Outdoor Education Day Program

Fact Sheet

The Outdoor Education Day is an annual fall event sponsored by the Scott Soil and Water Conservation District that provides an environmental learning experience to all 6^th grade students in Scott County. The program was started in 1985 and was so popular with students and teachers that it became an annual event that now provides an education in resource protection to 1000 - 1200 Scott County students each year.

The event is held at the John Bisek farm near New Prague. Mr. Bisek is Chairman of the Scott SWCD and the district staff is very grateful for his generous offer to let us host the event at his farm. The site is a unique 20-acre wood area, adjacent to wetlands and cropland. The area provides the students an insight to rural living, with gravel roads, crops in the field, wetlands and several farmsteads scattered here and there throughout the countryside.

Trails are cut through the woods with clearings for each of the seven resource stations. The seven learning stations are set up with environmental specialists from the Department of Natural Resources (DNR), Minnesota Extension Service, Scott County Environmental Health and the Natural Resources Conservation

Service (NRCS). Stations include: Parks and Outdoor Recreation, Wildlife, Water Cycle, Forestry, Soils, Plants and Environmental Health. The environmental specialists in their field of interest give presentations of 10-12 minutes. After each presentation, the group moves on to the next station, until they have visited each of the seven stations.

As with any event, this would not be possible without the assistance and participation of many people. We certainly appreciate their assistance in providing this learning experience to our youth.