We now offer our programs to public, private and
home school teachers in Santa Barbara AND San Luis
Obispo counties.

We offer both field trips and in-class, hands-on natural
science programs for grades two through community college.

Our Field Trip is a four hour educational adventure to
Oso Flaco Lake. A number of hands-on learning activities
begin the day, we then have lunch on the beach and
then enjoy some Dune Diving for the remainder of the day.

Our Project XanaDune! programs are 50-minute hands-on
natural science activites that we bring to your classroom.
We currently have four separate programs for you to choose
from: Mammals, Birds, The Private Eye and Sand Secrets.

The fee for Field Trips is $150.00 and XanaDune! programs are
$40.00/presentation. If you book two XanaDune! presentations
your Field Trip will be free.

For more information on Field Trips and XanaDune! presentations
please contact Tom Neuman (805) 473-9400 or
e-mail tom@wildware.net

If you would like to schedule a field trip to Oso Flaco Lake or a XanaDune Presentation for your students please follow the simple procedure below:

In order to insure a quality field trip experience for students, teachers and parent volunteers the Dunes Center has initiated the following procedure for school field trips to Oso Flaco Lake and The Dunes Center.

1) Before scheduling a field trip through the Dunes Center teachers are encouraged to attend one of the Dunes Center's workshops. Call Tom Neuman to for more information: (805)473-9400 or e-mail: tom@wildware.net.

2) Call Tom Neuman to schedule a field trip or XanaDune Presentation: (805) 473-9400 or e-mail: tom@wildware.net. Calling as far ahead as possible is recommended so that we can arrange to have a docent and materials available for the date you request.

3) During the field trip the are four different activities that students will participate in: (A) Botany/Leaf Rubbing, (B) Birdwatching/Bird Bingo, (C) Animal Tracking, (D) Dune Diving (pure fun!). (Please see included material for details on these activities). We are happy to schedule special activities for field trips of special interest.

4) To insure maximum educational value, before the day of the field trip each teacher review the background materials included in the Dunes Center Education Kit CD-ROM or web site (www.dunescenter.org) and allow the students to do some research on their assigned activities. By doing this, students will have "A Mission" when they arrives at Oso Flaco Lake with some expectations and questions to help focus the day's activities. It is also recommended that teachers print out the Student Journal from the Ed Kit CD-ROM and distribute copies to each student. Some of the activities in the journal can be used in the classroom as a prelude to the field trip.

6) On the day of the field trip a docent from the Dunes Center will meet your bus at Oso Flaco Lake and give a short overview of the area to students and pass out materials to parent volunteers.

7) Students will gather on the beach for lunch and then hike to one of the large dunes for some "Dune Diving".

We greatly appreciate your cooperation with our field trip procedure. It was developed after extensive discussions with area teachers and lots of "field testing" with hundreds of school children.

Our wish is to provide you with a quality educational experience for your students and a field trip that runs smoothly so that teachers, students and parent volunteers can all have an enjoyable day. Your suggestions are always welcome.

Please contact the Dunes Center early to insure that you can reserve a spot!