Great Plains Nature Center – Wichita Kansas

The Great Plains Nature Center appears to have a goal of having everyone educated on the flora and fauna that are found in the prairies. It offers meeting space, programs, school field trips and scout programs, with a staff created from the City of Wichita Department of Parks and Recreation, the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks, and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.

The goals set forth by the Great Plains Nature Center are to provide opportunities for the public to learn about natural resources, to provide visitors with enjoyable educational experiences, to serve as a community resource for conservation and as a resource for environmental education and to provide environmental educational services for and accommodate the physically challenged and senior citizens.

The Koch Habitat Hall includes thirty-five hundred square feet of displays and was opened along with a grant from the Fred C. and Mary R. Koch Foundation. The exhibits include the prairie as it was originally found, the climate of the Great Plains, a lake exhibit featuring a twenty-two hundred gallon aquarium, and a Riparian Habitat. Through the Koch Habitat Hall, you can enter the Wildlife Observatory overlooking Chisholm Creek Park. To make observing the wildlife easier, binoculars, spotting scopes and field guides are available.

The Coleman Auditorium is available for programs, meetings, and seminars, with special public presentations on Saturdays. The Owl’s Nest Gift Shop sells learning resources and gifts that relate to the Great Plains. Books are available, as well as painted rocks, stuffed animals, edible insects and insect candy, audio tapes and CD-ROMs, ant farms and building kits for bird houses.

The Great Plains Nature Center will work with you to help plan your school field trip to coordinate what you require to educate your students on that day. The minimum group size is fifteen people, with groups over twenty-five people possibly requiring more staff to work with your group. Special programs are opened to the Girl Scouts on Mondays and to the Boy Scouts on Tuesdays. Another resource for school and scouts are the Discovery Boxes. These are available to be checked out for two weeks at a time. The boxes include printed materials along with hands-on materials about such subjects as birds, insects, trees, Kansas, etc.

In addition, there are teacher in-service workshops that are available in the summer to aid the teachers in educating their students once their own classes resume. One such workshop is the “Why Here and Not There?” This is aimed at teachers that are instructing middle school and high school classes, and teaches why people live where they do. Another workshop is the “U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Your Classroom – Students, Standards, and Stewardship.” Many modules are provided to assist the teacher in educating students about nature through science, civics, math, language arts, history and geography.

The Great Plains Nature Center is located at 6232 E. 29th Street North in Wichita Kansas, and is open Monday through Saturday, from 9:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M., being closed on Sundays and holidays. There is no admission charge, but charges do apply to school field trips, scout programs, and other special programs.