Bridging the Gap between the Natural and the Built Environments with Nature Center Programs.

The Dahlem Environmental Education Center (Jackson, Michigan) has developed 14 environmental education field trip programs for students in preschool through fifth grades. These sequential, grade-specific programs help make the environment relevant to students by addressing human impact in the natural world and ecological principles at work in urban environments. The latter is accomplished primarily through teacher packets of pre- and post-trip activity ideas and information. Although the program addresses the science curriculum at each grade level, the interdisciplinary nature of the program allows for the enhancement of other subject areas. These features encourage teachers to bring groups to the Center year after year and to extend the program to their classroom with the pre- and post-trip activities. A scope and sequence chart illustrating the cognitive, affective, and skills objectives for the 14 units and a table listing the science objectives and sample bridging concepts for the various grade levels are included. Results obtained from pre- and post-tests administered to students in nine classrooms participating in two different programs indicate that the experimental groups' understanding of ecological concepts and environmental facts was statistically greater than that of control groups. (JN)