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The future Sonoran Desert Center southeast of Carefree Highway and I-17 will provide regional facilities for
students to interpret the plants, rocks, animals and ecology of the desert. The Deer Valley Unified School District
will provide input on necessary resources to better connect classroom learning with outdoor education.

District fosters outdoor education
DVUSD helps Sonoran Desert Center
by Ambria Hammel

NORTH VALLEY – Although land in north Phoenix is under rapid development, city voters took the initiative to save some of it by establishing the Sonoran Desert Preserve in 1999. Now the Deer Valley Unified School District is taking the initiative on the educational component of the preserve to promote outdoor learning.

Administrators from DVUSD are establishing the framework to develop field trip curriculum at the future Sonoran Desert Center, a 26‑acre campus to be built within the preserve. They will work with other cultural and educational institutions to ensure program content on display and its related activities meet teacher needs for student instruction while adhering to state standards.

Comparable in design to South Mountain Preserve or Phoenix Mountain Preserve, the Sonoran Preserve southeast of Carefree Highway and I‑17 will border the proposed Sonoran Parkway to the south. The desert center at the south end of the preserve will serve the entire North Valley. The City of Phoenix will own the campus and the buildings, allowing the nonprofit Sonoran Desert Foundation to operate and fund it.

“We’re at the very bottom level of beginning this program,” DVUSD Superintendent Dr. Virgina McElyea said. Associate Superintendent Dr. Kent Davis served on the center’s educational advisory team last fall. With more than 20 cultural and educational institutions forming a consortium for the project, the team wanted to ensure the center meets the needs of schools.

Deer Valley teachers will work closely with four of the partners over the summer to align curriculum. Davis will collect teacher input on what student materials and instructional aids they might need before a field trip and specifically how the field trip fits into the lesson plan. The district will focus on each grade level that studies life sciences, including the Headstart program and fourth grade. They will also look at overnight activities for middle schools and field study opportunities for high school students.

Davis is excited to have something in the North Valley focusing on the Sonoran Desert because it will allow closer access for science field trip activities than downtown Phoenix. “A lot of our schools are taking advantage of those things anyway,” he said.

Sheila Grinell, who has worked nationwide in informal science education for more than 30 years, including time with the Arizona Science Center, is working with the foundation to direct the new center’s growth. She said the Sonoran Desert Center is designed “to use the outdoor experiences of the desert to teach to Arizona Science Standards in earth science and life science in particular.”

Draft plans for the triangular‑shaped parcel surrounded by washes include trail heads, ramadas, outdoor exhibit areas, an amphitheater and an interpretive center with gallery space and flexible program space. The Phoenix Public Library will open another branch on the campus as well and share physical and electronic material with the interpretive center.

Although geared toward science, students will study interdisciplinary topics, too. For example, when visitors learn about petroglyphs, they can also study ancient Southwest culture. The center is still in the design process and welcomes public comment.

Grinell plans to establish a temporary center by September and bring classes in by October or November. Her goal is to open the permanent facility by 2008.

“It’s a very exciting opportunity that we have to watch this come together,” DVUSD’s Governing Board President Christy Agosta said.

For more information, e‑mail sheilagrinell@cox.net.

Reach the reporter at ambria@thedesertadvocate.com.

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