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EDUCATION AND EXPLORATION

Get Outdoors Nevada offers a wide range of nature and science education programs, designed to connect diverse audiences to the benefits of the outdoors.

Our programs include native habitat builds, formal and informal classroom programs, school assemblies, teacher trainings, guided field trips, microgrant funding, and outreach and tabling for fairs and community events. Although our programs mainly focus on reaching underserved youth, we also reach teachers, professionals, and the general community.

Specifically, our programs strive to meet the following goals:

  • Support students in their grade-specific science standards.
  • Provide participants with greater knowledge of science and nature.
  • Provide participants with increased interest and attitudes about STEM, conservation, and community.
  • Increase participants' time spent outdoors, stewardship, critical thinking skills, and connection to the outdoors.

In order to determine our effectiveness, many of our programs are evaluated using the above metrics. For specific information on our individual programs, please see the tabs below.

Water in the Desert Field Trip

Meet Your Mojave Tab Photo Class

Meet Your Mojave!

Meet Your Mojave is an informal curriculum that increases knowledge about habitats and natural resources.

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AMKE Online Resources3

Online Resources

Discover, experience, and connect to Nevada's diverse outdoor places AT HOME with our free educational resources.

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Outdoor Classroom

Get Outdoors Nevada Microgrants

Get Outdoors Nevada Microgrants connect youth to the outdoors by providing field trip transportation grants to schools & community organizations.

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Kids - outdoor learning

Microgrant Recipients

Get Outdoors Nevada receives requests to deliver these programs to many organizations in the community!

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NGSS Thumbnail Photo

NGSS Program

Get Outdoors Nevada delivers Next Generation Science Standard (NGSS) programs to help CCSD schools increase science proficiency through outdoor experiences.

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Brittlebush Flower with Bees

Native Habitat Program

Urban habitat restoration projects create and protect native environments for wildlife in local neighborhoods.

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Mojave Max

Mojave Max

Get Outdoors Nevada partners with Clark County's Desert Conservation Program to deliver the Mojave Max Education Program.

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Interns appreciate the outdoors

Nature Ambassadors

Get Outdoors Nevada is proud to host the Nature Ambassador program.  As a Nature Ambassador, volunteers help GON staff connect youth to nature through a variety of nature and science efforts.

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Meet Your Mojave!

Meet Your Mojave is an informal educational curriculum designed to introduce youth to the outdoors. Through engaging, hands-on, activity based science and nature modules, these programs seek to increase students' comfort and interest in the outdoors. Modules are taught in multi-program lessons, and include units such as Parks of Southern Nevada, Nature Games, Exploring your Senses, Water in the Desert, and others. These Meet Your Mojave programs are available for summer camps, day camps, after school programs, and other informal community settings. Programs are available for pre-K, Elementary and Middle school ages.

Get Outdoors Nevada Microgrant Program

The Get Outdoors Nevada Microgrant Program offers reimbursable field trip funding statewide!

The basics:
  • Applications are accepted on a rolling basis.
  • Each reimbursable microgrant can be used to cover transportation costs for science or outdoor-based field experiences for schools or community organizations.
  • Applications must be submitted a minimum of three weeks before the scheduled trip.
Our History:

In 2012, Get Outdoors Nevada (GON) began facilitation of the NV Children's Outdoor Bill of Rights Alliance which identified a lack of transportation as the major barrier for youth to visit Nevada's diverse outdoor places.  In addressing this community need, GON developed the Get Outdoors Nevada Microgrant Program where schools and community organizations could apply for reimbursable funding.  Prior to the pandemic, GON supported 636 bus trips transporting 26,576 participants to public lands, parks, and museums throughout Clark County.  Now we are able to offer this program to communities all over our beautiful state!

