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Elementary School Programs
3rd - 5th grades

Our 30-acre “classroom” includes meadows, wetlands, and woodlands. For the past eight years we have offered hands-on learning experiences for students throughout the Rockbridge area.

On site programs consist of half-day visits which guide students through a sequence of progressively complex experiences in the natural world. During each visit, students rotate through three small-group activities. Activities are coordinated with Virginia Standards of Learning for science and languge arts; they are multi-modal and integrate cognitive and affective learning. We also conduct programs at schools and local rivers.

Read an newspaper account of the 3rd grade program.
For more information, contact: Elise Sheffield (463-2697), education@boxerwood.org

Third Graders.... learn about habitats by building tiny shelters	find decomposers in the woods and in the compost pile	complete a data chart after observing frogs and turtles in our wetlands.
Fourth Graders... measure temperature and nitrate levels at our springs and wetlands	tour our Nature-Emulating Waste Treatment System	participate in a “Save the Bay” role play with a contour map of the county watershed.
Fourth & Fifth Graders...	... determine the health of local streams by using chemical and biological tests.  To the left, students are catching different types of "creek critters" to determine invertebrate diversity and creek health.	Look at the Creek results on our "pbwiki."