Experiential Programs At Saguaro National Park And Some Of The Lessons

My purpose for the following portion of this paper is simply to summarize my semester long experiences helping administer experiential programs at Saguaro National Park and some of the "lessons" that I took away. It had been a while since I had thought about what types of field trips I had been on as a child before I started this internship. And, at the time of my field trips, I had no idea what it took to organize them, who was responsible, what made it possible, or any of that. I was mostly just excited about being out of the classroom. I think that not much has changed in the minds of middle school and high school kids since I was in their shoes, nor is it likely to. The programs I helped out with in the park can be broken up loosely

One, the Lost Carnivores program in which we took out a group of seventh and eighth graders and had them place wildlife cameras. This program focuses on five carnivores that have not been seen in the park for over ten years. Our goal: place cameras in locations that will maximize our chances of capturing one of the lost carnivores and, ultimately, capture them on camera. The second program that I helped with was the Saguaro Survey in which a group of seventh graders would be assigned a plot location and record data for five different saguaros using various equipment. Our goal: contribute to an ongoing dataset that tracks life history of saguaros and overall health of study

Together we both recognized the need to do this for the kids. We tried to work blocks of time both on the frontside and backside of the program in which the students did not have anything specific scheduled. The kids arrive at the park and for most of them it is a very novel place, so taking a moment to just look around and orient themselves is very helpful. They have just gotten off the bus and we have ushered them into a wilderness setting. Take some time, look around, and soak in the outdoors. At the end of the program we also liked to take them on an exploratory hike. This serves the dual purpose of expelling some energy, but also just letting them explore and, again, just enjoy the outdoors. One of the main missions of the education center is to give the kids an experience they can recreate, and although they might not be able to recreate this exact experience, they can at least come back to the park and enjoy one of the many trails that the park has to offer with their