue-tongued skink, tarantula, cockroach, and millipede. 50 minutes. Also available as a field trip. |
| CuriOdyssey | Wildlife Program: What's on the Menu? | San Mateo | Did you know that animals eat different things? Animals are able to eat certain foods based on where they live and what they look like (their body). Students will learn about tooth structure, habitats and adaptations of herbivores, omnivores, carnivores, decomposers and experience a live animal feeding. |
| CuriOdyssey | Wildlife Program: Here, There, Habitats are Everywhere | San Mateo | Could you live in the desert, tundra or both? Did you know that most animals can live in one or two types of habitats? In this program, we will learn how animals are equipped for different environments such as the heat of the desert, shadows of the forest, underground and in your backyard. Students will make a connection between the type of habitat and the adaptations needed to live there. |
| CuriOdyssey | Wildlife Program: Catch Me if You Can | San Mateo | Have you ever played tag? How did you stay away from the person who was “it”? Did you hide or run very fast? In nature, animals have to be on the look out for predators – survival is the goal! Learn how animals keep themselves alive and how they defend themselves. |
| CuriOdyssey | Wildlife Program: Thrive and Survive | San Mateo | Did you know that people and animals need the same resources in order to live? What if one or more of those resources were gone? How could this affect animals? People? Students will learn how changes to the environment can affect animals. They will also discover how animals react to pesticides and what can happen if non-native animals take over resources. In this program, we will explore how people can help conserve resources such as food, water and space to help animals survive. What small changes can we make in our daily lives to help conserve and protect the natural resources we all share? |
| CuriOdyssey | Wildlife Program: Animal Connections | San Mateo | Meet animal ambassadors from CuriOdyssey and make special connections through a variety of learning methods. This program is designed to fit and support a variety of cognitive and developmental needs. Please contact the Programs Animal Keeper for more information on how we can construct this program to fit the needs of your group. |
| CuriOdyssey | Audible Adventure - In-Class | San Mateo | What is sound? How does the shape of ears help or hinder hearing? How can animals use sound clues to navigate their world? These questions form the foundation of our inquiry into the world of sound. Students make “laughing cups,” experiment with sound and explore using their sense of hearing. Let’s hear it for this audible adventure! Also available as a field trip program. |
| CuriOdyssey | Wildlife Program: Animal Super Powers | San Mateo | What if you could breathe under water, run faster, blend into your surroundings or fly? How could these skills help you? There are many animals that have their very own “super power”…..they have adaptations. Students will learn what adaptations are and how animals can use them to survive. |
| East Bay Regional Park District | Mobile Visitor Center | Oakland | Imagine a “closet on wheels,” filled with materials for teaching any range of nature-related topics. And it even comes with a professional nature educator! Groups of up to 30 students at a time engage in topics including: ~ Watersheds ~ Local Mammals ~ Reptiles and Amphibians |
| Greater Farallones Association | Crab Cab | San Francisco | What is a crab? How do crabs survive? Where do crabs live? The Crab Cab is a 45-minute At Your School program for K-3rd graders on crab diversity and natural history. The program includes hands-on activities and crab artifacts. |
| Habitot Children's Museum | Mobile Museum | Berkeley | Mobile Museum experiences are aimed towards TK – 3rd grade children as one-time or semester-based programs. Habitot will bring teaching artists and makers into schools to lead fun, hands-on art, science and design-oriented activities for 45-90 minute sessions. Teachers and after school programs can select from a number of art and maker-based activities including: Make and Launch a Rocket Gelli Block Printmaking Build and Float a Boat Create a Terrarium Make a Cape Spin Art Bubble Explorations and many more! |
| Happy Hollow Park & Zoo | Diving into Biodiversity | San Jose | In the depths of each ecosystem, a variety of life can be discovered. The variety of life in different ecosystems There is a pattern of biodiversity on the planet Vocabulary: Diversity/Ecosystem/Biodiversity/Equator |
| Junior Center of Art and Science | Animal Adventures | Oakland | Reptiles and/or invertebrates come to your classroom for a lesson centered on habitats, adaptations, fun facts and more. Meet snakes, geckos, tortoises, millipedes, cockroaches, hermit crabs and spiders! |
| Kids for the Bay | Environmental Action Projects | Berkeley | Environmental Action Projects provide the exciting, empowering opportunity for teachers and students to take action to help solve environmental problems in their communities. Each project includes engaging hands-on activities that focus on a particular environmental problem and the solutions to that problem. Each Environmental Action Project is three hours of instruction and action. Environmental Action Project options: ? Reducing Plastic Marine Debris – School Campus Clean-Up ? Reducing Plastic Marine Debris – No Waste Lunches ? Our Watershed and Water Conservation ? Environmentally Safe Pesticides ? Safe Bay Food Consumption ? Ocean Acidification and Energy Conservation ? Creek Restoration ? Creek Water Quality Testing ? Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Rot |
