Ranger-Guided Trip

Scheduling Your Class for a program this fall and winter.

• Reservations for education programs for the months of September, October, November 2024 and reservations for Maple Sugar Time, March of 2025, will begin August 1.
• Due to the construction at the Douglas Center, reservations will only be accepted by emailing the scheduling office.

 

Education Opportunities

Habitat Programs for Younger Students

Talk With the Animals

Goal: Become familiar with the wonders of animals of the dunes through the year. Puppet characters tell a story of life in the dunes. If weather permits, students are invited to hike the trail after the show.
Program availability: Year-round.
Age group: Preschool - 3rd grade.
Location: Paul H. Douglas Center.
Length: 1.0 hour.

Discover

Goal: Explore and discover nature's diversity using the senses along a wooded trail.
Program availability: Year-round.
Age group: Preschool - 3rd grade.
Location: Paul H. Douglas Center.
Length: 1.0 hour.

Fall Fanfare

Goal: Experience and learn about the changing of the seasons. Cool weather and shorter days bring beautiful changes. Discover the flurry of activity as plants and animals prepare for winter.
Program availability: October and November.
Age group: 1st - 6th grade.
Location: Kemil Beach or Douglas Center.
Length: 1.5 - 2.0 hours.

Habitat Programs for Older Students

Habitat Hike

Goal: Learn about the importance of biodiversity through a hike into the national park's many habitats. Discover why the Indiana dunes has almost 1,400 species of plants, ranking it among the top five of all national park areas. Explore forest, dunes, wetlands or beaches while studying environmental factors that affect plant survival.
Program availability: Year-round.
Age group: 4th grade and up.
Location: Kemil Beach or the Paul H. Douglas Center.
Length: 1.5 - 2.0 hours.

Lake Michigan Alive

Goal: Students are encouraged to help care for the Great Lakes, appreciate the diversity of life within this region's most important natural resource, and learn about some of the issues affecting Lake Michigan. Play a food chain game and discuss the adaptations and consequences of invasive exotics. This program is primarily indoors but does include a 30-minute trip to the lake by your school bus.
Program availability: Year-round.
Age group: 4th grade and up.
Location: Paul H. Douglas Center.
Length: 1.5 hours.

Water World

Goal: Experience and explore the diversity of life within a wetland. Armed with nets and pans, investigate the rich diversity of pond life and learn the importance of conserving our water resources.
Program Availability: April 1- October 31.
Age Group: 4th grade and up.
Location: Paul H. Douglas Center.
Length: 1.0 - 3.0 hours.

Pinhook Bog

Goal: Learn about and appreciate the rare, fragile gift of the glaciers. Hike into the strange and unique world of the bog. Walk on a boardwalk floating on a mat of sphagnum moss and discover insect-eating plants.
Program availability: Mid-April - Mid-November.
Age group: 6th grade and up.
Location: Meet at the Indiana Dunes Visitor Center.
Length: 2.0 hours.

Dune Programs for Younger Students

West Beach Walks

Goal: Explore the dunes and experience the forces of nature that created them. Observe water, wind and waves in action and learn how they work together to form mountains of sand.
Program availability: spring, summer, fall.
Age group: Preschool - 3rd grade.
Location: West Beach.
Length: 1.0 - 1.5 hours.

Dune Programs for Older Students

A Grain of Truth

Goal: Explore the dunes and gain a personal experience of how they came to be. Observe how winds and powerful waves work to create and erode moving sand dunes. Hike the foredunes and beach to learn about the processes of dune building, glaciation, and erosion.
Program availability: Spring-summer-fall.
Age group: 4th grade and up.
Location: West Beach.
Length: 1.5 hours.

Secrets of Succession

Goal: Experience and appreciate the variety of plant communities found in the dunes. Follow the legacy of early dunes scientist, Henry Chandler Cowles, and hike from the beach over foredunes and through forests. By exploring the environment, discover the forces that shape the dunes and produce this unique succession of plants.
Program availabilty: Spring - summer - fall.
Age group: 5th grade and up.
Location: West Beach.
Length: 1.5 - 2.0 hours.

Winter Programs for Younger Students

Winter Exploration

Goal: Experience and learn about the beauty and ecology of winter. Explore the beauty of the winter woods during a nature hike after viewing an indoor presentation focusing on animal adaptations. Learn how plants and animals adapt to winter. Snowshoes are provided. If there is insufficient snow, a hike will be led instead.
Program availability: January 1 - February 25.
Age group: 3rd - 6th grades.
Location: Paul H. Douglas Center.
Length: 1.5 - 2.0 hours.

Historic Programs for Younger Students

The Chellbergs had a Farm

Goal: Experience and learn about Indiana's early farming traditions. Step back in time and discover farm life in the early 1900s. Play farm games and visit an old-time farm house.
Program availability: Year-round.
Age Group: Preschool - 3rd grade.
Location: Chellberg Farm.
Length: 1.0 hour.

Historic Programs for Older Students

American Indians and Fur Traders

Goal: Experience local history focusing on American Indian lifestyles and the fur trade. Journey back in time to learn about the lifestyles of the American Indians, fur traders, and voyageurs during this period of change in Northwest Indiana.
Program availability: Year-round.
Age group: 3rd grade and up.
Location: Bailly Homestead.
Length: 1.5 - 2.0 hours.

Historic Programs for All Ages

Maple Sugar Time

Goal: Learn and experience the making of this purely American product. Examine maple trees, and see the Native American, pioneer, and sugar shack methods of making maple sugar and syrup. Tour the Chellbergs' 19th-century farmhouse.
Program availability: Early March Only.
Age group: All.
Location: Chellberg Farm.
Length: 1.5 hours.

 

Educational Fee Waivers

When scheduling a field trip through the Indiana Dunes National Park, you can select either a Self-Guided or Ranger-Guided visit.

In both cases you must...

• Coordinate the transportation, supervision, educational, and recreational opportunities.
• Fee Waiver: Groups visiting the area for genuine educational or scientific purposes during this time may obtain an Academic Fee Waiver if your group meets established criteria. Please note: If your planned educational visit is primarily for recreational purposes, such as swimming, then a fee waiver cannot be granted.

 

Monarch Butterfly Program

• The program lasts 1.5 - 3.0 hours depending on your time.

• The program takes place at the Paul H. Douglas Center and offers three rotating stations where students will learn about the Monarch Butterfly.

• The Monarch is a candidate for the endangered species list. Much of its habitat and food sources have been lost.

• The program will teach the basics of the Monarch migration, its connection to milkweed, and our connections to its wintering ground in Mexico.

If you would like to bring your students to the program, please call the Paul H. Douglas Center scheduling number at 219-395-1885.