Environmental Education at Deer Flat
Useful
links
Refuge
Field Trips
Deer Flat National Wildlife Refuge invites school groups, scout groups,
families, and community groups to take a field trip to the refuge. Lake
Lowell offers a great outdoor classroom for hands-on explorations of sagebrush
upland, riparian, and lake habitats.
Then contact
us at 467-9278 to schedule your field trip. Please make arrangements as early as possible to insure that
your visit will fit in the schedule.
Planning Activities
Schedule a program
Choose
from one of our prepared programs or ask
if we can develop a program tailored to fit your needs.
Plan your own activities
Refuge staff can meet with teachers and group leaders to
help them plan activities during an independent visit. Leaders can also
use the Environmental Education Library, available
in the refuge Visitor Center.
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Preparing
Yourself for the Trip
Familiarize
yourself with the site. If at all possible, familiarize yourself
with refuge resources before the field trip by visiting the refuge and
by surfing this website to find out about refuge wildlife, management, and habitats,
as well as refuge history. It's best to plan
a familiarizing trip during the same season as your field trip. - Involve the students. Students are more likely to enjoy and learn from a trip that they help
design. Ask your students to write answers to the following questions
and use their answers in your planning.
What do you expect to see at the wildlife refuge?
What do you expect
to do at the wildlife refuge?
What would you like
to study at the wildlife refuge?
- Schedule your visit with
refuge staff.
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Scheduling
Your Visit
Contact us at 467-9278 to
schedule your visit. Please make arrangements as early as possible to insure that your visit will fit in the schedule.
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Preparing
Your Students for the Trip
There are several things you can do before the big day to make
your Field Trip an exciting and educational outing rather than just a
day out of the classroom.
Plan
pre-visit activities. Design pre- and post-field trip activities
to prepare students for their visit and cement their learning when they're
back in the classroom. - Familiarize students
with refuge rules. Your group will be visiting animals' homes
and should behave accordingly. Before your visit, you might ask students
to describe what behavior they think will be appropriate during the
visit to minimize their impact on wildlife and habitats. If they come
up with the rules themselves, they may be more likely to follow them!
Fill in points that they miss from the list below.
- Break into groups. If
you will be splitting into groups, divide into groups that are as small
as possible before arriving. Identifying the groups with color-
or shape-coded name tags simplifies things.
- Provide students
with list of what to bring.
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Refuge
Rules
- Take away only memories! All plants, animals, rocks, or other specimens are protected on
National Wildlife Refuges. Students can take away drawings, photographs,
rubbings, and memories.
- Replace animals' homes! If you move any rocks, sticks, or logs, please put them back where you
found them, they could be part of someone's home.
- Walk and talk quietly to maximize your chances of seeing wildlife--and to minimize wildlife
disturbance.
- Stick to the roads. All vehicles must stay on roads at all times. Please do not ask to enter
areas that are closed to the public.
- Lunch in the wilds.
The Visitor Center is notavailable as a lunch room. Eat outside,
in the county park on the east end of the Upper Dam, or on the bus.
Remember to bring enough bags or boxes to carry out all trash!
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What
to Bring
The following items may help you have a successful--and pleasant--visit.
- Lunch, water bottles, and
plenty of fluids
- Trash bags--all visitors
are expected to carry out their own trash. You may also want to bring
bags to pick up trash you find on the refuge.
- Hat, sunglasses, and sunscreen
- Dress for the weather
- Hiking boots or shoes with
ankle support. No open-toed shoes!
- Magnifying lenses
- Binoculars or spotting scopes
- Camera
- Field guides to birds, plants,
insects, etc.
- Insect repellent
- Pencils and paper
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