​Welcome to Inside the Outdoors at Irvine Regional Park!

Fourth Grade​

NGSS Standards Supported:4-LS1-1, 4-LS1-2 ​

Irvine Regional Park was the very first regional park in the State of California, and is home to some of Orange County’s oldest coast live oak and California sycamore trees. Led by an Inside the Outdoors Field or Program Naturalist, students will hike through various native oak, riparian, and coastal sage scrub ecosystems. They will also visit the OC Zoo, which focuses on animals and plants native to the southwestern United States. Along the way, they will make observations, record and analyze data based on the structures of living things throughout the park to develop a deeper understanding of the
role these structures play in plant and animal survival.  During the field trip, students will rotate through the following station activities:

Geology

Students will become “geologists” to observe how weathering and erosion affects the riverbed and make predictions on future weathering and erosion patterns.

Plant Labs

Students will use science practices to learn how plants adapt to dry conditions in the oak woodland ecosystem through hands-on activities.​

Fire Ecology​

Students hike through an Oak Woodland explore and what happens when fire comes through regularly and what happens to the plants and animals when fire is suppressed and only burns every 100 years.​

Zoo

During a guided exploration of the zoo, students will identify characteristics typical of prey and predatory animals, and learn to differentiate between observation and inference by observing adaptations and making inferences about what the adaptations do for the animals.​

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