John C Vanderburg Rainforest Biosphere Foundation

Programs: The john c vanderburg rainforest biosphere is a kindergarten through twelfth grade hands-on learning laboratory for the children of the clark county school district. In 2010, the biosphere hosted 74 filed trips from clark county schools each averaging 30 students per visit. Each field trip averages 1. 5 hours and is themed by grade level for kindergarten through fifth grade. During 2010, students from area clark county schools were provided 1,110 hours of instruction in the biosphere. Each field trip is conducted through five different areas in the facility with instruction in each area being given by pairs of student docents who have undergone extensive training of at least 20 hours combined sessions totaling 900 hours. These training sessions are coordinated and supervised by the members of the biosphere board who work closely with the school administration and teachers to create the curriculum. Each field trip participant is instructed in aspects of the global, social, ecomonic and/or bio diversity of the world's rainforests. District teachers are required to attend a 16 hour professional development course in order to bring their students on field trips to the biosphere. In 2010, twenty teachers attended this course for a total of 320 hours of professional development. Additionally, each student at john c vanderburg elementary school is required to undergo two 40 minute lessons in the biosphere per month. These lessons are conducted a minimum of 7 hours of instruction in the biosphere per year. The 37 classroom teachers that compose the faculty of john c vanderburg elementary school were responsible for a total of 259 hours of instruction in the biosphere this past year. In 2010, 800 students from our school each spent an average of 1 hour 20 minutes in formal instruction. All total, 6,870 hours of formal instruction was conducted for the students of the clark county school district.