Professional development

Ellen Reynolds, the Executive Director of Beagle Ridge Environmental Education Center, has been named Virginia's Outstanding Educator for 2006 by Project Learning Tree.

Project Learning Tree® (PLT) is an award winning, multi-disciplinary environmental education program for educators and students in PreK-grade 12. PLT, a program of the American Forest Foundation, is one of the most widely used environmental education programs in the United States and abroad.  PLT continues to set the standard for environmental education excellence.

PLT helps students learn how to think, not what to think, about the environment.

PLT activities are corellated to the Virginia Standards of Learning and meets state and national education standards.  The curriculum materials provide the tools educators need to bring the environment into the classroom and their students into the environment. Topics range from forests, wildlife, and water, to community planning, waste management and energy.

Project Learning Tree training for educators is available at Beagle Ridge Environmental Education Center.

Schedule a training for your school now!

Our naturalists are trained in Project Learning Tree, Project WILD, Project WET, WILD Aquatic, Project Underground, Flying WILD, Energy and Society, Science and Civics, Ag in the Classroom as well as all the secondary modules for Project Learning Tree. Schedule a training for your teachers at your school and receive credits.

Programming and Field Trips

School Field Trips to Beagle Ridge are available Mar.5- Jun. 6 2008
Home school groups are by appointment.

Fees for school field trips at the center:

$3.00 per student for a single program
$5.00 per student for a complete morning, includes 2 programs and free time for picnic lunch etc. $8.00 per student for the complete school day includes 3 programs

All scheduled programs include a pre-visit activity and post-visit acivity guide.

Fees for school visits:

Beginning at $25.00 per program, not including copies and program supplies, we do our best to make them affordable for all students in Wythe County. There are often grants to cover the expenses of the programs through local PTOs and other non- profits. All of our programs are correlated to Virginia Standards of Learning. Many of these programs can also augment a field trip to the farm.

In-School Outreach Programs available: Sept. 5 2007-  June 6 2008


What is your watershed address?
This program is compiled of a 10-minute watershed video.
Science SOLs K.1, K.5, K.6, K.10, 1.1, 1.8, 2.7, 2.8, 3.6, 3.9, 3.10, 4.8, 5.6, 5.7, 6.11

The Enviro-Scape
This 3-D interactive activity, can demonstrate watersheds, point and non point source pollution, and the possbility of a pollution solution.
Science SOLs K.1, K.5, K.6, K.10, 1.1, 1.8, 2.7, 2.8, 3.6, 3.9, 3.10, 4.8, 5.6, 5.7, 6.11

What you don’t see CAN hurt you!
An interactive groundwater demonstration, portraying pollution affects on wells, soil, and the aquifer of a karst area.
Science SOLs K.1, K.5, K.6, K.10, 1.1, 1.8, 2.7, 2.8, 3.6, 3.7, 3.9, 3.10, 4.8, 5.6, 5.7, 6.11

How much water do you use?
An eye-opening demonstration of our water consumption.
Science SOLs K.1, K.5, K.6, K.10, 1.1, 1.8, 2.7, 2.8, 3.6, 3.9, 3.10, 4.8, 5.6, 5.7, 6.11

It is not just a “drop in the bucket”!
Become a water droplet and travel through the water cycle in “The Incredible Journey” and answer the question “How much water do you use?”
Science SOLs K.1, K.5, K.6, K.10, 1.1, 1.8, 2.7, 2.8, 3.6, 3.9, 3.10, 4.8, 5.6, 5.7, 6.11

Who Made those Tracks?
Beagle Ridge has animal track molds of the following: adult black bear, juvenile black bear, wolf, eagle, white tail deer, beaver, muskrat, coyote, squirrel, opossum, raccoon, and skunk. The schools must provide the Plaster of Paris for the children to make their own replicas.
Science SOLs K.1, K.6, 1.1, 1.5, 1.7, 1.8, 2.4, 2.5, 2.7, 2.8, 3.4, 3.5, 3.6, 3.8, 3.10, 4.5, 4.8, 5.6, 6.8, 6.9

Soil Conservation
A variety of exercises dealing with soil’s dependence on plants and animals, its composition, and the effects of erosion.Make a soil "milk shake".
Science SOLs 1.8, 2.7, 3.7, 3.10, 4.8, 5.7

Animal Adaptations
Excellent for an overall view of different animal adaptations or it can be divided into a specific animal group: Mammals,Reptiles, Insects, Birds, etc.
Science SOLs K.1, K.6, 1.1, 1.5, 1.7, 1.8, 2.4, 2.5, 2.7, 2.8, 3.4, 3.5, 3.6, 3.8, 3.10, 4.5, 4.8, 5.6, 6.8, 6.9

Habitat Games – good for groups of 10 or more
“Oh, Deer!”, “Web of Life”, “Deadly Links”, or “Birds and Worms”
Science SOLs K.1, K.6, 1.1, 1.4, 1.5, 1.8, 2.1, 2.4, 2.5, 2.7, 3.4, 3.5, 3.6, 3.8, 3.10, 4.5, 4.8, 6.8, 6.9, LS4, LS7, LS9

Leaf Printing
Beagle Ridge has flexible polymer replicas of the following leaves: Red Oak, Tulip Poplar, Beech, Gingko, and White Oak. Suitable for making art displays, journals, or tree identification.
Science SOLs K.1, K.4, K.6, 1.1,1.4, 1.7 1.8,2.4, 2.5, 2.7, 2.8, 3.4,3.5, 3.6, 3.7, 3.8, 3.10, 4.4, 4.5, 4.8, 5.5, 6.8, 6.9

Vermicomposting
This is an ongoing program and will continue all year. It includes a preliminary program on segemnted worms, lifecycles and their part of the food web. The next step is setting up a worm bin for the classroom, and starting a mini food recycling program. The final step is creating the castings and setting up a use for the resulting castings.

The SOLs for this are available upon request depending on the subject taught.This program is a cross curriculum program which can include Math-counting, measuring and graphing the results, English- journaling and recording data, Science-countless experiments with not only the worms but the castings they produce,Social issues- the waste stream and reduce, reuse and recycle.
                                                                                                                                                                             

Ask for our Vermicomposting guide.

Our seasonal schedule includes a leaf walk and a leaf book collection geared to your school grounds, seed starting for a butterfly gardening, creating a wildlife habitat-on school grounds, nature journaling-wildlife mapping and much more.

We are expanding our program schedule for 2008. If you would like to be added to our mailing list, please send an email to beagleridge@gmail.com