Animal & Nature Studies
A Living Laboratory for Science
Our Science & Nature Center is an on-campus teaching zoo with more than 80 animals, an outdoor classroom, and a weekly specialist program led by a full-time Animal & Nature Studies teacher.
Children learn up close with living systems. What begins with curiosity, observation, and animal care grows into ecology, husbandry, genetics, adaptation, natural selection, evolution, and animal cognition.
Some schools have a science lab. We have a teaching zoo.
The Animals Are Part of the Curriculum
Students do more than visit the animals. They observe behavior, care for living things, investigate scientific questions, and use the teaching zoo as a direct window into biology.
A diverse collection gives children direct experience with anatomy, behavior, habitats, adaptations, and living systems.
Animal & Nature Studies is part of the regular program, not an occasional visit or after-school activity.
Our outdoor classroom allows children to observe and safely handle appropriate animals as part of scientific learning.
The Science Grows With the Child
The experience begins with wonder and care, then develops into increasingly sophisticated study of animals, living systems, genetics, evolution, and ecology.
Wonder & Care
Observation, safe interaction, animal needs, habitats, communication, curiosity, empathy, and respect for living things.
Discovering the Animal Kingdom
Animal traits and classification, body language and behavior, survival features, mammals, reptiles and birds, safe interactions, seasonal changes, plant parts, and veterinary care.
Animal Care 101
Animal husbandry, feeding and care routines, animal and human nutrition, comparative anatomy, habitats and seasonal needs, veterinary care, animal identification, and native animals.
Ecology 101
Predators and prey, food chains, ecology and conservation, plant and animal needs, habitats, comparative anatomy, behavior and communication, pollinators, plant care, and harvesting.
Genetics and heritability, genotype and phenotype, phenotypic plasticity, Mendelian inheritance, natural and artificial selection, adaptations and convergence, fossils, and the emergence of new species.
Advanced animal care, feeding, habitat and enrichment design, comparative anatomy, behavior and communication, environmental adaptations, fossils and extinct animals, and human impact.
Evolution and survival mechanisms, genetics and heritability, genotype and phenotype, phenotypic plasticity, Mendelian inheritance, natural and artificial selection, adaptations and convergence, fossils and emerging species, and intelligence as an adaptation.
Ecosystem dynamics, food webs and biomes, population growth and carrying capacity, group living, migration and defense, vision and senses, animal learning and training, native plants, photosynthesis, fungi, pollinators, and plant care.
Evolution, One Generation at a Time
Upper Elementary students spend the year following an imaginary organism through changing environments, inherited traits, natural and artificial selection, and new evolutionary pressures.
By the end of the simulation, creatures that began from similar starting points can look remarkably different. Evolution becomes something students can model, question, and reason through, not simply memorize.
Explore the Science Behind the Experience
The full TK–5 curriculum moves from observation and animal care into ecology, genetics, evolution, animal behavior, and increasingly complex biological systems.
See More of the TK–5 Curriculum
Children study animal husbandry, ecology, behavior and communication, comparative anatomy, heredity, genetics, natural and artificial selection, adaptation, evolution, ecosystem dynamics, animal cognition, learning and training, population growth, carrying capacity, migration, plant systems, and more.
View the Complete Curriculum Overview →
Follow the Barnyard
Meet the animals and see everyday life inside the WHPS teaching zoo.
Follow @whpschool_barnyardCome See Where Science Comes Alive
Visit the teaching zoo, outdoor classroom, and broader WHPS program in person.