Award Winning After School Eco Explorers Club
*Voted 1st Place for Best Afterschool Program 2016-2019 by the Severna Park Voice
Take a walk on the wild side with the Eco Explorers club--an adventurous alternative to the traditional afterschool program! Students will have the opportunity to interact with different animals, assist with animal care, develop their own projects, connect with nature, play games, occasionally go on field trips, and much more! Each day of after school will include homework help and snack time before students begin their afternoon activities. Every Eco Explorer will be then be assigned an animal care/chore that they work on each day they are at Eco Adventures. Students also learn life skills that can ultimately assist them in their future goals. We even had our first after school alumni going to University of Maryland in the Fall! He became a Jr. Assistant, then a volunteer, and is now a staff member!
There will also be a weekly theme and activities that tie to each theme.
Mon-Tues: On top of animal fun, activities include hands-on STEaM activities, art, cool science experiments, games, and more!
Wed-Thurs -will offer a range of activities for all students, but it is a great day for aspiring Junior Assistants!We will spend time working on presentation skills, learning to present animals, "how to" chores needed for summer camps, work on ongoing projects- learning about animal care and animal careers. Perfect days for students who want to focus on animal care and husbandry. Feed animals, including feeding scorpions, gators, lizards, tortoises, and playing with our new baby kinkajou! Help clean enclosures, make enrichment toys, take weights and measurements, walk, bathe and feed our 50 lb Sulcata tortoise, Max, & much more!
Thurs- Let's face it- we get daily calls for people trying to give up their pets- Let's try to solve this problem- and find a solution! Help give "Responsible Pet keeping Classes" for the public- Now that you know the animals, let's educate others about how to take care of animals, research and know your animals- BEFORE you get them. Help develop the classes for various popular pets and give presentations to the public t help create awareness for a more responsible commitment before kids get pets. Help develop an "adoption" page on our website to help connect donors with responsible future pet owners.
Fridays- a day of mixed up fun! Eco Explorers will get hands on with animals, participate in crafts or games, bounce on the moonbounce, do the fossil dig, go on field trips, and most importantly - have fun!
* Activities subject to change. If registering for van pick up, please call us first to make sure our vans pick up at your school.
Call or Register Online
Nature Nuts After School Program
The Nature Nuts program brings the excitement and fun of the new Eco Adventures right to your school! Using a hands-on approach to learning, our goal is to empower students to take action on issues concerning conservation and the environment. Students will encounter a variety of live animals such as tarantulas, toads, lizards, giant roaches, snakes, crocodiles, frogs, small mammals, turtles, and much more! *This program counts towards the requirements for GREEN SCHOOL CERTIFICATION* Please write the dates on your calendar as there will not be weekly reminders. Remember to send in a note to your child's teacher and pack a peanut free snack/drink. Please email us if your child is going to be absent or if they are in SAAC. Special Needs – We welcome special needs students to learn and thrive in our hands on learning style at Eco Adventures. In order to maintain the quality of our programs and for your children's and animals' safety, we require that special needs students have adult supervision to assist. Failure to do so, may result in cancellation of registration as we are not special needs experts. Classes can be 4 weeks-6 weeks,once a week or once a month. One hour long up to 30 participants. Students sign up through our online registration system. School sends out a flyer. First come first serve on dates- so hurry and let us know!
$16/class
Themes
Session 1- Creature Careers!
How to Train a Dragon (All About Animal Training):
If you have every wondered just how do you train a dolphin to jump through a hoop, a dog to sit, stay, lay down, a crocodile to get into a crate, or a dragon (ok, a bearded dragon) to come when called, then this is the class for you! Using a real live dragon (bearded), you will learn and see first hand how trainers use clickers, classical and operant conditioning, positive rewards, shaping and molding behaviors to get desired results. You will discover why animals behave they way they do and why it is important to train them. Participants will get a chance to train one another (*using a target pole that they make in class and get to keep). This class is so much fun you will jump on command and beg for more!
Do you love lizards? Leap for joy about frogs? Are you sentimental for snakes or sappy for salamanders? If so, you might just be a budding herpetologist! That’s just a big word basically saying that you like to study and learn about amphibians and reptiles. That is totally cool because we do too. During this class you will delve into the world of reptiles and amphibians with this hands-on herpetology adventure! Students will learn all about these scaly creatures, from a python's secret sense, to crocodilian eye shine, and even lizards that have been compared to... dogs? What?! But it's true--there is a lot more to these animals than meets the eye. You will learn about real-life herpetologists and see if YOU have what it takes to catch a gator, wrangle a 13-foot snake, or even test your own bite force against a croc!!
