educational course

Join us for an immersion into the world of mushrooms and mushroom cultivation. Learn how to grow mushrooms at home, using simple, low-tech methods that utilize free and easily obtainable resources. Set up your back yard garden patch and keep your mushrooms thriving! Also learn basic mushroom taxonomy, ecological niches, and common edible and medicinal mushrooms that you can grow or harvest locally. Everyone receives printed instruction materials. A limited number of spawn kits will be available for purchase for $10-20.

Become a dinosaur digger as you learn about fossils, eggs, and nests.  Explore the park as your favorite dinosaur. Games, songs, new friends, crafts, and adventure make this a good camp for young children. Suitable for ages 4 -6 years. Camp times 9am-noon.  Advanced registration required; call 503/629-6350. An assessment fee will be charged for out-of-district patrons. $52 for three days of half-day camp.

Amazing things happen when liquids and cold temperatures combine. Snowshoe through the forests on Mt. Hood and investigate frozen precipitation in its many forms. It's never too cold for ice cream, so we'll make some of our own using snow to freeze it. Bring a lunch, water bottle and two snacks. Dress for the weather. Suitable for ages 7 - 11 years. Advanced registration required; call 503/629-6350.   An assessment fee will be charged for out-of-district patrons.

From the smallest bugs and plants to the predators of the wild, everything gets eaten and passes on its energy to the next animal.  Follow this energy transfer through the web of life.  Play games, learn about predators and prey, and figure out how all the pieces of the web fit together. Bring a lunch, water bottle and two snacks. Dress for the weather. Suitable for ages 7 - 11 years. Advanced registration required; call 503/629-6350.   An assessment fee will be charged for out-of-district patrons.

Explore the trails looking for ways that nature recycles.  Head inside for an afternoon of creativity – turning the ideas we saw in the Nature Park into creations made from holiday remnants.  Nothing will go to the trash at the end of camp and everyone will have a recycled (or upcycled) craft to take home. Bring a lunch, water bottle and two snacks. Dress for the weather. Suitable for ages 7 - 11 years. Advanced registration required; call 503/629-6350.   An assessment fee will be charged for out-of-district patrons.