Field Studies
Field studies coupled with classroom activities are an integral part of Meaningful Watershed Educational Experiences. Find a field study program that gets your students' feet wet and hands dirty.
Find a Program Near You
Begin by choosing the criteria for your search. Matching field study programs will be displayed as pin-points on the map below. Click on a pin-point for details about each program. Be sure to scroll through all your results using the "next" button at the bottom of the page.
If you know of a great field study not included in the Bay Backpack let us know by suggesting a field study.
Create Your Own Field Study
Learn how to create your own field study at a local park or on your school grounds.
Theme
- All Themes
Habitats and Critters- History and Culture
- Land Use and Agriculture
- Pollution and Pressures
- Restoration
Level
- All Levels
- Early Learning
- Elementary School
- Middle School
- High School
Length
- All Lengths
- Day Trips
- Multi-Day Trips
Organization
- All Organizations
- Abbott's Mill Nature Center
- Accokeek Foundation
- Adkins Arboretum
- Alice Ferguson Foundation
- Alliance for Aquatic Resource Monitoring
- Amry Corps of Engineers
- Anacostia Watershed Society
- Anita C. Leight Estuary Center
- Annapolis Maritime Museum
- Apple Ridge Farm
- Aquatic Resources Education Center
- Arlington Echo
- Audubon Naturalist Society
- Black Hill Nature Center
- Blackbird State Forest Education Center
- Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge
- Brandywine Valley Association
- Cacapon State Park
- Calvert County Parks
- Calvert Marine Museum
- Carbon County Environmental Education Center
- Carroll County Outdoor School
- Casey Trees
- Chesapeake Bay Environmental Center
- Chesapeake Bay Field Lab
- Chesapeake Bay Foundation
- Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum
- Churchville Nature Center
- Clearwater Nature Center
- Delmarva Discovery Center
- Discovery Creek
- Echo Hill Outdoor School
- Environmental Concern
- Fair Hill Nature Center
- Fairview Outdoor Education Center Facilities
- Frederick County Outdoor School
- Genesee Valley Outdoor Learning Center
- George Washington Carver Outdoor School
- Gifford Pinchot State Park
- Great Valley Nature Center
- Greenwood Furnace State Park
- Harford Glen Environmental Education Center
- Hawk Mountain
- Hawk Mountain Sanctuary
- Hickory Environmental Education Center
- Hoffler Creek Wildlife Foundation
- Horn Point Laboratory
- Howard B. Owens Science Center
- Howard County Conservancy
- Indian Springs WIldlife Management Area
- Irvine Nature Center
- Jamestown 4-H Educational Center
- Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum
- Jug Bay Wetlands Sanctuary
- King's Gap Environmental Education and Training Center
- Lancaster County Environmental Center
- Lathrop E. Smith Environmental Education Center
- Little Buffalo State Park
- Little Pine State Park
- Living Classrooms Foundation
- Living Classrooms of the National Capital Region
- Locust Lake State Park
- Mariners' Museum
- Maryland Department of Natural Resources
- Maymont
- Merkle Wildlife Sanctuary and Visitor's Center
- Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area
- Millbrook Marsh Nature Center
- Montour Preserve
- Mt. Pisgah State Park
- National Aquarium in Baltimore
- National Arboretum
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
- Nauticus
- Nixon County Park Nature Center
- Nolde Forest Environmental Education Center
- North Bay Adventure
- Northumberland County Conservation District
- Oregon Ridge Nature Center
- Oxon Cove Park and Oxon Hill Farm
- Parker Dam State Park
- Pemberton Park
- Phillips Wharf Environmental Center
- Pickering Creek Audubon Center
- Prince Gallitzin State Park
- R. B. Winter State Park
- Renfrew Institute for Cultural and Environmental Science
- River & Trail Outfitters
- Rock Creek Park
- Rogers Environmental Education Center
- Saturaday Environmental Academy
- Shaver's Creek Environmental Center
- Shenandoah National Park
- Sideling Hill Exhibit Center
- Sizerville State Park
- Smithsonian Environmental Research Center
- Strawberry Hill Nature Center
- Stroud Water Research Center
- Sultana Projects
- Susquehanna Riverlands
- The Schuylkill Center
- The Watermen's Museum
- The Wildlife Center of Virginia
- Thorpewood
- Tuckahoe State Park
- Tuscarora State Park
- Valley Falls State Park
- Virginia Living Museum
- Virginia National Estuarine Research Reserve at VIMS
- Wildwood Lake Sanctuary
- William Schmidt Environmental Center
- York County Solid Waste Authority
Keywords
- All Keywords
- adaptation
- agriculture
- aquatic grass SAV
- beaver
- biodiversity
- blue crab
- boats, canoes and kayaks
- culture and watermen
- development
- dissolved oxygen
- economics
- ecosystem and biomes
- erosion
- experiments and investigations
- fish
- food web
- forest
- geocaching (GIS/GPS)
- green development
- habitat and niche
- identification
- invasive species
- John Smith and colonial times
- land use
- litter, trash and recycling
- Native American
- nitrogen and carbon cycle
- non-point source
- orienteering
- oyster
- photosynthesis
- point source
- pollution
- population growth
- predator prey relationships
- renewable resource
- restoration
- salinity
- schoolyard habitat
- sediment, soil and rocks
- smart growth
- stormwater
- stream study
- student action
- water and energy conservation
- water cycle and movement
- water quality
- water testing
- watershed
- weather
- wetland
- wildlife
> Adkins Arboretum Growing Up Green: Exploring the Life Cycles of Plants and Animals
In this exciting outdoor environmental education program, kindergarteners compare and contrast the life cycles of four plants and animals through hands-on investigation. Activities include using dip nets and buckets in the Arboretum’s wetland to see what frogs look like at each stage of the life cycle, searching for caterpillars and eggs in the butterfly garden, and exploring the Arboretum’s woodlands in a tree life cycle scavenger hunt. The program is aligned with MSDE standards LS4a–d, LS6a–b, and EN15a–b.
