Grant-funded Programs

Students become scientists and discover how animals use their bodies to survive while developing empathy for living things in this two-part program. Through interactive exploration and up-close animal observations, students will investigate animal adaptations, compare wildlife and human features, and learn how understanding animal needs helps us care for them.

For over 50 years, the San Diego Zoo has offered a free field trip to all second-grade classes in San Diego County that includes an up-close wildlife encounter and a guided bus tour of the Zoo. This NGSS-aligned program lets students be scientists and discover the diversity of plants and animals from habitats here in San Diego and around the world. Students are challenged to make observations, discover patterns, and compare wildlife across habitats. After the Zoo Trip, we’ll visit your classroom to reinforce learning concepts from the Zoo with hands-on activities. 

Students participate in hands-on learning, understanding the broader impact of habitat changes on plants and pollinators due to urbanization and the importance of habitat restoration. In this two-part program, our goal is to empower students, showing them that even small actions can positively impact local habitats.

This three-part program aims to inspire students to be scientists, as they observe and document the various ways wildlife use their senses to navigate and understand their world. Zoo educators will engage students in hands-on activities in two classroom programs prior to a culminating Zoo field trip. Throughout all components, students explore how plants and animals experience the world through their senses, and how external structures help them to accomplish many key aspects of survival.

Fifth-grade classes at select districts or Title I schools in San Diego County will become community scientists, as they learn the important role that wildlife rangers play in protecting our local habitats, including the unique biodiversity hotspot right here in San Diego! This two-part program includes a classroom visit and a field trip to the San Diego Bay National Wildlife Refuge in Chula Vista*. Students will practice scientific skills used by wildlife rangers and conservation specialists—locally and around the world—to protect wildlife.
*PLEASE NOTE THAT THE WILDLIFE RANGERS PROGRAM DOES NOT INCLUDE A TRIP TO THE ZOO