Educators

Field Trips and Resources

Connect your students with Atlanta’s beautiful Piedmont Park. Your busy learners can discover the wonders of nature right in the heart of Atlanta or from the comfort of your classroom. From hands-on experiments to educationally themed hikes and outdoor games, our carefully crafted programs are sure to captivate students of all ages.

Our programs are aligned to Georgia Standards of Excellence and are designed to reinforce and enhance learning goals. There are endless opportunities to learn here at Piedmont Park. Don’t see the perfect program for your group? Ask us about custom programming!

Piedmont Park Homeschool Days

Twice a semester, the Conservancy will host a themed “Homeschool Day” where homeschool students, distance learning students, and any other interested students grades K-5 can come to Piedmont Park for a field trip. The programs are interactive, STEAM-based activities that get kids excited about learning.

Lunar New Year Science Celebration

It’s the year of the dragon! Please join us as we use science to celebrate Lunar New Year at the Park. We’ll learn about the moon, design lanterns, and even make our own fire-breathing dragon!

10:30am– Program begins
12:00pm– Program ends

Playground Physics

Come explore forces and motion with us at Noguchi Playground! Students will use the playground as an outside laboratory to discover why things move the way they do. We will also complete a STEAM design challenge to build our own miniature playgrounds!

10:30am– Program begins
12:00pm– Program ends

Additional Information

  • Program cost is $10 per student. Register online prior to the program using the link below.
  • Picnic areas in the Park are available on a first-come first serve basis; bring sack lunches to enjoy before or after your program!

Piedmont Park Field Trip Offerings

Piedmont Park Conservancy offers exciting on-site STEM education programs for all K-12 grade levels! Utilizing the unique natural resources of the park to guide our lessons, we integrate technology and engineering practices with the GSE-driven science and math curricula to deliver engaging learning experiences. Click on the titles below to learn more about each program! Note: it is required to have a minimum of 15 students to book a field trip. Unless otherwise noted, programs can accommodate up to 150 students. Field trips cost $7 per student. One chaperone per every 10 students is included in the price of the program. Additional chaperones are $2 each. Title 1 Discounts are available. Grade level recommendations are flexible and based on GSE.

Does a young frog look like its parent? How do plants and animals grow? Answer these questions and more! Play games, explore our collection of skulls, furs, and tracks, and see what it is like growing up in the wild!

100 student maximum.

Find out what every plant and animal needs to survive, and investigate the life cycle of plants on an exploratory hike through Piedmont Park and our education orchard!

Give your students a chance to become explorers in the green heart of Atlanta! Students will practice using a compass, reading and creating a map, and guiding classmates through the park using self-designed courses.

50 student maximum.

Discover all the different habitats that Piedmont Park provides for wildlife on an adventure hike around Lake Clara Meer! Engineer a habitat for a mysterious animal, and play games to explore food web interactions.

Step into the lab and become a scientist! Students build cell models, learn microscope basics, and even make their own slides in this hands-on program.

Students will learn, first hand, how energy flows through natural systems as they investigate Piedmont Park’s ecosystems. Through hands-on exploration of our skulls, furs, ,and tracks, students will learn how scientists characterize organisms according to their energy source. Students will play games that apply their knowledge of food webs to understand trophic interactions. 

Learn all about the characteristics, life-cycle, and importance of honey bees! Explore our collection of bee biofacts and discover how honey is made. Students will be able to identify the structure of a beehive by designing and engineering a honeycomb of hexagons. Furthermore, the program will explain what keeps a beekeeper busy as well as why we should “bee” aware around stinging insects.

Conduct a hands-on investigation of wind and water erosion, and how these processes slowly shape Earth’s changing surface. Students, as collaborative, small group scientists and engineers, will carry out a cause and effect investigation, analyze data, use math skills to measure/record changes, and construct an argument based on evidence. Students engineer their own solutions to determine, as a whole group, the best methods for controlling erosion.

Investigate the trophic interactions in freshwater systems and how environmental changes affect a habitat. Identify macroinvertebrates and learn about their importance in a balanced ecosystem. Conduct a Rapid Bioassessment Experiment just like an Ecologist!

100 student maximum.

Fibonacci’s nifty numbers are an interesting mathematical idea. The prevalence of their appearance in nature makes them an excellent principle to study on the grounds of Piedmont Park. Students will be introduced to Fibonacci numbers, their sequence, and historical origin. Through a series of STEAM challenges, students will discover the importance of the Fibonacci Sequence in nature, and make their own Golden Ratio artwork.

Using teamwork, trial and error problem solving, and a boatload of recycled materials, students design, construct, and refine a Rube Goldberg machine.

Come investigate physical forces on our playscape designed by world-famous artist, Isamu Noguchi. Students will analyze and experiment on the playscape equipment to determine which forces are observed. Using what they’ve learned, students will design their own play structures and identify the forces in them.

Don’t see the perfect program for your group? Contact us to create a custom program just for you!

Outreach Program Offerings

OUTREACH PROGRAMS

Did you know that our Environmental Educators can now bring our programming directly to your school? All of our on-site programs listed above (with the exception of Erosion 101, Pond Water Web, Orienteer Engineers, and Phenomenal Playground Physics) can be conducted in your school in individual classrooms of 30 students or less. All programs are GSE-correlated for each grade.

Programs can be booked Monday-Friday from 8am-1pm. The cost of the program is $250 for the first visit and $175 for each additional visit. For more information, questions and price estimates, contact [email protected] or call the Education Team at 404.875.7275 x325

What’s inside?

  • 3 Biofact sensory bins (one of each) for common Georgia animals, and their babies! Complete with information sheets and guiding questions
  • Animal Families Matching Activity (suitable for up to 25 students at one time)
  • “Mother Bat” echolocation Activity (suitable for up to 25 students at one time)
  • 1 copy of “A Nest is Noisy” book
  • 1 copy of “An Egg is Quiet” book

What’s Inside? 

  • 3 Biofacts sensory bins (one of each) for Herbivore, Omnivore, and Carnivore complete with information sheets and guiding questions 
  • 1 set of “Design a Habitat” activity 
  • 1 copy of ““Sparrow Girl”” book
  • 1 copy of “Wolf Island” book
  • 1 set “Incredible Journey” Activity 
  • 1 set “Common Water” Activity 

What’s Inside? 

  • 10 microscopes per trunk
  • 10 glass slides 
  • 15 glass coverslips
  • 2 eyedropper jars of iodine 
  • 10 dry erase “ExCELLent Adventures” instructions
  • ExCELLent Adventures worksheets (as many as needed, or the file is preferred)
  • 1 set of “Build a Cell” activity

What’s Inside? 

  • 3 Biofact sensory bins (one of each) for Mammal, Reptile, Bird complete with information sheets and guiding questions
  • 1 set of “Get a Grip” activity  
  • 1 copy of “What if you Had Animal Feet” book 
  • 1 copy of “Amazing Animals” flipbook 

What’s Inside? 

  • Seven, fully equipped, STEM Challenge Stations that reveal, when completed, the secret sequence of nature! 
  • Supplies for creating your own Fibonacci Sequence/Golden Ratio artwork

What’s Inside?

  • 10 microscopes per trunk
  • 10 glass slides 
  • 15 glass coverslips
  • 2 eyedropper jars of iodine 

Digital Resources

Connect and learn with us on YouTube! Educators and students can have fun with our interactive videos designed for all ages.

Helpful Information

Educators Contact

Maya Kowalski, Manager of School and Camp Programs
[email protected]
404.875.7275 x 325

School Program Address

Piedmont Park Conservancy
1071 Piedmont Avenue NE
Atlanta, GA 30309