Our Bays and oceans are being polluted and we need your help! So many endangered animals are hurting from plastics in the oceans, pollutants, and floating debris. Sea Turtles, marine mammals, fish- they are all affected! Marine conservationists help make a plan of action towards saving our oceans and conduct research to learn how we can save these species- Learn how you can help and meet some local scaly turtles creatures from our bay!
Ready, Set ,VET! (All About Animal Care/Husbandry and Vet Tech):
Have you ever wondered what it is like to take care of animals and to provide them with a level of care that meets all of their needs? What are the specific needs of animals such as alligators, snakes, tarantulas, hedgehogs and more? What does a vet tech for animals including exotic animals do exactly? In this class you will learn about all of this and the specific needs of some of our very own animals at Eco Adventures. Did you know that we need to trim very small nails on hedgehogs, scrub some slimy scales, weigh our animals to ensure proper weight/health, feed nutritious diets, bath for proper hygiene and to help with shedding reptiles ? In this class we will meet some of our animals and learn about their specific needs and get hands on experience bathing one of our animals (it’s a secret , so you’ll have to come to find out who!) We hope you are READY, and all SET, to VET in this exciting class!
Session 2 Creatures Careers 2
Deep Blue Sea:
Marine Bio 101!!! The class that fills up faster than a shark sheds teeth!! This wet and wild class allows students to dive deep into the ocean to explore the world of Marine Biology! This class will be spent learning about the different worlds of marine biology, such as, creatures of the deep, marine mammals, boneless beasts (invertebrates), sharks, sharks, and more sharks. Students will also learn what’s all the fuss about our very own Chesapeake Bay. Students will get hands- on and up close with our many marine artifacts (identifying shark teeth, touching sea stars, coral, seahorses, horseshoe crabs and even a porcupine fish-sorry no touching this prickly fish- , mermaids purse, sea turtle carapaces, and much more. Come make a big SPLASH in the world of the deep blue sea all while having fun learning about marine biology.
The ZOO and YOU (So you Want to be a Zoo Keeper?):
Ohhhh the number of times, we’ve heard someone say they want to be a zoo keeper someday is quite often. But do you know what it takes to be a zoo keeper? Sure working with some pretty amazing animals is really awesome but those BIG , beautiful elephants, well… they have really BIG poo and guess who gets to clean it up? That’s right YOU. That is if you are a zookeeper. Come to this class and learn all about what goes on behind scenes at the zoo. From taking care animals in sickness and in health, cleaning out cages, feeding some interesting and many times smelly diets, training, providing enrichments activities, educating the public and much more. By the end of this class, you can decide if being a zoo keeper is the right kind of job for you.
Animal Rescue 911!
Maybe at some point you've found an abandoned baby bird...a opossum in your attic...or yikes a snake in the garage! What do you do...you call Rescue 911!!! When an animal is in distress it's up to experts to come to the rescue. This class is all about Animal Rescue. Sometimes it's a box turtle but at times it can be a gigantic croc, or a half ton manatee. Each and every rescue requires different expertise. Participants in will learn all about why animals need rescuing- or even not! Meet and interact with some of Eco Adventures very own rescued animals, and learn about their amazing back stories. These amazing animal stories are living, breathing examples of many of the conservation issues in todays' world, from poaching to pollution, entanglement to irresponsible pet ownership, and much more! Students will get to participate in a “Mock Rescue” of a dolphin. It’s all hands-on as students learn how to make a difference with the power of knowledge...and Animal Rescue 911!
Did you know the most numerous animals belong to a group called Arthropods? Those creepy crawly insects and arachnids? What’s the difference? They all have weird numbers of legs anyway, right? But these crawling, flying, climbing, digging, hissing, metamorphosing, buzzing friends are found just about everywhere you go on the planet. And we need more Entomologists! Are you the type to go out and look for bugs? Catch fireflies? Better know how to tell them apart and discover how amazing they are!
Important Information
- If you would like to sign up after the program has already begun, you will need to call our office to sign up at a pro-rated cost.
- Please let us know when a child is absent and write dates on calendars as there are no reminders and no credits or refunds for missed classes.
- Let us know if your child has SAAC/after school care or any other person pick up other than parent. Must sign out student and have photo ID.
- Please pack a light snack
- Let us know of any special needs.
- For the safety of your children and our animals, repeated behavioral or not listening problems that hinder the quality of the program for others can result in child's registration cancellation without a refund. We will notify parents when there is a problem.
- Please note themes will vary from school to school.