Introduction to the Carrie Murray Nature Center
The Carrie Murray Nature Center would like to encourage Baltimore City high schools to let us assist in helping to achieve your Core Learning Goals in Science. We have a variety of programs that can be adapted to compliment and enhance the learning process. This is a short introduction to give you some examples of how we can contribute to the classroom.
Under Goal 3: Concepts of Biology, the Center can assist with the following Expectations and Indicators:
3.5 The student will investigate the interdependence of diverse living organisms and their interactions with the components of the biosphere.
3.5.1 The student will analyze the relationships between biotic diversity and abiotic factors in environments and the resulting influence on ecosystems.
The Nature Center is home to many permanently injured, orphaned, and abandoned animals, both native and exotic. Our animals are perfect for showing the students animal relationships. We can help explain these relationships while letting the participants see some different types animals up close: snakes, lizards, insects, spiders and tarantulas, parrots, owls, hawks, vultures and other birds of prey.
These are just a few of the animals that live at CMNC!
3.5.2 The student will analyze the interrelationships and interdependencies among different organisms and explain how these relationships contribute to the stability of the ecosystem.
3.5.3 The student will investigate how natural and man-made changes in environmental conditions will affect individual organisms and the dynamics of populations.
3.5.4 The student will illustrate how all organisms are part of and depend on two major global food webs that are positively or negatively influenced by human activity and technology.
The Center has animals that can show the students first hand what human impact on the environment can do to individual organisms and populations. Almost all of our resident animals are here due to some type of human interference.
We are also a living, breathing, and EATING example of the food chain in action. CMNC houses herbivores, carnivores, omnivores, scavengers, and decomposers.
We have concentrated here on how the Carrie Murray Nature Center can contribute to Expectation 3.5, but it’s easy to see how we would also be a valuable resource for fulfilling other Expectations including:
3.4 The student will explain the mechanism of evolutionary change.
3.6 The student will investigate a biological issue and develop an action plan.
The Nature Center also teaches Watershed programs and Recycling programs that can be easily modified to fit into Goal 6: Environmental Science.
CMNC offers programs both on and off-site. We encourage groups to come to the Nature Center so that they can get the full “nature experience”, but if transportation is an issue we can usually come to your site.
Our staff is very willing to work with teachers to insure they get what they need from our programs. We can teach a class, do a program for a large audience, or just show up with a few animals and let the teachers do the rest.
Please contact us with any questions or to book or build a program with us.
Carrie Murray Nature Center
1901 Ridgetop Rd.
Baltimore, MD. 21207
(phone) 410-396-0808
(fax) 410-265-1085
We can’t wait to hear from you!