Education
Tapteal Greenway summarizes its mission as promoting conservation, education and recreation along the lower Yakima River. The lower Yakima River corridor includes the river, riparian, wetland, and shrub-steppe ecosystems. As understanding these ecosystems is essential to appreciating and conserving them Tapteal Greenway reaches out to students and adults with interactive, hands-on explorations of them.
Outreach with pre-K-12 includes STEM events, in-class presentations, and outdoor classroom field explorations, studying and observing wildlife and vegetation in these various ecosystems. Our collections of pelts, skulls, and other display items are excellent tools for environmental education both in the field and in the classroom.
We support the Salmon in the Classroom program sponsored by the Benton Conservation District and participate in their annual Salmon Summit event. The Tapteal Greenway Station has students make their own salmon lifecycle bracelet in which each colored bead represents a different aspect of the salmon lifecycle.
Periodically we host our Wildlands Walk at Amon Creek Natural Preserve, which features a variety of educational stations such as geology, reptiles, archeology, wetlands, and bird watching. This 1.5-mile walk is open to all ages. However, portions of the trail are soft and sandy and not ideal for strollers.
Tapteal partners with local environmental organizations to expand our educational outreach and to bring in more specialists. The Lower Columbia Basin Audubon Society offers guides for some of our nature walks. We join The REACH Museum for various educational events.
During Covid-19 we took our education offerings online with #TaptealTuesday, with nature lessons, crafts, and story time. All of the #TaptealTuesday episodes are available on our YouTube channel to watch at your convenience. They vary in length but are no longer than 30 minutes. Many episodes include downloadable lesson plans so you can dive further into a subject with your students at school or at home.
Please contact us for field trip or classroom presentation inquiries.