| Kids for the Bay | Bay Estuary Classroom Workshops | Berkeley | Bay Estuary Classroom Workshops bring the San Francisco Bay Estuary to life in your classroom! Students will investigate real animals and plants that live in the Bay, create a three-dimensional bay model, and study bay geography. Students will also participate in hands-on science experiments and activities to learn about estuaries, food chains, and bay organisms. Classroom Workshops are three hours of hands-on instruction in your classroom or school science laboratory |
| Kids for the Bay | School Wide Urban Wilderness Classroom Program | Berkeley | KftB works with every teacher and every class of students at a school to design, create, study and maintain the Urban Wilderness Classroom, an outdoor wilderness habitat located on the school campus. Working with KftB, each grade level is responsible for the design of a different habitat of the wilderness. Once the wilderness is developed, KIDS for the BAY leads lessons for each class to study the various habitats of the wilderness and to cultivate and maintain them. School-Wide Programs are a partnership between KIDS for the BAY and the entire elementary school, including the principal, teachers, students, and students’ families. These long-term, in-depth programs engage each grade level in environmental science and action while providing professional development in science education for each classroom teacher. KftB also provides curriculum, training, and an equipment resource center for the school to continue the program in future years. The lessons and activities for each grade level are directly tied to many California State Content Standards in science, language arts, social studies, and math. After a three year period of support for the school, the principal, teachers, students, parents and community partners continue the program independently as a completely integrated part of their school curriculum and culture. |
| Kids for the Bay | School Wide Creek Education Program | Berkeley | KftB works with the school community to adopt, clean up, and restore a local creek habitat. The creek becomes an outdoor classroom for hands-on learning and environmental stewardship. Students learn about their connection to their local creek and discover reasons to care for their creek watershed. School-Wide Programs are a partnership between KIDS for the BAY and the entire elementary school, including the principal, teachers, students, and students’ families. These long-term, in-depth programs engage each grade level in environmental science and action while providing professional development in science education for each classroom teacher. KftB also provides curriculum, training, and an equipment resource center for the school to continue the program in future years. The lessons and activities for each grade level are directly tied to many California State Content Standards in science, language arts, social studies, and math. After a three year period of support for the school, the principal, teachers, students, parents and community partners continue the program independently as a completely integrated part of their school curriculum and culture. |
| Kids for the Bay | Watershed Rangers Program | Berkeley | In the Watershed Rangers Program, students will learn about the importance of the San Francisco Bay watershed and how we can all play a part in keeping it clean and healthy. In this exciting, hands-on program, students will take direct action to prevent storm drain pollution and divert our solid waste stream through reducing, reusing, and recycling. |
| Lindsay Wildlife Experience | Have to Have a Habitat | Walnut Creek | How do adaptations help animals survive in certain habitats? This program investigates an animal’s physical adaptations to determine if they could survive in California’s diverse ecosystems. |
| Lindsay Wildlife Experience | Learning from Wildlife | Walnut Creek | Wildlife can teach us a lot about how to survive in the natural world. Let’s explore animal adaptations and how we can learn from them to meet our own human needs. |
| Mad Science - Bay Area | All About Animals | Concord | Feathers, fins, fur and more! Explore the animal kingdom and learn about the habitats, anatomy and life cycles of your favorite creatures. Make your own animal track, and explore the amazing, and sometimes strange, sounds that animals make. |
| Madeleine Dunphy | Here Is the African Savanna Assembly | Oakland | Environmental children's book author, Madeleine Dunphy, will guide your classes through the African Savanna. In the presentation, students will view a slide show where they imagine they are traveling in East Africa seeing animals such as the giraffe, baboon, leopard and zebra. Students will then play a game that teaches them about the ecological relationships between plants, animals and environments. Next the students will examine a warrior shield, beaded collar, lunch basket and other artifacts from East Africa. Finally, students will ask Madeleine questions about her travels, habits of African animals, writing Here Is the African Savanna, and other topics. Teachers are recommended to read the book as background and have their students prepare questions before the class visit. Also available as an assembly. |
