In preparation for our field season, Splash has recently hired 11 seasonal, part-time, field guides and docents to help lead our school field trips and public tours! These new guides and docents will assist with class field trips and public programs in the vernal pool grasslands at Splash, as well as Project AWE field trips at the historic Nicolaus Dairy in Elk Grove.
The new guides have already embarked on their in-depth training, which will include lots of time in the field with Splash’s veteran field guides. The new vernal pool guides will learn about the various stations that students visit inside the Splash Center, the logistics of running the field trips, group management and interpretive methods, and vernal pool ecology. Additionally, the new guides will be studying Splash’s Life in our Watershed: Investigating Vernal Pools curriculum that the students use in class.
The new docents who will be working with Project AWE activities at the Nicolaus Dairy, are familiarizing themselves with the stations through which the students rotate on the dairy field trips. Although the Splash vernal pool field trips begin in January, the Project AWE field trips started earlier, but on hold while repairs are made to some of the structures at the dairy, following damage from the recent storms that swept through the area.
The new guides were recently at Splash, on January 11th and 16th, to help get the Splash Center set up for field trips and to explore a bit in the field with some of the experienced Splash guides. All the new guides at both locations will have several opportunities to shadow veteran guides before going solo to lead field trips. We’re thrilled to see their enthusiasm and excitement to work with Splash and to provide magical experiences for the students! We’re excited and looking forward to being in the field with students, as they make their own discoveries in the vernal pool grasslands at Mather Field, and at the Nicolaus Dairy with Project AWE! Our new field guides and docents will be leading the way!