Access the application at the link below:

Field Trip Application

Thank you to our Program Sponsors

For more information contact [email protected]

Get Outdoors Nevada Microgrant Recipients & Participants

Addeliar Gulf / Eva Wolfe
Elementary Schools
After School All Stars
- Lifetime Adventures
Aldeane Ries Elementary School
Allen Elementary School
Alyce Taylor Elementary School
(Sparks, NV)
American Preparatory Academy
Andre Agassi College Prep
Arbor View High School
Arturo Cambeiro Elementary School
Bailey Middle School
Big Brothers Big Sisters
Blue Diamond Elementary School
Boys and Girls Clubs - Desert Pines
Boys and Girls Clubs - Downtown
Boys and Girls Clubs - Engelstad
Boys and Girls Clubs - Gaughan
Boys and Girls Clubs - Gulbis
Boys and Girls Clubs - Kish
Boys and Girls Clubs - Lied
Brown Middle School
Cambridge Recreation Center
Camp Cartwheel
Children's Discovery Museum
Children's Heart Center
City of Henderson Parks & Recreation
Clark County
Clark County Gang Prevention
Club Christ
Colorfully Candid Paradigm
CP Squires Elementary School
CT Sewell Elementary School
Cynthia Cunningham Elementary School

Dean Allen Elementary School
Derfelt Elementary School
Desert Pines High School
Desert Rose Adult High School
Detwiler Elementary School
Don and Dee Snyder Elementary School
Doris Reed Elementary School
East Career Technical Academy
Elaine Wynn Elementary School
Eldorado High School
Elise L. Wolff Elementary
Estes McDoniel Elementary School
Explore Knowledge Academy
Families in Nature
Fay Galloway Elementary School
Ferron Elementary School
Frias Elementary School
Gene Ward Elementary
Gilbert Magnet School
Gordon McCaw Elementary School
Goynes Elementary School
Grant M. Bowler Elementary School
Green Our Planet (Gibson MS)
Harmon Elementary School
Harry Reid Elementary School
Helen Herr Elementary School
Helen Marie Smith Elementary School
Helldorado Farm Days
Hummel Elementary School
I Have A Dream Foundation
Jack Dailey Elementary School
Jay Jeffers Elementary School
Jim Bridger Middle School
Jim Thorpe Elementary School
Jr. Master Gardeners Program - UNCE

K.O. Knudson Middle School
Kit Carson International Academy
Las Vegas High School
Las Vegas High School PAL Program
Leaders in Training
Liberty High School
Mark L. Fine Elementary School
Mater Academy of Nevada
Moapa Valley High School
Mohave Accelerated Learning Center
Monaco Middle School
Mountain View Elementary School
Myrtle Tate Elementary School
(Communities in Schools)
Nate Mack Elementary School
National Park Service
Neil C. Twitchell Elementary School
Nevada Learning Academy
Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth
Northwest Career & Technical Academy
NPS Centennial veterans group
Paradise Recreation Center
Parkdale Recreation Center
Pat Diskin Elementary School
Patricia Bendorf Elementary School
Paul Culley Empowerment School
Pearson Recreation Center
Pinecrest Academy - Inspirada
Price Recreation Center
Rainbow Dreams Academy
Robert Lake Elementary School
Robert Lunt Elementary School
Robert Taylor Elementary School
Ruby Duncan Elementary School

SAFY of Nevada
Sandy Searles Miller Academy
Saville Middle School
Schofield Middle School
Shadow Ridge High School
Silverado High School
Southern Nevada Water Authority
Southern Nevada Trails Day
Southern Paiute Cultural Exchange
Spring Valley High School
Tarkanian Middle School
The Embracing Project
Tom Williams Elementary School
Triggs Elementary School
Twin Lakes Elementary School
Ulis Newton Elementary School
US Fish & Wildlife Service
US Forest Service
Ute Perkins Elementary School
Virgin Valley Elementary School
(Mesquite, NV)
Walter Bracken STEAM Academy
Walter E. Jacobson Elementary School
West Career and Technical Academy
Whitney Elementary School
Winchester Dondero Cultural Center
Wing and Lilly Fong Elementary School
YMCA Centennial Hills
YMCA Durango Hills
YMCA Heinrich
YMCA Skyview

NGSS Program

Discover our comprehensive
Next Generation Science Standard modules for K-5!

Get Outdoors Nevada (GON) offers Next Generation Science Standard (NGSS)-supported science modules for K-5 during the school year.

