Tulips Journey North

Tulips Journey North is an outreach program for 3rd grade public schools in the State of Utah. Our staff will come to your classroom and present a 60-minute program of hands-on activities centered on understanding life cycles, seasonal change and an investigation of climate change.  We will be presenting this program in a format designed to support your classroom with the new SEEd standards using inquiry-based learning. 

The Tulips Journey North Program tracks the arrival of spring by observing growth of student tulips and comparing the student’s own results with students across North America.  

All outreach students will have the opportunity to engage in the scientific process - observing, asking questions, recording, developing models, collecting data about tulip growth and sharing the results of their data collection. If you choose, an additional add-on citizen scientist program activity is included where students will plant tulip bulbs in their school garden. For more information about the citizen science portion of this program, visit the Tulips Journey North website at journeynorth.org/tulips  

Thanks to sponsorship from the Utah State Office of Education’s informal Science Education Enhancement (iSEE), Tulips Journey North is FREE to every public 3rd grade classroom in Utah! While time and travel will not allow Thanksgiving Point to visit every school each year, teachers can expect in-person visits from us every three years. To find your visit year, click HERE.

For further questions please email Michele Gunnell at mgunnell@thanksgivingpoint.org

Curiosity in the Classroom

Curiosity in the Classroom is Thanksgiving Point’s newest outreach program for eighth grade science students. This program immerses students in STEM by posing challenges that require them to explore science, use math, and engineer solutions to an authentic, real world problem - earthquakes. Not only does Curiosity in the Classroom align with 8th grade Science Core Curriculum, it is also designed to meet the new SEEd standards recently adopted in our state.

Thanks to sponsorship from the Utah State Office of Education’s informal Science Education Enhancement (iSEE), Curiosity in the Classroom is FREE to every public 8^th grade classroom in Utah! While time and travel will not allow Thanksgiving Point to visit every school each year, teachers can expect in-person visits from us every three years. 

To find your visit year, click HERE.

ECO Challenge

ECO Challenge is a STEM program that invites high school students across the state to address real-world environmental challenges such as the loss of biodiversity or water quality. In the fall, students meet professionals working in science and engineering careers from state agencies, industry, and non-profit organizations. They learn about the needs of these groups related to the challenge and spend the next several months designing and prototyping solutions to address the challenge in ways that make sense to them. From producing public service announcements to inventions in aid conservation efforts, students selected unique and authentic ways to contribute their ideas and solutions. In the spring, students present their prototype products to industry representatives and compete for prizes that help their schools provide real-world environmental science in the coming year.

2019-2020 ECO Challenges HERE

2019-2020 Student Printout HERE

2020-2021 Notable Dates:

• Registration - August 10th - September 5th, 2020
• Green Career Day - September 23rd, 2020
• Showcase - April 14th, 2021