The Traveling Naturalist: RAPTOR LAB!

Hands-on Science Education Delivered right to YOU! We are very fortunate to be included in this year's schedule for the very popular, Traveling Naturalist!

This science and inquiry-based class is designed to give students a first-hand discovery of predator-prey relationships, exploring food webs, and identifying producers, consumers  and decomposers. It is a fun hands-on introduction into the layered  world of scientific dissection. It is an excellent precursor to setting expectations and attitudes toward more advanced dissections. An accompanying mobile exhibit of skulls, fur, & feathers and  museum-quality specimens will transform your classroom into a mini-museum, while students themselves become laboratory scientists performing a scientific dissection.

Sterilized  wild-caught barn owl pellets are provided, along with tools and collection materials. Students will be able to take home the specimens  they collected and often science and art teachers can use the specimens for future connection activities.

Class vocabulary includes: carnivore, herbivore,  omnivore, carrion eaters, producer, consumer, decomposer, and food webs.

Considerations and Key Points:

Predator/Prey Relationship Discovery

Guided Dissection Activity

Skull, Fur and Feather exhibit

(Ideal ages: 2nd-6th grades)

Cost: $13 per participating student. Parents do not need to purchase a ticket. Please ask your children to be respectful of all educational specimens by handling them with care.

Guests may enjoy a picnic lunch before or after the event.  Please do not eat your food near the educational materials, including all specimens. Picnic blankets are encouraged for overflow, should all of the extra picnic tables fill up with those who choose to eat in the designated eating areas.

Each class will last one and a half (1.5) hours.  Please arrive on time!  Guests may park on the side of the drive leading to the picnic shelter.  Please do not block the drive. Shelter number One is the first picnic shelter (on your left) you will see after you enter Croft State Park.  For a map of the park, visit here:  CROFT STATE PARK MAP

Guests must pay park admission at the gate to enter Croft State Park.  This is a separate fee from the event tickets you are purchasing on our website. Croft State Park is over 7000 acres and offers everything from a playground to hiking and  biking trails. As a state park, there is an admission fee: $2 for adults over the age of 15, $1.25 for seniors, ages 15 and younger are free!  Want to avoid the Camp Croft Admission fee? FREE State Park Passes may be checked out in advance from your local South Carolina library branch.  Thank you for supporting our local state park!