NGSS modules are related to Life or Earth Sciences.  Activities are three dimensional - incorporating Science and Engineering Practices, Disciplinary Core Ideas, and Crosscutting Concepts to achieve a specific grade level performance expectation and engage various learning styles.

Modules are completed by an entire elementary school grade level in approximately two weeks. There is no cost for qualifying schools.

Each module consists of three classroom programs and one associated field experience.  Prior to COVID-19, GON has sent a trained science educator to the classroom to instruct all programs and lead the field trip.  GON supplied all staff, materials, as well as coordinated bus transportation from the school to the field site and back.  We are now developing virtual versions of these modules.  We will resume in-person activities when circumstances allow.

“It gives new focus and perspective to the standards. It gives students examples of other teachers, especially women, modeling scientific teaching and learning.” — First Grade Teacher & NGSS Program Participant 2019

CCSD Schools ~ Apply Here!

We have also worked hard to create virtual versions of these programs. This may be an option for those schools not interested in or waitlisted for in-person programming. Check out the trailer below!

GON is committed to improving student interest and attitudes about science, helping Clark County School District schools increase science proficiency, and encouraging personal responsibility towards our outdoor places.

This is the only program in southern Nevada that combines standards-supported classroom programs with real world experiences. We are grateful to Barrick and the Clark County Outside Agency Grant program for their support!

100% of surveyed teachers participating in GON programs feel that "Outdoor places help my students learn more effectively." Program success and outcomes are measured through evaluations tied to a logic model.

Get Outdoors Nevada's Native Habitat Program

Get Outdoors Nevada’s Native Habitat Program is comprised of urban wildlife restoration projects committed to rehabilitating urban spaces into livable wildlife habitat for threatened and endangered pollinators, birds and reptiles. Through the Native Habitat Program, we connect school children and community organizations to develop beneficial ecological conditions with the goal of helping our community to understand the value of native habitats.

Why is the Native Habitat Program important?

  1. Helps wildlife protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 and the Endangered Species Act of 1973.

  2. Builds protective corridors for wildlife traveling to larger habitats like a national wildlife refuge, or to urban areas like your backyard.

  3. Creates food, water, shelter, and space.

  4. Improves human life by beautifying our city, reducing the urban heat island effect, improving air quality and enhancing the outdoor recreation experience.

Check out Craig Ranch Regional Park’s Pollinator Native Habitat:

You can make a lasting impact in our community. Look out for Native Habitat Program volunteer events here!

To inquire about a project at your location, please contact:
Cheresa Taing, Education Program Manager at [email protected].

Mojave Max

In partnership with the Clark County Desert Conservation Program, Springs Preserve, and the Clark County School District, Get Outdoors Nevada is proud to be a part of the Mojave Max team and deliver programming directly to schools so that everyone can learn how to keep the Mojave Desert safe!

Students explore Mojave Desert weather, Desert Tortoise biology, and the importance of conservation in each educational assembly or classroom Tortoise Talk. Ultimately, each of these topics gives them useful information they can each use to win the Mojave Max Emergence contest by guessing the date and time Mojave Max will emerge from his burrow for the first time each Spring.

For more information on which schools are participating and when, please contact Aaron Leifheit at [email protected] or call (702) 997-3350.

Nature Ambassador Program

Get Outdoors Nevada is proud to host the Nature Ambassador Program. As a Nature Ambassador, volunteers are responsible for helping GON staff connect youth to nature through a variety of nature and science efforts. These include staffing interpretive tabling displays, classroom programs, or field trips to public lands and museums, Mojave Max Tortoise Talks, assisting with Native Habitat plantings, or helping with photography, social media, or evaluation research. Your work will be instrumental in improving the quality of life in southern Nevada, and increasing interest, knowledge, and care of the outdoors.

Position requirements include: be over 16 years of age, ability to travel to program locations, and ability to volunteer four hours a month.

Please click this link for position descriptions. For more information, contact Get Outdoors Nevada at [email protected].

NOTE: The Nature Ambassador application process has concluded for 2021. Get Outdoors Nevada will not be accepting Nature Ambassador applications until 2022. Stay tuned for future developments and visit our Upcoming Events calendar to see other volunteer opportunities. Thank you!