Congratulations! You and your students are about to embark on the learning experience of a lifetime! With your help and pre-visit effort, your class will enjoy a fun-filled, educational trip. Please review the information provided on forms, trip planning, curriculum, and chaperone recruitment and selection. As always, don't hesitate to contact us if you have any questions!

Program Planning and Forms

Teacher preparation and participation is crucial to a successful program at ONSC. We hope you'll take the time to prepare your class and your children's parents for the trip. Please download and review the Trip Planning Guide and review it carefully. Because we work hard to constantly improve our programming, some program details may have changed since your last visit. In it you'll find overviews of program options, trip planning timetables, forms for parents, and pre-trip forms that you are responsible for returning to ONSC.

Your attention to detail and willingness to review and return all forms and materials on time is very much appreciated! Below are links to download various forms for yourself and for parents. Specific instructions on forms can be found in the Trip Planning Guide.

Please note - all forms and packets are designed to be printed as double-sided and may include blank pages if printed as single-sided documents. Please help reduce paper waste by printing double-sided.

• Trip Planning Guide
• English Parent Packet
• Spanish Parent Packet
• Teacher and Parent-Chaperone Guidelines

Curriculum

ONSC's school program is correlated with Arkansas Department of Education learning standards. While we don't specifically design our programming to address educational benchmarks, we are proud that our curriculum meets several key standards and helps to compliment and enrich science curricula in schools. Please see our SLE Alignment Outline for more information.

Every child and adult that attends a school program at ONSC receives a complimentary Field Journal for use while at ONSC and back at school. This 60-page booklet is packed with fun facts, pictures, and field guide sections on mammal, plant, insect, and bird identification. Many teachers use these journals throughout the school year to tie in-class science lessons to their students' ONSC visit.

Coming Soon: pre-curriculum ideas for getting the most out of your ONSC visit - please check back soon!

Parent-Chaperone Selection

Please remember that the role of parent-chaperones (and teachers) while at ONSC is to provide supervision and group discipline. Our program works best if our field instructors can focus on delivering content and providing an enjoyable experience and can leave discipline and discreet correction of problem students or the group to the parents and teachers.

Please review the Chaperone Orientation Guide and distribute copies to potential chaperones.

Many schools select parent-chaperones based on an application and a background check. Others have to work very hard to recruit the minimum number of adults required for the trip. Regardless of your school's situation, we hope you'll keep the following in mind when recruiting potential parent-chaperones:

• ONSC requires 1 adult (teacher or chaperone) for every field group, plus 1 extra as a "back-up" adult in case a student becomes ill and must stay inside and off the trail. Any extra adults over this number will incur a charge equivalent to the full, per-person program cost).
• Chaperones are not on vacation for the visit to ONSC. Their role is to actively participate in the program and provide supervision.
• Parents will not be allowed in their own child's field group while hiking. There will be no exceptions to this rule unless warranted by medical issues.
• Chaperones must be able to hike over uneven terrain and aid in the event of an emergency without becoming a liability themselves.
• ONSC is a tobacco-free campus

Thank you for putting the necessary thought and planning into chaperone recruitment! If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact us!