Mountains of studies provide evidence that youth benefit from exposure to field trips, outdoor learning, and hands-on exploration of their environment.  Benefits range from mental health, increased test scores, behavior, critical thinking, decreasing cultural test score gaps and so much more.  

In Spring of 2022, Boone County Environmental and Nature Center was able to provide over 1,600 students and over 200 chaperones (from public, private and homeschools) with the opportunity to explore their environment through hands-on learning and experiments. Students who participate in the field trip explore four different habitats and the wildlife within those ecosystems.  Beyond learning interdependent relationships in ecosystems, structures and functions of animals and plants (Next Generation Science Standards), students take home a new appreciation for nature and the natural environments within their local community.  Many of these students remember the experiences years later and some have returned as chaperones for their own kids sharing how this field trip was one of their most memorable moments.  Chaperones with older children who have already attended the field trip in previous years have said they came home looking for wildlife in their own backyard.

Teachers throughout the season have said “Our team loves coming on this field trip and it is an excellent review right before testing”, “this is my favorite field trip to bring my students on”, “each station is right on par with our state standards” along with many other similar comments.