SDW Environmental Education

Inspiration and curiosity can bloom in many places, in many ways… Thank you, Tall Pines Conservancy, for being that connection to place!

The School District of Waukesha's Environmental Education Department has inspired curiosity, exploration, and stewardship in generations of students and community members. As we celebrate our program's 50th Anniversary, we invite you to help us tell the story of our program by sharing your memories, experiences, photos, and reflections.

Click here to submit! https://forms.gle/H8BH9czQKXND5mWf6

And the good updates from our partnerships keep coming!

We are grateful to our friends at Tall Pines Conservancy for combining learning and stewardship in these meaningful ways for our High School students!

If the Final Jeopardy question was "Do corn snakes climb?", Jupiter would bet it all on the answer "Yes!"

Jupiter showed off those climbing skills recently, and students were in awe! In fact, not only can corn snakes climb, they actually LOVE to climb! In the wild they are considered semi-arboreal (they hang out in trees!). While they spend plenty of time on the ground and burrowing, they are excellent climbers and will actively use tree branches, vines, and ledges to explore and hunt.

For captive snakes like Jupiter, we use this opportunity to show off this incredible natural behavior, give her a fun way to exercise AND provide the much needed enrichment for her to be a happy snake.

We are a little late to the game, but we couldn't pass up wishing our favorite co-workers a Happy World Turtle Day! Franklin, Shelly, Yertle, Tommi, Tiny and Mr. Turtle really are the best turtles a team could ask for.

Thank you, Waukesha County Land Conservancy, for sharing your knowledge, passion and conservation work with students from Waukesha South High School at the Hartland Marsh this week. Experiences like these help connect students to the natural spaces in their own community and inspire them beyond the classroom!

SO.MUCH.GOOD.

We love days that are full of exploration, wonder and learning. Today our learning spaces at EB Shurts and Lapham Peak welcomed South High School students and 4th & 5th graders from Summit View.

Highlights from the day:
South High School students harvested our learning garden's spring garlic and the building was full of fresh vibrant garlic aroma!

South High School student Jaziel was the very first handler of our new snake ambassador Venus. His smile says it all.

5th grade students discovered biodiversity IN the river and on a branch overhanging the water (a robin's nest!).

4th grade students braved the wind and rain to scale the tower at Lapham Peak. While the weather wasn't ideal, memories were still made.

Adoption Update!

Echo, Moose and Snow were adopted together two weeks ago. They have settled in very well to their new home at the E.B. Shurts Environmental Education Center in Waukesha.

We got this wonderful update from them today:

"They have settled in nicely! They are very vocal - some "laughing" and also little coos (not like the males but still some "talking"!). They LOVE their fresh greens from our hydroponic unit, and love our herbs. Students have picked organic dandelion greens to chop up and I think those are their favorites. Moose is still laying her eggs for us, too!

Moose also loves to come out of the cage if the door is open and jumps into our garbage can and nestles into it like a nest. She stays there until I take her back out. :)

I misted them for the first time this morning with some lukewarm water and they are fluffed up, cleaning themselves and each other, and generally look very happy to have had a little bath.

The students really do enjoy the birds, and it's fun to have them around. They are a great addition to our animal team! Here's a picture of them earlier this week, they were all napping together until the moment I took the photo."

We are so happy that these three wonderful girls can help teach Waukesha School District students about birds!

The midnight sun season begins on May 11 where the sun stays above the horizon for 84 consecutive days until August 2nd. During this period, areas north of the Arctic Circle experience continuous daylight, while other areas in Alaska like Anchorage experiences 16-19 hours of daylight. What would you do with the extra light?

https://www.instagram.com/reels/DYLnNJgkoQr/