Shangri La Botanical Gardens & Nature Center

Onsite School Programs

Conducted by Shangri La Gardens’ staff, Onsite Curriculum-based Programs are the cornerstone of Shangri La Gardens Educational Programming. The curriculum, designed by Shangri La Gardens Education Team, consists of lessons aligned with the state science benchmarks, The Texas Natural Resource/Environmental Literacy Plan, and the North American Association for Environmental Education’s Guidelines for Excellence. Our goal is to create an immersive, highly engaging, and inspirational learning opportunity for children to augment the classroom experiences they receive. All of Shangri La Gardens Educational Programming support and supplement a STEM-based (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) curriculum.

Each program includes hands-on activities, investigations, or experiments, frequently with kinesthetic games. Total immersion is our goal. If the program is about trees, students will be in the forest. If the program includes a water theme, students might get a little wet as they study our swamp, bayou, or man-made lake. As we aim to connect students to nature and to empower them to make a difference, each program includes elements of natural history, ecology, and sustainability.

 Our education staff is comprised of 14 dedicated, and fully qualified educators.

All educators possess a current teacher’s certification, or hold a Master’s Degree in Education. The majority of our team members are certified teachers who have retired after serving many years in the classroom.  The education team has well over 250 years of combined experience.

Thank you to International Paper for their support of our Kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd Grade onsite programming.