Nature’s Classroom Homeschool Program

The Nature’s Classroom Homeschool Program is approaching its one-year anniversary. To celebrate, we have decided to incorporate another component into the program: service. We will be providing you, as a Homeschool community, some unique opportunities to give back to wildlife. Some of these will be specific events, while others will be tied in with the regular educational events.

Our first Service opportunity is now accepting registrations. Here are the details:

The entrance pond at the Phoenix Zoo has many turtles. Most of these are invasive species that can cause problems for our native wildlife and habitats. So, we will be assisting with an annual event in which we remove some of these invasive turtles and give them to an organization to adopt them out. This will insure that these turtles do not overpopulate the pond and attempt to establish territories in neighboring areas.

On April 17, we will be trapping turtles in the front pond at the Phoenix Zoo and we need your help. This opportunity is available to anyone 6 years old and above. Participants will be placed in one of four positions based on age and need. These four positions are:

• Boats – places traps in the water from the boat. Navigates the boat with oars. Must be 18 years old or 16 with a parent in the boat as well.
• Identification – helps at the turtle processing station with identification, weighing, measuring, marking, and placing the turtles in appropriate bins. Ages 6 and older.
• Runner – bring turtles and materials back and forth between the boats and the processing station. May fill in other positions as needed. Ages 6 and older.
• Outreach – approaches the public as they are on the bridge. Talk about what we are doing and why. Ages 6 and older.

When you register, you will be asked to select the positions you would not feel comfortable assisting with and which would be your preferred choices. I cannot guarantee your preferences. We will fill the positions as space permits. We have LOTS of room for outreach so your best chance of participating is to at least be willing to assist with this part.

There are three different times available to participate in this event. You can sign up for one, two, or all three. The times for the trapping programs will be 8-10am, 12-2pm, and 4-6pm. Please be advised that the start times for these are certain. It is possible that the ending times could be extended if lots of turtles were being trapped.

All participants of the turtle trapping, are required to attend an orientation session at the Arizona Game and Fish Headquarters in north Phoenix on Wednesday, April 1, from 9am until 11am.

Although the main purpose of this event is to provide a service for the wildlife, we are still including a special reward for your efforts. All participants will be able to receive free admission to the Phoenix Zoo for that day. In addition, you will have the opportunity to get an up close and personal tour of the Galapagos tortoise exhibit at the zoo. This tour will only be available at set times (most likely around noon and around 2pm). Again, this tour will only be available to those who participate.

To register for this event, click here. Please be advised that registering does not guarantee participation. It will be based on a first-come, first-serve basis as positions are filled.

The Nature’s Classroom Homeschool Program was recently featured in an article in the January/February issue of the Arizona Wildlife Views, the Department’s full-color magazine. Limited copies of this issue are being distributed at some of the Nature’s Classroom events. For more information about subscribing to this magazine, click here. It is cheap (only like $8 for the year). It has great articles. They even allow me to put an education section in the back.

Well, I received an email earlier today that seems to indicate that the turkey release may actually take place on Tuesday or Wednesday. Much of it is weather dependent in the area where the turkeys are being captured. I cannot provide any more information right now. I am waiting to get a few more details. I expect to hear some more by the middle of tomorrow. Hopefully, I will be able to post some more information at that time.

In the meantime, I have updated the calendar with some a few of the upcoming programs. Most of these are still in the planning phases so the dates are tentative. I basically provided a range of dates that the events would take place. That way, you could get an idea if the event would even work with your schedule. This is a sneak peek and only those who check the blog will know about this right now.

If you want to check out what is going to be happening, click on the Events tab at the top of this page and check out the calendar. There is new stuff posted in January, February, and March.

FYI…these are not all of the events I am working on. There are at least two more, but I am not confident on the dates yet so I didn’t want to post them. It looks, however, that it is going to be an exciting few months.

Just a reminder that I still have some spots available for the Pronghorn capture on February 11. I understand that the age restriction of 18 or older significantly reduces the number of people that can participate. However, if you know any kids in college or maybe even some seniors in high school, it may be an option for them. For more information, check out the post from a couple of days ago about the pronghorn capture or select the tag to the right labeled “pronghorn”.

Stay tuned for more information.

Did you get wet looking at salamanders at Schultz Tank? Did you bushwhack your way up the hill to look at baby bald eagles? Did you devour crayfish tails or analyze scat? If you have participated in any of our workshops, we want your help.

