Teacher Resource Guide for Using Additional Learning Time
Introduction: Purpose of this Guide
During the 2023 legislative session, House Bill 130 was enacted to increase the minimum number of instructional hours from 990 for elementary school students and 1,080 for middle and high school students to 1,140 instructional hours for all students. This is the equivalent of 27 extra days of learning for elementary school students and 10 extra days for middle and high school students. Additional learning time can be a powerful tool for closing the achievement gap and helping students recover from the loss of instructional time during the pandemic. However, in order to achieve the most benefit from the extra hours, teachers need access to resources and ideas for engaging students in rich learning experiences.
The research shows that some highly effective uses of additional time include targeted in-school tutoring, extra time on specific subjects like math or literacy, enrichment and experiential learning. With that in mind, we have put together the following resource guide, which provides online and statewide resources that can help teachers plan the additional hours.
The guide includes three sections:
Free Online Resources Statewide Resources Regional Resources Across New Mexico
This guide is just intended as a starting point: please contact us if you have ideas for other resources that should be available in this guide.
Download the Guide as a pdfSection I: Free Online Resources
Jump to:
Social Emotional Learning
Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Teaching
STEM
Humanities and the Arts
Teacher Resources and Professional Development
Social Emotional Learning
Developed as a quarantine project by a team of Minnesota educators who work for the St. Croix River Education District. They’ve got tier-1 school-wide instruction resources for grades K-12 and tier 2-3 or special education interventions for grades K-12 as well. Lessons incorporate CASEL’S safe elements.
What’s available: Customizable lessons, extension activities, and community-building resources.
Choose Love’s mission is to create safer communities through Character Social Emotional Development programs (CSED). At the core of it all is a simple formula (COURAGE + GRATITUDE + FORGIVENESS + COMPASSION-IN-ACTION = Choosing Love) that anyone can learn and practice to nourish and strengthen the body, mind, and emotions to cultivate happy, healthy, meaningful lives and to thoughtfully respond to all we meet and improve the world around us.
What’s available: Curriculum that is tailored to any age. Videos, visuals, newsletter and more.
Adolescent depression lives in the shadows. Young people facing it feel isolated and dangerously alone. We help schools provide their students with the skills needed to talk to each other, to their parents, to their teachers and to counselors. Our resources raise awareness, reduce stigma, educate students, promote good mental health and encourage help-seeking.
What’s available: Materials for grades 4-12, Teen Empowerment Club, Family Engagement and School Policy & Staff Development resources.
The Harmony Online Learning Portal provides PreK-6th grade teachers with everything they need to successfully integrate a social-emotional learning program into the classroom. Harmony SEL incorporates multiple methods to teach positive relationships and create an inclusive classroom environment. Everyday Practices are a key component of the program, providing students with ongoing, supported opportunities to interact with peers and participate in dialogue and decision-making about issues related to the classroom community.
What’s available: Training, lessons, activities, videos, stories, games, and songs.
Minneola Brain Self-Regulation
When students understand that they are in control of their brains, they are empowered to learn, to grow, and to seek out challenges for a lifetime of learning. The “Minneola Grows” project is dedicated to creating learning environments that help students foster this skill, through an understanding of age-appropriate neuroscience that touches on everything from parts of the brain to calming strategies and growth mindset.
What’s available: In-classroom activities, video lessons, and professional development based on over a decade of research and exploration into Growth Mindset best-practices.
Project ECHO has 32 ECHO programs and provides meaningful professional development with collaborative learning and evidence-based best practices.
What’s available: Videos, slideshows and materials for supporting students in social emotional learning.
Free K-8 and lessons and high school curriculum focused on making kindness the norm in your school or classroom.
What’s available: Lessons, ideas, coloring pages, training and more.
This is one of Sandy Hook Promise’s no-cost Know the Signs programs and teaches students to be more socially inclusive and connected to each other. With activities and curricula available for all ages, students are empowered to end social isolation in three easy steps.
What’s available: Training videos, interactive lessons, and a searchable digital library of resources.
A first-of-its kind national initiative to provide compassion education to lower and upper elementary school students across the U.S. The mission is to ensure that every primary school student in the U.S. understands what compassion is and how to demonstrate it in their lives. Each lesson takes 15 minutes to complete.
What’s available: Videos, reflection discussions, interactive activities, role playing and more.
Strengthens academic learning while fostering qualities such as empathy, self-awareness and respect. Requires minimal prep and is easy to integrate into the school day.
What’s available: 20 brief lessons to use over the course of a school year.
Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Teaching
These Youtube videos range in length and offer understanding as teachers begin on a journey to culturally and linguistically responsive instruction.
Education Week: Unpacking what it means to be a culturally responsive teacher and how all these research terms are related.
STEM
Brings together activities from across Audubon’s national network of environmental educators, including the classroom curriculum Audubon Adventures, plus related DIY activities and content from Audubon’s editors.
What’s available: Kids can learn about birds through videos, hand-on activities and reading resources.
Dedicated to the vision that every student in every school has the opportunity to learn computer science as part of their core K-12 education. Access to computer science in schools, with a focus on increasing participation by young women and students from other underrepresented groups. Code.org also organizes the annual Hour of Code campaign, which has engaged more than 15% of all students in the world.
What’s available: Courses are available in more than 67 languages. Courses from Code.org are for students in grades K-12 and it also includes professional learning for teachers.
Innovative K-12 resources that build science skills while inspiring young people to connect to local habitats, explore biodiversity, and engage in citizen-science projects. Offers an inquiry-based approach to science and provides educators with materials and professional development that support them in helping kids develop science process skills, connect with nature and be engaged by the real-world importance of the data they enter online, which scientists use to understand and conserve birds.
What’s available: Free lessons and downloads to help teachers plan outdoor learning.
A free weekly one-page “newspaper” with STEM activity ideas, quotes, STEM puzzles, and other fun educational tidbits. The STEM Everyday podcast also has teacher interviews that talk about STEM culture and project based learning ideas sprinkled throughout the website.
What’s available: Free and cheap STEM ideas and resources to help add STEM to the classroom. Includes resources such as a versatile STEM classroom supply list on a budget and a “newspaper” to help inspire kids to engage with STEM in the real world.
Giving educators innovative ways to design and deliver engaging learning experiences with more than 200,000 digital resources.
What’s available: Virtual field trips, videos, text, podcasts, interactives, behind‑the-scenes at major organizations, career spotlights, and more.
Student-appropriate news articles, with original and simplified options. You can also listen to the articles.
What’s available: Videos and news articles that cover current events and the spectrum of subjects.
Clubs are free programs for Grades 3-5 and 6-12 students to join a sisterhood of supportive peers and role models using computer science to change the world. Clubs are completely free and offer fun activities through a flexible curriculum that adapts to your unique needs. Clubs can take place after school, on weekends, or during the summer, and they can be held in-person or entirely online.
What’s available: Free curriculum, meeting guides and tutorials, and facilitator support provided.
Find over one million free activities, simulations, exercises, lessons, and games for math and science.
What’s available: Books, activities, and lessons from elementary to the college level.
CS First empowers every teacher to teach computer science with free tools and resources. Students learn through video tutorials and block-based coding in Scratch.
What’s available: A library of 1-hour coding lessons that connect to many other subject areas. Lessons and hands-on activities. Can connect to Google Classroom.
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Education Program
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory is a leader in robotic space exploration, sending rovers to Mars, probes into the farthest reaches of the solar system, and satellites to advance understanding of our home planet. Students can explore projects, do experiments and even listen to experts talk about missions and science updates.
What’s available: Standards aligned lessons and activities for grades K-12.
NASA STEM Engagement strives to increase K-12 involvement in NASA projects, enhance higher education, support underrepresented communities, strengthen online education, and boost NASA’s contribution to informal education. The intended outcome is a generation prepared to code, calculate, design, and discover its way to a new era of American innovation.
What’s available: Resource collections for grades K-4, 5-8 and 9-12 including videos, activities, and printables. Be sure to check out lessons and multimedia about New Mexico’s own Chacon Canyon in NASA’s Ancient Observatories Timeless Knowledge section.
National Geographic Explorer Classroom
Live interactive sessions that connect young people with National Geographic Explorers — to hear behind-the-scenes stories and interact with cutting-edge scientists, researchers, and powerful storytellers from around the globe. Ages 4-8 and 9-14.
What’s available: Instructional guide to help learners get the most out of the experience.
National Zoo Conservation Classroom
Virtual program for grades K-5 designed for a variety of students to join and learn together. Programs take place on Zoom in webinar format. In this format, audio and video is disabled but students can actively participate using polls, Q&A and chat.
What’s available: Each lesson has four elements: wonder, engage, act, and connect.
- Wonder: Pre-program videos that introduce the monthly topic.
- Engage: Live, 45-minute virtual program with a Zoo educator.
- Act: Synchronous and asynchronous activities to extend the lesson.
- Connect: Videos that connect students to staff with “unZOOsual” careers.
