The Boone County Arboretum is an outdoor living museum, with a curated collection of over 3,600 trees and shrubs, that offers teachers and students rich educational experiences through the Arboretum's programs and tours. As part of our outreach, the Arboretum On Wheels (AOW) is an innovative learning laboratory for serving the environmental educational needs of students in the Greater Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky region, directly on their campuses. The AOW lab experience includes an educator who will teach engaging, hands-on NGSS lessons.
 

A Unique Educational Resource

The ideal learning situation is for students to be immersed in the natural environment they are learning about. The AOW lab has been designed so that our educator can teach lessons from inside the lab, or from anywhere around it using various microscopes and biology models at the built-in exhibit areas and learning stations. If the weather doesn't allow for outside lessons, or programs are adaptive and able to be taken to any room inside the school.
 

Example NGSS Lessons Available:

Early Childhood:

Trees Make Sense!
Using our senses to discover nature - children will experience nature through the shapes, sizes, and colors they discover with song, movement, crafts, and exploration.

Oh, to be a Tree!
Relating ourselves to nature - in this experience, children will learn about tree parts by comparing them to their own bodies through song and dance, crafts, and movement.

Elementary & Middle School:

Trees And What They Do For Us
Teaches basic understanding of tree parts and their purpose for the tree. Many tree parts on display to touch and smell. Engages in thinking why trees are good for humans and other creatures. Activity involving common household items where kids have to decide if these come from trees and why.

Interactions With Our Ecosystem
Teaches basic components of food chain and explains terms like ecosystem, biotic factors, producers, herbivores, decomposers. Many items on display from the ecosystem forest. Activity is based on the food web where kids can see that everybody in the ecosystem is connected.

Dive Into Photosynthesis
Teaches basic understanding of photosynthesis and the parts of the plant and plant cell involved in it. Models of plant cells available for students. Activity recreates the chemical reaction of photosynthesis using pony beads. Alternative activity can be introduction to microscopy and preparation of leaf imprints to view stomata.

All About Insects
This program teaches about the different types of insects you may see in your backyard, beneficial versus invasive species, and pollinators. Participants will get an up-close look at slugs, beetles, and butterflies.

High School:

Plant Adaptations and Natural Selection
Students will explore which factors lead to adaptation, investigate aspects of different plants and identify key distinguishing traits, and develop a theory as to how a trait has led to a species’ success.

The Urban Forest
Investigates the importance of trees in our cities, to both the environment and the community of people living there.

New / Custom / Other Programs:

The above is just a sampling of the formal education programs the Arboretum on Wheels can provide - new and custom presentations are constantly being developed, including for homeschool cooperatives. Our informal, more-generalized programs are popular for a wide variety of community events and organizations - these still include a hands-on experience, with material and discussions for all age groups. Please feel free to reach out to us, we'll be happy to accommodate your group's needs.
 

Booking The Arboretum On Wheels

If you are interested in having the Arboretum On Wheels program visit your school or community event, contact us with some target dates or if you need any additional information. Once we have confirmed your date and program, you can then pay for your reservation using a credit card (an online payment link will be provided) or check.

Programs are designed for a 1-hour class period. The standard rate is $225 for the first hour; then $100 for each additional hour at the same location on the same day. A mileage fee applies from Burlington, KY.
 

The Visionaries Behind The Arboretum On Wheels

The AOW lab is operated through the Friends of Boone County Arboretum (FBCA) "Educational Outreach Fund." FBCA is a non-profit organization dedicated to advocating for and advancing the Arboretum's mission in the community. A collaboration of private donations to the 2017 Growing Forward Campaign and a grant from the Elsa Heisel Sule Foundation brought the AOW from just a vision into reality.
 

Keep Our Wheels Rolling

Want to help students have a rich educational experience through the AOW program? Corporate sponsorships and gifts from individuals to the Friends of Boone County Arboretum Educational Outreach Fund, will be used for a scholarship to provide discounted program rates to qualifying (need-based) schools, and will help ensure the AOW has ample educational resources to carry out its program.