Give your students a TEKS-aligned adventure with a

Free Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge Field Trip

Join Us for a Field Trip Open House: Friday, September 19, 2025, 1:00 to 4:00 PM

Come and meet the field trip team! We’ll visit the Butterfly Garden, summarize the lessons, enjoy the hike and discuss how these activities reinforce science TEKS.

This event is free and open to the public but please REGISTER for the Open House 

We'd love to meet you!

With the support of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at the refuge, our knowledgeable volunteers—with over 100 years of combined teaching experience— will take your students on a hike through prairie, pond, forest and riparian ecosystems—reinforcing their science TEKS. Along the way, we’ll compare the habitats we encounter and help students identify animal tracks, bird songs, native plants, and other interesting discoveries. at the refuge, our knowledgeable volunteers—with over 100 years of combined teaching experience— will take your students on a hike through prairie, pond, forest and riparian ecosystems—reinforcing their science TEKS. Along the way, we’ll compare the habitats we encounter and help students identify animal tracks, bird songs, native plants, and other interesting discoveries.

Next, we'll visit Hagerman’s ¼ acre pollinator garden and teach the students how to use insect binoculars. We’ll set them loose to explore, giving them a chance to get a close-up look at live butterflies, bugs, spider egg sacs, chrysalises, and whatever else they can find! We’ll wrap up by connecting their observations to TEKS concepts such as life cycles and the functions of organisms.

We have animal skins and skulls, real bird feathers, and even models of tracks and scat to explore! Students will get to see the differences between carnivores, herbivores, and omnivores up close, and discover how food chains really work.