| Madeleine Dunphy | Here Is the Tropical Rainforest Assembly | Oakland | Environmental children's book author, Madeleine Dunphy, will guide your classes through the rainforest. In the presentation, students will view a slide show where they imagine they are walking in a tropical rainforest seeing animals such as the harpy eagle, three-toed sloth, woolly monkey and jaguar. Students will then play a game that teaches them about the ecological relationships between plants, animals, and environments. Next the students will examine a blow gun, hammock, paddle and other artifacts from the rainforest. Finally, students will ask Madeleine questions about her travels, habits of rainforest animals, writing Here Is the Tropical Rain Forest, and other topics. Teachers are recommended to read the book as background and have their students prepare questions before the class visit. Also available as an assembly. |
| Marine Science Institute | Inland Voyages-Bay and Ocean Invertebrates | Redwood City | How do so many creatures survive in rocky tidepools along the coast? What animals actually thrive in the muddy bottom of the Bay? How do the Bay invertebrates differ from their saltier cousins? The answers will be found in a close-up examination of crabs, anemones, clams, sea stars, urchins, and many others. Feeding and reproductive strategies and more advanced concepts can also be included. Program topics can be tailored specifically for your group. An Educator's Guide is provided. |
| Marine Science Institute | Inland Voyages-Marine Habitats | Redwood City | Each hands-on program examines different habitats by showcasing the unique adaptations of the marine animals that live in each. Students work with live marine animals and plants, marine artifacts, and identification keys. These habitats are those commonly found in the San Francisco Bay surrounding areas.The following is a description of the different Marine Habitat Inland Voyages that are currently offered: Rocky Intertidal Habitat - how tidepool animals move, eat and protect themselves. Sandy Beach - how Sandy Beach animals are adapted to survive above and below the sand. Marshes & Mudflats - fish and invertebrates commonly found in the local marshes and mudflats. Kelp Forests - the kelp forest food web and human uses of kelp. Open Ocean - the larger, pelagic animals that live away from the coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean. |
| Oakland Zoo | School ZooMobile - “Home is Where the Habitat Is” - Animal Adaptations & Habitat | Oakland | Why do hedgehogs have spines? Why are snakes missing their legs? Why do some lizards lose their tails? Join us as we explore the world of animal adaptations and how each habitat affects the animals that live there – and vice versa! |
| Planet Bee | Bee Series & One Day Lessons | San Francisco | Bring live bees to the classroom & give students the experience of a lifetime! When a student has the opportunity to see bees up close, curiosity sparks, fear fades, and gardens become ecological playgrounds. Our hands-on, play-based E-STEM lessons are available as comprehensive series and as individual one-day lessons. Our dynamic classroom program now incorporates a citizen science component, an online teacher’s portal with support lessons, and a donation of native bee house materials for students. All of our lessons are taught by experienced educators and/or certified teachers onsite, and are in line with the Next Generation Science Standards. Sliding scale |
| Point Blue Conservation Science | STRAW (Students and Teachers Restoring A Watershed) | Stinson Beach | STRAW provides classroom and field programs, aligned with science standards, preparing students to restore streams and wetlands. Teachers are provided annual training events and given resources and technical support to integrate watershed science into their classroom year-round. |
| SaveNature.org | Insect Discovery Lab | San Francisco | Each presentation includes hands-on experience with live animals and observation time with live and preserved materials. Children will learn how to identify insects and their arthropod relatives, touch amazing arthropod ambassadors, see how insects defend themselves, and discovery their incredible diversity. Students explore the fantastic lives of beetles, millipedes, grasshoppers, walking sticks, whip scorpions, and more. The Insect Discovery Lab immerses students in the extraordinarily diverse world of insects and other arthropods and teaches about their key role in the web of life. Scientific observation, insect identification, and the natural history of bugs' lives are just some of the areas of focus of this program. Classes will receive pre and post visit materials including fact sheets, activity sheets, resource sheets and conservation action guides. Programs are 45-50 minutes long. |
| SaveNature.org | Squid Science Dissection | San Francisco | Explore what makes a squid so amazing! How they swim, navigate, defend themselves and hunt. Learn about their anatomy and how an animal’s body is designed for success in the ocean. |
| SaveNature.org | Owl Pellet Discovery | San Francisco | Learn how to be a bone detective while examining how a barn owl digests their prey, or don’t digest their prey. Discover what’s for dinner. |
