Elementary Program: Investigating Vernal Pools

  • Information for Current Splash Teachers
  • All About the FIeld Trip
  • Boy Looking at Terrarium with Magnifying Glass
    Photo by David Rosen, Wildside Photography
    Boy Looking at Terrarium with...
  • Elementary Program: Investigating Vernal Pools
  • All About the FIeld Trip
  • All About the FIeld Trip
  • All About the FIeld Trip
  • All About the FIeld Trip
  • Elementary Program: Investigating Vernal Pools
  • Elementary Program: Investigating Vernal Pools
  • Elementary Program: Investigating Vernal Pools
  • Boy Looking at Terrarium with Magnifying Glass
    Photo by David Rosen, Wildside Photography
    Boy Looking at Terrarium with...
  • Elementary Program: Investigating Vernal Pools
  • Elementary Program: Investigating Vernal Pools
  • Boy Looking at Terrarium with Magnifying Glass
    Photo by David Rosen, Wildside Photography
    Boy Looking at Terrarium with...

Elementary Program: Investigating Vernal Pools

Our 4th & 5th grade program, Life in Our Watershed: Investigating Vernal Pools, integrates a 13-lesson, standards-based science curriculum with a field trip to the vernal pools at Mather Field. The curriculum prepares the students for their field trip by teaching them all about vernal pools and the plants and animals that live in them.

Classroom preparation is the key difference between Splash field trips and traditional field trips because the students arrive already knowing a lot about the vernal pools. This knowledge empowers the students and results in an exciting, interactive field trip in which information is shared among students, guides, and teachers.

History of the Elementary Program

It took many years and many hands to shape the Splash Elementary Program. From the beginning, it was designed to help children learn science and environmental stewardship by investigating and exploring the vernal pools at Mather Field. 

All About the FIeld Trip

Every year from February through April, the Splash Education Center at Mather Field welcomes more than 70 classes of 4th and 5th graders on their vernal pool field trips. These field trips give students the chance to get up-close-and-personal with the animals and plants they've been studying in the Splash curriculum, Life in Our Watershed: Investigating Vernal Pools.

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Information for Current Splash Teachers

If you are a 4th or 5th grade teacher who will be participating in the Splash Elementary Program this school year, this page contains information and documents that may be useful to you.  If you have not yet been accepted into the program, please visit Information for Prospective Splash Teachers.

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Information for Prospective Splash Teachers

Splash would love the opportunity to teach your students hands-on science and develop their respect for the natural world around them.  Check out the links below for more information about our vernal pools program for 4th and 5th grade classes.

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Assume that every part is important

To keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent tinkering.

- Aldo Leopold

Learn about the amazing animals that are the cogs and wheels of vernal pools.
Sacramento Splash - Helping children understand and value their natural world picture
Meet Bill Corbett, Master Falconer

Bill Corbett is a Master Falconer who occasionally visits the Splash Center with three of his feathered friends: Tesla the Golden Eagle, Ethel the Harris Hawk, and Bob the Screech Owl.

Learn more about what it takes to become a falconer.