We would love it if you could write up a short summary and review of any of the events you may have participated in. Select reviews will be posted on this blog site for others to enjoy.

This would make a great writing activity for any of your children!

Submit any summaries, along with pictures if you have them, to eproctor@azgfd.gov.

We look forward to reading your stories!!

First let me tell you that we have a few more spots available for the night herping event scheduled for next Tuesday. If you are interested, please click on the “Events” tab and register. The times have been changed. We won’t meet until around 6pm now. Probably won’t go as late as 11pm either.

Second, we will be adding another event to the calendar TOMORROW. It will be a fun and exciting one that will allow you to escape the heat for a little while. Here is a hint: it will involve searching for the night critters found in Flagstaff!

Finally, I added a new feature to this blog. On the right side you can see some videos that I have collected off of YouTube. Right now, they are two of the videos that were shown at the Eagle Education Evening. As time goes on, I will add additional relevant videos.

We are pleased to announce that the planning for the next series of Nature’s Classroom events is nearly completed, and some of the events are quickly approaching! Since it is the summer and a little hot out, we are mixing things up a little bit. Some of the events will be held at night and others will be held outside the Phoenix metro area. To start, we are opening up our Night Herping workshop. Many of you have heard rumors about this one. It is finally coming to reality.

On the evening of July 22nd (yes, I told you they were coming up quick), we will be loading you into vans and we will be driving to the far outskirts of the valley. Once there, we will cruise the roads looking for reptiles (and other critters) that may cross our paths. You will have the opportunity to learn about the animals we find from our biologists and get some up close views. We will try to find as much wildlife as we can but, as with all of our workshops, we cannot make any guarantees. Whether we find a lot or a little, we do know that it will be a great experience and you will learn a lot. It will be a late night, but a lot of fun! This workshop is restricted to individuals who do not require a car seat or booster seat.

We are also experimenting with a new automated registration system. You will be able to apply online by visiting the registration page under the “Events” along the top. Complete the form and your information will be added. In addition, this workshop will be FREE. However, we are requiring a refundable deposit of $20 per family. When you show up for the event, your deposit will be returned. If you don’t show up, you will lose the deposit. For more information about mailing the deposit, see the registration page for the event.

Please understand that when you submit your electronic registration form, it will put you in the queue. However, your registration is not considered complete until we receive the deposit. In addition, completion of the registration process does not guarantee a spot in the workshop. We will notify everyone at least a week before the event. Those that don’t get into the workshop, will be put on a waiting list for cancellations.

I would also ask that you be patient with this new registration process. It is a trial run. Hopefully, it will go smoothly but there may be some problems. If you encounter difficulties, please feel free to contact Eric Proctor and explain the issue. We will make sure you get registered.

Although this is the only event so far, we expect to be opening another one within the next couple of days. Stay tuned!

Hello, and welcome to the brand new site for the Nature’s Classroom Homeschool Program. We are extremely excited to launch this web site as the main destination for information related to this program.

As new information about the program becomes available, we will add it to this site first. Although you may already be part of our email listserv, I encourage you to subscribe to the RSS feed (at the bottom of this page). This will inform you immediately when changes are made. If you are not on our email listserv, please send me an email at eproctor@azgfd.gov and let me know that you want to be added to the Nature’s Classroom listserv.

It is our intention for this site to not only serve as a way to distribute details about upcoming events. We want it to be educational as well. Therefore, summaries of all prior events will be added as well. These will give you an idea of some of the activities we did but will also provide pictures, video clips, and other facts about the topcis covered. Each summary will be organized by main animal group (i.e., birds, mammals, etc.) and will be put into that appropriate category to the right. If an event covered more than one type of animal or covered basic ecology principles, it will be filed into the category labeled “General Wildlife“. In addition, information pertinent to the management of this site will be posted in “Site Information“.

You will also find the tabs at the right to be extremely useful. The “About” tab will provide some more detailed information about the Nature’s Classroom program, the Arizona Game and Fish Department, and Focus Wild Arizona. Under the “Events” tab you will find a calendar which will show all upcoming Nature’s Classroom activities. In addition, this is where you will find the registration form!

As you navigate around the site, I encourage you to become involved. In the future, there will be discussion boards opened for you to comment or provide feedback. You are also able to leave comments after any of these posts. This is your Nature’s Classroom community!

Thanks, Eric Proctor.