| Suisun Marsh Natural History Association | Suisun Marsh Special Feature In-Class Presentations | Suisun | Choose from many in-class presentation options: • Wildlife Rehabilitation: A presentation covering the rehabilitation efforts of the Suisun Wildlife Center, including an up-close look at some non-releasable wildlife. (30 minute presentation - $ 75 (suitable for pre-school), 45 minutes - $85, 60 minutes - $100, Assembly Presentation - $200) • Reptiles: A look at some native California reptiles combined with a pictorial view of their natural history as well as other North American reptiles. ($100 / 60 minutes. Slide show, Interpreter and Reptile presentation.) • Owls - Silent Hunters of the Night: A audio-visual presentation covering various species of owls and their night calls, including an up close look at some non-releasable local owls. ($100 / 60 minutes. Slide show, Interpreter and non-releasable Owl presentation) |
| The Gardens at Heather Farms | Bug Buddies In-Class | Walnut Creek | Peek into the amazing world of insects, the most successful life form on the planet. Young entomologists will observe and handle live mini-beasts to experience a bug's life, learn about creature features, and test their bug IQ. (Also available as a field-trip) 1 hour |
| The Gardens at Heather Farms | The Power of Pollination | Walnut Creek | Butterflies, bees, and more! Learn about the animals that move pollen from plant to plant to generate seeds and create fruit. Students will discover how pollinators are crucial to a plants' life cycle through a hands-on pollination activity to see how important these tiny animals really are. Find out how pollinators and plants communicate with each other to help our gardens grow and give us the delicious food we enjoy. Students will end class searching for pollinators in our own garden. |
| The Gardens at Heather Farms | Seed Secrets | Walnut Creek | Learn about the parts of seeds and flowering plants, the functions of each part, and the importance of seeds in the life cycle of a plant. Students develop their observation and record keeping skills by conduction a scientific investigation. Special program available upon request. |
| The Monterey Bay Salmon and Trout Project | Salmon and Trout Education Program (STEP) | Davenport | In early February each year the STEP team trains new teachers to present the curriculum to their students. The two-day weekend workshop has one day in the field and in the creek studying the salmon habitat. After taking the training the teachers are qualified to apply to MBSTP for eggs to incubate. The incubation experience has had a very high success rate over the 35-year history. Not only are the kids inspired, but greater than 95% of the eggs hatch and the resulting fry are successfully released into their native habitat. |
| Tilden Nature Area-Tilden Regional Park | Naturalist visit to your classroom! | Berkeley | Can’t make it to the park? We’ll come to you! Program topics include: reptiles, spiders, Native American Lifestyles and more! |
| Wildcare | Nature Van-Ocean Adventures | San Rafael | Nature Van programs bring the field trip to the classroom. Guided by professional science educators, the Nature Van teaches students about animal characteristics, adaptations, and food webs — all without leaving school. Presentations are designed for a single classroom; this is not a multi-class assembly program. Pre-K and Kindergarten programs last 45 minutes. Programs for 1st through 5th grades last sixty minutes, although shorter presentations are available upon request. Young oceanographers meet the diversity of wildlife that inhabits the ocean and learn about the amazing adaptations that ocean animals have to survive in the cold, watery environment. On an imaginary trip they explore intertidal pools, open ocean, kelp forests, sandy beaches and estuarine habitats. |
| Wildcare | Nature Van: Going Green | San Rafael | Let local wildlife teach you simple ways to help preserve our planet. Investigate the issues affecting wildlife and learn simple ways that you can make a difference. It’s easy being green! |
| Wildcare | Nature Van-Mammals | San Rafael | Nature Van programs bring the field trip to the classroom. Guided by professional science educators, the Nature Van teaches students about animal characteristics, adaptations, and food webs — all without leaving school. Presentations are designed for a single classroom; this is not a multi-class assembly program. Pre-K and Kindergarten programs last 45 minutes. Programs for 1st through 5th grades last sixty minutes, although shorter presentations are available upon request. Delve into the world of marsupials, mustelids, felines, canines, and rodents. Discover what makes a mammal a mammal and why humans are included in this amazing group. |
| Wildcare | Nature Van - California Wildlife | San Rafael | In "California Wildlife," uncover the diversity of California’s wildlife and the way our native animals have adapted to their habitat as we examine predator-prey relationships, defense strategies and the natural history of mammal, birds, and reptiles that are our wild neighbors. Nature Van programs bring the field trip to the classroom. Guided by professional science educators, the Nature Van teaches students about animal characteristics, adaptations, and food webs — all without leaving school. Presentations are designed for a single classroom; this is not a multi-class assembly program. Pre-K and Kindergarten programs last 45 minutes. Programs for 1st through 5th grades last sixty minutes, although shorter presentations are available upon request. |