Outdoor Environmental Science Program for Homeschool Students

More about the program...

Registration is required and space is limited. Join our e-mail list to receive a monthly newsletter that will include OESP announcements. 

Are you ready to sign your child up? Use the form below! Please contact us with any questions at 408-298-7657 or e-mail education@grpg.org.

Would you like to find out more about our park?  Explore our website further at www.grpg.org, or check out our blog.

All classes are:

• Held from 1:30pm to 3:00pm
• Drop-off classes
• $10 per student per class
• For 5 to 10 year-olds only

Fantastic Fibonaccis
Wednesday, February 1st
1:30pm to 3:00pm
Ages: 5-10
$10 per student (Or $40 for whole series)
Ever wonder why some flowers have more petals than others? You may be surprised to find how a sequence of numbers named after the Italian mathematician Leonardo Fibonacci can help us predict the number of petals for all sorts of flowers, and it doesn’t stop there! Be prepared to look at math—and nature—in a way you never have before!



Finding Fractals in Familiar Places
Wednesday, February 8th
1:30pm to 3:00pm
Ages: 5-10
$10 per student (Or $40 for whole series)
Join us as we investigate some of nature’s most intricate handiwork, including how snowflakes get their shape and why a tree’s branches grow just so. Examples of fractals abound in nature! Come discover what makes these shapes so fascinating as we weave art, technology, and geometry into our discussion.

Geometry in the Gardens: Shapes
Wednesday, February 15th
1:30pm to 3:00pm
Ages: 5-10
$10 per student (Or $40 for whole series)
Join us for the first in a two-part series that’s all about geometry! Enhance your knowledge of shapes and their properties as we investigate the geometric nature of our park.

Geometry in the Gardens: Angles
Wednesday, February 22nd
1:30pm to 3:00pm
Ages: 5-10
$10 per student (Or $40 for whole series)
Come as we round out our discussion of geometry with a class that’s all about angles. We’ll build on our discussion of shapes by experimenting with some of the key tools in any geometer’s toolkit and finish the afternoon by measuring some of the tallest trees in the Guadalupe Gardens.

The Math Trail
Wednesday, February 29th
1:30pm to 3:00pm
Ages: 5-10
$10 per student (Or $40 for whole series)
In our final class of the series, we’ll take to the park to explore the newest trail in the Guadalupe Gardens, the Math Trail! Work as a team and put your math skills to the test by following a series of clues that combine all of this month’s topics with some fun facts about our park.

Mother Earth: the Ohlone Way
Resource Guide: coming soon! 

Ancient Traditions of San Jose
Wednesday, March 7th
1:30pm – 3:00pm
Ages: 5-10
$10 per student (or $35 for the whole series)
As early as 8,000 BC, Native Americans lived on the land we now call Santa Clara Valley. The Ohlone, a group of individual tribes with common traditions that lived in the San Francisco Bay Area, established themselves in the Bay during the beginning of the common era. In this class, we’ll explore the history of the Muwekma Ohlone tribe that resided along the Guadalupe River, learning about their relationship to Mother Earth.  Be prepared to travel to an ancient landscape—a fertile valley filled with animals, vegetation, rivers, streams, marshes, powerful weather systems, and a night sky blanketed with stars!

Guadalupe Grocery
Wednesday, March 14th
1:30pm – 3:00pm
Ages: 5-10
$10 per student
Two-thousand years ago, the shopping center across the street from the Guadalupe River Park was probably an oak woodland or a tule marsh. Where did the Muwekma people go to get their groceries? Come to this class to learn how the Muwekma cultivated, harvested, prepared, and stored native plant products. We’ll hike along the Guadalupe River Trail, meeting the trees, shrubs, and herbs that the Muwekma used, like the Toyon tree, the California Buckeye, and the California Wild Rose. After working up an appetite, we’ll prepare a snack together using an Ohlone recipe.

Ohlone Olympics
Wednesday, March 21st
1:30pm – 3:00pm
Ages: 5-10
$10 per student
Although the Ohlone played games for the fun of it, their games also had a specific purpose—to teach certain virtues and practice applying them in a realistic environment. In this class, we’ll learn how to play several traditional Ohlone games, including Keeper of the Fires, which teaches stealth and keen listening skills, and the Hoop and Pole game, which requires the speed of a sprinter and the strength and agility of a javelin thrower.

Elderberry Engineering 101
Wednesday, March 28th
1:30pm – 3:00pm
Ages: 5-10
$10 per student
The Ohlone built many things with Elderberry wood--combs, arrow shafts, blow guns, clapper sticks, wound covers, and counting games, to name a few. Join us in this class to learn how Ohlone engineers and craftsmen used Elderberry trees and other native vegetation growing along the Guadalupe River. We’ll discover how to make dye from walnuts, medicine from willow bark, bait from Madrone berries, and other useful natural products and art forms.

Special One-Time Class

The Guadalupe River Park Conservancy is proud to introduce our new Outdoor Environmental Science Program (OESP) for homeschool students!  The Conservancy specializes in educating students through hands-on outdoor science activities and has developed a special series of environmental science classes that will take place in an exciting and enriching environment: the Guadalupe River Park & Gardens (GRPG).

A unique setting…
The Guadalupe River Park & Gardens is an education destination like no other.  A natural oasis located in the heart of downtown San Jose, the Guadalupe River Park & Gardens features 254 acres of park that include the Heritage Rose Garden, the Historic Orchard, a community garden, and 2.6 miles of trail that runs adjacent to the Guadalupe River.  The GRPG provides a natural outdoor laboratory for science experiments and offers a creative and dynamic atmosphere for learning.

A customizable education…
The Outdoor Environmental Science Program’s core curriculum covers a wide variety of current environmental science topics.  Each class covers a unique theme within the environmental sciences, but your child can sign up for an individual class depending on his or her interests, come to several classes to cover a unit, or attend all the classes to build an interdisciplinary understanding of nature and science.

A learning adventure…
The Guadalupe River Park Conservancy’s classes are unique, interactive adventures – children won’t learn science by listening to lectures, but will learn through activity-oriented lessons, science experiments, and scientific observations out in the park.  Your child will be challenged, but will move, talk, think and play to learn.A healthier community…
More and more studies are indicating that spending time outdoors is vital to children’s academic development and health.  Spending time in nature allows children to develop a connection with their surrounding community and become early stewards of the environment. 

An ongoing interest…
When outdoors, children can see science playing out before their very eyes, develop powerful observational skills, and are exposed to the environmental sciences, an up-and-coming field worldwide.  If your child’s interest is kindled by any or all of the OESP class topics, you can find more educational resources about that topic by clicking on the links that follow each class description, so you can be an active partner as your child explores their new favorite environmental science subject.  Each link will be available on the 1st of the month in which a class takes place.