Field Trips

Students work on an activity during a field trip hike

NPS Photo / Ian Kessler

Elementary Grade Levels

The preserve has developed original, free Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) based field trips for elementary grade levels. Explore Big Thicket elementary program descriptions below. All field trips can accommodate a half or full-day visit depending on scheduling needs. Programs offer ranger-led adventures in our visitor center as well as on trail and include hands-on materials, fun activities, and immersive experiences. If staffing allows, the preserve can typically welcome up to 80 students per visit. To accommodate larger groups, field trips may have to split up and schedule visits over multiple days. All field trips require a reservation.

Other Grade Levels

All ages and abilities are welcome for a visit to Big Thicket! A ranger-led hike or visitor center adventure may be possible for middle school, high school, or home school groups depending on scheduling and staff availability. Even if the preserve is unable to provide a custom TEKS-based program, rangers are able to conduct a brief welcome and Q&A session for groups on a self-guided field trip. All field trips require a reservation.

 

Big Thicket field trips offer each grade level curriculum-based hiking and visitor center adventures

NPS Photo / Kennie Merbach

Reserve a Program

April and May are our busiest months of the year for school programs, in addition to being very hot and humid with many mosquitoes. Please plan accordingly and consider a trip during other months.

How to reserve:
1. Review our field trip preparation guidelines.
2. Fill out this Education Reservation Form (Complete sections 1 and 2 for in-person trips)
3. Email it back to us at [e-mail]

 

Program Descriptions

TEKS, featured content or props, and hiking trails for each grade level.

1st Grade

TEKS: Science 1.9.A & 1.9.C

Visitor Center Adventure: Students will explore the Visitor Center to learn about different environments and participate in an activity to learn about the diversity of Big Thicket. Students will focus on differentiating between living and nonliving things found in the Big Thicket and the connections between them.

Hiking Adventure: Students will hike the Sundew Trail in the Hickory Creek Savannah Unit (1 mile), using their senses on observation breaks. Observations and connections between ranger provided props and living, nonliving things at the Sundew Trail will be recorded in field journals.

2nd Grade

TEKS: Science 2.10.A and Social Studies 2.15.A (visitor center) or Science 2.8.B and Social Studies 2.3.A (hiking)

Visitor Center Adventure: Students will learn how animals are adapted to different environments of the Big Thicket. Students will explore museum exhibits in the Visitor Center and engage with this information through whole group activities.

Hiking Adventure: Students will learn about naturalist Lance Rosier as a way to behave during a hike. They will explore and create elements of a map and use it to form connections with the plants, animals, and seasonal changes of the Kirby Nature Trail area (1 mile).

3rd Grade

TEKS: Science 3.3.A & 3.9.B (visitor center) or Science 3.10.A and Social Studies 3.14.C (hiking)

Visitor Center Adventure: Students will learn about the food webs in different environments of the Big Thicket. Students will explore museum exhibits in the Visitor Center and engage with this information through whole group activities. This adventure includes two activities, one outside and one inside the Visitor Center.

Hiking Adventure: Students will navigate along the Pitcher Plant Trail (1 mile), stopping along the way to observe the Wetland Pine Savannah. Along the way, they will use a map and compass to navigate, observe longleaf pines, and exploring plant adaptations.

4th Grade

TEKS: Science 4.12.A & 4.13.A

Visitor Center Adventure: Guided by their field journal, students will investigate the parts of a plant and how they produce energy in the preserve’s greenhouse (if available). Then, students will explore the diversity of plants and the adaptations they use to survive in Big Thicket’s many unique ecosystems using visitor center exhibits. 

Hiking Adventure:  Students will hike the Sundew Trail (1 mile), focusing on the diversity of plant life found in the pine forest. Adventure Journal activities will allow students to examine how and why plants have certain abilities that allow them to live in a particular environment. Depending on the time of year, carnivorous plants will highlight this phenomenon. 

5th Grade

TEKS: 5.9.A & 5.9.C

Visitor Center Adventure: Students will work in small groups to investigate an ecosystem of the Big Thicket. They will help teach the class about what they learned and build on that knowledge by interacting with ranger-provided artifacts or props from each ecosystem. Students will return to their ecosystems and examine how human interaction would impact the environment and its organisms.

Hiking Adventure: Students will hike the Kirby Nature Trail (1.5+ miles). They will use diversity squares to learn about interactions between living and non-living features. They will make hypotheses and predictions about human interaction in three distinct environments along the trail. Students will work together in group and reflect independently while recording answers and observations in their adventure journals.

 

NPS Photo / Kennie Merbach

Still Have Questions?

Email us at [e-mail] or call the visitor center at 409-951-6700.