Discovery Kit Programs offered to teachers.

My name is Kyle Icke and I’m a park ranger at Dos Picos County Park in Ramona. I have been given the opportunity to offer an outdoor education supplement to local schools in the form of the County’s Discovery Kit Program. The Discovery Kit Program is a grant and County funded program and is being offered at no cost to your school. These kits are compilations of ranger led activities and curriculum supplements to assist teachers when covering the subjects of Native Americans, Geology, Plants and Photosynthesis, Trees and Forest Ecology, and Insects with Build-A-Bug.

The Discovery Kit Programs that we offer out of Dos Picos County Park are in class presentations given by a ranger with an invitation given for a follow-up field trip to the park in Ramona.

The Thursday classroom presentations are grade specific and are based on the CA science standards. Presentations include hands on activities and opportunities to touch artifacts as called for by the topic. The Insect topic also has an outdoor component called Build-A-Bug that allows students to create giant insects of their own design.

Ranger visits require that a classroom or multipurpose room is made available with desks or tables for students and artifacts and a blank wall or screen for projections.

Presentations require an hour each with 10 minutes between and a 30 minute lunch break sometime during the day.

A whole grade level can experience the presentation if classes are rotated through each session. Doubling up classes is an option. More than one topic and grade level can be covered with time allowed for change over. The classroom teacher needs to be present in order to help facilitate the needs of the students.

The Friday field trip to the park is optional and works like this: The students are transported by school transportation district bus or carpool to the park, the students divide into 3 large groups which rotate through 2 self guided/teacher led hikes and 1 hike led by the ranger, lunchtime, and then return. Field trips to Dos Picos are welcomed and limited funding and space is available for field trips to Stelzer County Park as an alternate site.

Please take a look at the PDF for an idea of what it all looks like. If you have any questions please send me an email at rangerkyle@me.com Thanks!  kyle