WILD CHILD & ED-VENTURE PACKS

Become a Wild Child for FREE!

That's right, folks. Our latest and greatest educational addition to the WNC Nature Center is free for the public to check out and use on the grounds. Thanks to our friends at REI, an outdoor gear consumer cooperative, we now have fancy new packs and fancy new equipment to go in those fancy new packs. And all of this is FREE to you! 

The packs target improving science test scores, implementing citizen science and giving visitors and school groups an overall better understanding of the importance of conservation.

Wild Child Packs for Visitors
The Wild Child Packs are for the general public to check out and use. These backpacks include an activity booklet and all kinds of naturalist tools, such as hand lenses, monocular, compass and field thermometers. With the help of an adult, children can take the pack out to our Trillium Glen Nature Trail and try out as many of the activities as they would like. The activities are intended to help foster an appreciation of our forest, learn how to use some of these tools and become aware of the importance of our natural world.

*** Please note: The Wild Child Packs are available for anyone to use as long or as often as they would like, though the activities in the booklet are targeted for ages six through sixteen.

To use our Wild Child Packs

• Stop by the front desk and ask to check out a Wild Child Pack.
• Grab a map if you're not sure where our nature trail (2/3 of a mile loop) is located.
• Take that pack and your child (we know you're excited to try it out for yourself but please don't leave your child in the lobby) to our Trillium Glen Nature Trail.
• Flip through our activity booklet and try out as many activities as you would like but you must complete at least 3 if you would like to receive a Wild Child Patch!
• Have fun!
• When you're finished playing, bring the pack, all of its contents and your child (only children receive a patch so please don't leave them behind) back to the front desk and receive your patch if you earned one.

Ed-Venture Packs for School Groups
Our Ed-Venture Packs are created with the hands-on, awe-inspiring, creative teacher in mind. A step up from our Wild Child packs, the Ed-Venture packs are focused on weather data collection. The lesson plans and activities included with these packs correspond with science objectives for 5th grade as defined by the North Carolina Standard Course of Study. We know those end-of-grade tests are tough, and we want to do what we can to help all that tricky science information stay in their noggins. The hands-on activities that can be completed on our Trillium Glen Nature Trail will help reinforce what is taught in the classroom and give real life experience to textbook information. And, of course, use of the packs is free (contact the Education Department for school group admission rates).