LOCATION: Nature Center
RESTROOMS AVAILABLE: Yes
TIME: 2.5 hours
GRADE: 3rd
GROUP MINS/MAX: 20 / 50

Explore the San Elijo Lagoon’s plants + animals – and the habitats they depend on – via sight, smell, touch, and sound! To survive, every living thing needs a habitat (aka home) providing shelter, air, food, and water. Special attention is given to the California horned snail and its ability to live on mudflats.

LOCATION: Nature Center
RESTROOMS AVAILABLE: Yes
TIME: 2.5 hours
GRADE: 4th
GROUP MINS/MAX: 20 / 50

Uncover the secrets to so many organisms sharing an ecosystem. Whether the lagoon’s flora and fauna reside in the salt marsh, freshwater riparian woodland, or dry coastal sage scrub, amazing physical and behavioral adaptations create harmony in the natural community.

LOCATION: Nature Center
RESTROOMS AVAILABLE: Yes
TIME: 3 hours
GRADE: 5th
GROUP MINS/MAX: 20 / 50

How do organisms interact within their ecosystems? Explore how living things depend on one another for survival. Examine the different components of an ecosystem – both the living and the nonliving – with a special focus on decomposers and human interactions.

LOCATION: Nature Center
RESTROOMS AVAILABLE: Yes
TIME: 3 hours
GRADE: 6th-8th
GROUP MINS/MAX: 20 / 50

How do humans benefit from and maintain biodiverse ecosystems? Guided by this question, student scientists will investigate the health of the San Elijo Lagoon ecosystem. Throughout the program, students will collect data indicating biodiversity, discuss ecosystem services to humans, and make claims about how humans can impact our natural systems.