Oregon Ridge Nature Center
Nature programs
Our nature programs are held year-round, and special accomodation programs (i.e., language interpreter, large print, etc.) are available. Please call the Nature Center (410-887-1815), or the Therapeutic office at 410-887-5370 for more information.
Below you can click on and view our schedule and listing of our programs. Our Program Calendar is a general listing of our programs and activities. Our Clubs and Classes schedule is also listed on the calendar. Further, our newsletters have interesting nature articles as well as Council news. Archived newsletters are available for the past several years.
Group Programs
For information concerning group programs please select one of the links below.
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Educational Field Trips - For public and private schools, scouts and other groups
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Summer Outreach Programs - For private groups and Baltimore County playground and agency groups. Please call the Nature Center (410-887-1815).
Maryland Green Center
Oregon Ridge Nature Center is now a Maryland Green Center!
This spring (2015), ORNC became certified by the Maryland Association for Environmental and Outdoor Education (MAEOE) as a Maryland Green Center. In addition to supporting community environmental learning and being a model for various sustainability practices, the key criterion to becoming a Maryland Green Center is helping local schools become MAEOE-certified Green Schools. ORNC is here to encourage and support schools to apply (or re-apply) for Green School Certification from MAEOE.
Green Schools provide high quality environmental education to its students. Why is environmental education for our youth so critical? For so many reasons, including:
- it helps children develop into adults who understand and care about environmental stewardship;
- it nurtures a sense of wonder, imagination & creativity;
- it provides a sense of beauty, calm, peace and refuge in an often stressful, fast-paced world;
- it expands their intellectual development;
- it enhances their physical development and overall health and well-being; and
- it helps them understand the interrelationship between all life.
Maryland has recognized the benefits this type of education provides. Since 2011 Maryland has required environmental literacy as a requirement for high school graduation. Schools from pre-K through grade 12 are required to provide a comprehensive program of environmental studies. MAEOE certified Green Schools are well prepared to provide this education to its students.
If you are involved with a school interested in becoming a certified Green School,
please contact ORNC to see how we may assist you. We’d love to help!
For additional information about the Green Center certification process and how to become a MAEOE Green School, please visit www.maeoe.org.
In the end we will conserve only what we love. We will love only what we understand. We will understand only what we are taught. ~ Baba Dioum