Season: Fall & Spring | Grade: 3-5
Big River Journey is a premier field trip program for Grades 3-5 focused on the Mississippi River within the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area! Students view and learn about the river through onboard educational activities while cruising on a modern Padelford riverboat. Students choose to participate in three of five activity stations.
Read MoreSeason: Winter | Grade: 4
Winter River is a cold weather educational field trip designed for Fourth Graders and Title I schools with the goal of creating emotional and positive connections to our national parks and public lands. Registration will open in October.
Read MoreSeason: Fall | Grade: 4
Take Me to the River is a hands-on educational program designed for fourth graders run out of Hidden Falls Regional Park each fall. The program focuses primarily on the cultural history of the river, but also addresses geography, geology, and physical science.
Read MoreSeason: Fall & Spring | Grade: 3-6
Multiple standards-based topics related to the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area are brought directly to your students during an interactive live video call. These online programs are brought to you by professional park educators from the National Park Service, Mississippi Park Connection, and the Minnesota Historical Society!
Read MoreThis award celebrates the accomplishments of a Minnesota educator who has participated in the park’s education programs and has created innovative curricula that empowers students to become avid learners and build a lifelong relationship with the Mississippi River.
Read MoreSeason: Fall & Spring | Grade: 3-5+
Big River Journey Online serves as a pre-and-post lesson resource to accompany the Big River Journey field trip, as well as a stand alone resource for online learning about the Mississippi River. The program is filled with interactive learning modules about birds, boats, bugs, water quality, and much more, connecting them to a rich science and cultural learning experience.
Read MoreGrade: 3-6
The Big River Art Contest is a way for 3rd - 6th grade students to share their experiences with the Mississippi River by creating a piece of art. Past winners have used poems, piecework, pastels, collages, sketches, pointillism, and more. Art must be submitted by early June.
Read MoreSeason: Fall & Spring | Grade: 4-6
Working River Online serves as a pre-and-post lesson resource to accompany the Working River field trip, as well as a stand-alone resource for online learning about the Mississippi River. This program engages students with four topics deeply associated with the upper Mississippi River: its geology, its role as a transportation corridor, its waterpower, and continual stewardship efforts.
Read MoreRiver Educators are licensed teachers who put their love for the outdoors into delivering professional K-12 education programs at various locations along the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area. River Educators work side-by-side with National Park Service rangers in meeting the increasing education program requests from schools each year.
Read MoreSeason: Fall & Spring | Grade: 3-5
This online program helps kids understand how organisms live within an ecosystem. Three interactive stations feature exciting videos and fun learning modules about floodplains, mussels, pike, and their connection to the Mississippi River!
Read MoreGrade: 7-8
The environment we all share is so important. Learn more about the floodplain forest biome and the species that live there. Explore a Plant for the Future project tree site. Investigate ways community science is helping scientists help the forest and how communities can contribute.
Read MoreSeason: Summer | Grade: Elementary, Middle, and High School
The Mississippi River Canoemobile program is a youth education and recreation program on the Mississippi River— complete with guided day trips, overnight camping, and environmental education programs for youth in elementary, middle, and high school. We are proud to support this program in partnership with the National Park Service, Wilderness Inquiry, and many others.
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