Boys and Girls Club, BGSO to continue Dragonfly Quest field trip program
Posted on Thursday, December 28, 2006
The Fayetteville Boys and Girls Club will again partner with the Botanical Garden Society of the Ozarks in the coming semester to continue providing a field trip experience for its Dragonfly Quest program.
Dragonfly Quest is a new after-school outreach program run by the Boys and Girls Club as part of its School Kids Connection initiative. The program took in students from Butterfield Trail, Washington, Vandergriff and Owl Creek elementary schools.
Dragonfly Quest is designed as a science program with various sciencerelated activities. Most of the lessons concentrate on life sciences.
"A lot of them are based on plants and different insects," instructor Denee Wallin said.
The program is open to students in kindergarten through fifth grade at the schools. Each Dragonfly Quest group, limited to 15 participants, meets after school periodically for activities, she said.
In November, the groups visited the botantical garden in north Fayetteville as part of their research. The students were able to observe plants in the garden habitats.
Earlier this month, Cox Communications provided an $ 1, 800 donation to underwrite field trips to the garden.
Dragonfly Quest is still considered a pilot program in Fayetteville, but it could expand later depending on how it is received, Wallin said.
The program originated as a nationwide educational project developed by Miami University of Ohio and the Natural Science Foundation.
The field trip followed the official dedication of the Carl A. Totemeier Horticulture Center on the botanical garden grounds in October. The completion of the center has been considered a milestone for the BGSO as it develops the garden.
The garden grounds comprise 86 acres owned by the society. The center sits on six acres set aside to be developed as the first phase of the Botanical Garden of the Ozarks.
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