Organization(s): Adkins ArboretumLocation: 12610 Eveland Road Ridgely, MD 21660 (Map It)
Theme(s): Habitats and Critters
Level(s): Early Learning
Program Length(s): Day Trips
Keywords: food web, habitat and niche, wildlife
Nature Puzzlers: Putting Together the Pieces to Make a Whole
First graders will investigate how the parts of a tree work together in a “build a tree” activity, use magnifying glasses to examine and categorize leaves, and investigate the impact of sunlight and the water cycle on plant growth and development. A leaf hunt through the Arboretum’s woodland is sure to delight! The program is aligned with MSDE standards LS4a, LS5c, ES1a, and ES2a.
Organization(s): Adkins ArboretumLocation: 12610 Eveland Road MD, Ridgely, MD 21660 (Map It)
Theme(s): Habitats and Critters
Level(s): Elementary School
Program Length(s): Day Trips
Keywords: photosynthesis, forest
What’s in the Water? An Investigation of Minute Life in the Wetland
Third graders will collect and examine macroinvertebrates in the Arboretum’s wetland to determine water quality. Students will use hand lenses and microscopes to assist their discoveries, sketch wetland organisms, and explore the flow of matter and energy within the wetland food chain. The program is aligned with MSDE standards ES2a–b, LS3a–d, and LS5c–d.
Organization(s): Adkins ArboretumLocation: 12610 Eveland Road Ridgely, MD 21660 (Map It)
Theme(s): Habitats and Critters
Level(s): Elementary School
Program Length(s): Day Trips
Keywords: food web, water quality, water testing
Untangling the Web of Life
Students will use hand lenses to classify leaves by their observable features and use their skills of observation on a leaf scavenger hunt. A game of Habitat Hoochikoo will emphasize how changes in an organism’s habitat can be beneficial or harmful. Students will also have the opportunity to act out the water cycle through dramatic interpretation and explore interrelationships within food chains by creating an interactive web of life. The program is aligned with standards LS10a–b, and LS7a–d, and ES5a–d.
Organization(s): Adkins ArboretumLocation: 12610 Eveland Road Ridgely, MD 21660 (Map It)
Theme(s): Habitats and Critters
Level(s): Elementary School
Program Length(s): Day Trips
Keywords: water cycle and movement, food web
Wetland Discovery
Students will explore animal and plant adaptations through wetland investigations. Stations will focus on how wetland plants are adapted to their watery environment, beaver bioengineering, microscopic wetland organisms, pollution, and the wetland web of life. Students will use scientific equipment, create nature sketches, participate in ecological games, and build beaver dams. The program is aligned with standards LS4aa–e, LS6, and LS8a–c.
Organization(s): Adkins ArboretumLocation: 12610 Eveland Road Ridgely, MD 21660 (Map It)
Theme(s): Habitats and Critters
Level(s): Elementary School
Program Length(s): Day Trips
Keywords: wetland, adaptation
Woodland Explorers: Energy Flow in the Forest
Students will journey along the forest food chain, from primary producer to decomposer. In a dramatic “Be the Tree” activity, students will learn how plants harness solar energy to make food. They’ll study the process of decomposition in a fallen tree investigation; act out the balance between herbivores, omnivores, and carnivores in an ecological game; and gain an appreciation for the fragility of the chain by building a model web of life . The program is aligned with standards LS1b and e, LS2b–f, and LS3a–d.
Organization(s): Adkins ArboretumLocation: 12610 Eveland Road ridgely, MD 21660 (Map It)
Theme(s): Habitats and Critters
Level(s): Middle School
Program Length(s): Day Trips
Keywords: photosynthesis, food web, forest
Science is for the Birds!
Students will investigate how bird beaks have adapted for survival in different environments. They’ll compare the life cycle of birds with that of other living organisms, including the plants that birds eat. This will lead to a seed dissection activity. Students will also look for birds in the Arboretum’s meadow, wetland, and forest habitats and find examples of how birds meet their survival needs. The program is aligned with MSDE standards LS5a–b, LS3a–d, LS4a–c.
Organization(s): Adkins ArboretumLocation: 12610 Eveland Road Ridgely, MD 21660 (Map It)
Theme(s): Habitats and Critters
Level(s): Elementary School
Program Length(s): Day Trips
Keywords: food web, predator prey relationships, wildlife