PBS Learning Media: K-8 Mathematics
K-8 Mathematics from counting cardinal numbers to linear equations and functions. Students can review the calculation of area using a Cyberchase video, continue on to find the area of combined shapes using a Math Active interactive lesson, and can be assessed on their understanding using Khan Academy. Similar units can be created on topics such as lines and angles, probability models, and the multiplication and division of fractions.
What’s available: A library of resources that includes a media gallery, interactive lessons, videos, and more.
Nature School is designed to infuse exciting wildlife learning into your classroom – from visual nature lesson infographics to species spotlight class videos, interactive conservation challenges and more! Now open to the public – students, teachers and educators worldwide may engage with our full program.
What’s available: Nature lessons that ignite student curiosity with backyard focused wildlife lessons.
A broad national outreach effort to encourage educators to adopt research-based strategies to engage girls in STEM. The network of more than 205 partner organizations who host SciGirls clubs, camps, and afterschool programs is a supportive community of educators who provide a spark for STEM.
What’s available: Resources and activities for concepts including earth and space, engineering and design, health, life and environment, physical science, and technology. Also includes a database of more than 1,000 STEM professional women available to act as mentors and role models for educational programs.
Scratch is the world’s largest coding community for children and a coding language with a simple visual interface that allows young people to create digital stories, games, and animations. Scratch is designed, developed, and moderated by the Scratch Foundation, a nonprofit organization. It promotes computational thinking and problem solving skills; creative teaching and learning; self-expression and collaboration; and equity in computing. It is available in more than 70 languages.
What’s available: For each activity, you can try a tutorial, download a set of coding cards, or view the educator guide
Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
The learning resources bring the National Air and Space Museum’s one-of-a-kind collections and world class research to you, anywhere and anytime. Explore aerodynamics through hands-on activities, discover the science behind spy planes, earthquakes or volcanoes or listen to stories of achievement, failure, and perseverance on our AirSpace podcasts. Resources will spark curiosity and the beginning of an aviation and aerospace adventure.
What’s available: Monthly themes, activities, lessons, learning guides and videos for grades PreK-12
Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History
Dedicated to inspiring people of all ages to better understand the natural world and our place in it by instilling a sense of wonder and responsibility through exhibitions, programs, and online resources.
What’s available: Online school programs, activities, videos, and science literacy resources for grades K-12.
Smithsonian Science Education Center
By bringing Smithsonian Science into the K-12 classroom, we can help students and teachers unlock the mysteries of the world through science. The Smithsonian Science Education Center connects students in urban, rural, and suburban areas to their communities and to a world of discovery around them to work on solving real-world problems that ensure a sustainable planet.
What’s available: Standards-aligned curriculum materials and digital resources (including K-8, research-based science curriculum program Smithsonian Science for the Classroom and Science and Technology Concepts for Middle School (STCMS). Professional development for K-12 STEM/STEM4SD teachers and school leaders.
An award-winning collection of over 5,000 kid-friendly, ad free videos, curated for teachers and parents who want to share smarter, more meaningful media in the classroom and at home. Support a lesson or simply use for engaging learning.
What’s available: A video library on a range of subjects from math and history to nature and animation.
Water Sense for Kids – U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Our Water tells the story of how we use water from nation’s lakes, rivers, and groundwater aquifers, and why it’s important to be smarter about how we use it. Kids can learn about the value of water efficiency and how we can all get more by using less.
What’s available: Games, activity sheets, puzzles, teacher guides and more.
WWF works in nearly 100 countries, collaborating with people around the world to develop and deliver innovative solutions that protect communities, wildlife, and the places in which they live.
What’s available: Toolkits featuring information guides and activities about priority species and conservation goals. Subject-integrated lessons that will leave kids with an understanding of how their actions help shape the future of nature.
This site from the Harvard Graduate School of Education aims to inspire, educate and empower teachers of mathematics, transforming the latest research on math into accessible and practical forms.
What’s available: You can find everything from lessons to data talks and resources to help build skills in everything from numeracy to data. You can also access professional learning opportunities.
Humanities and the Arts
Step-by-step drawing lessons for ages 5 and up. New art lessons M-F, every week. Follow along and learn how to draw, plus other fun art lessons for kids.
What’s available: New art lessons Monday-Friday every week.
Children’s Hour: Kids Public Radio Learning Guides
The Children’s Hour is a weekly, internationally syndicated kids’ public radio program and podcast, that educates, inspires, engages and entertains listeners of all ages.
What’s available: Links to podcasts with Learn-Along guides that enable the programs to be used in the classroom.
Helps students develop (1) an increased understanding of the institutions of constitutional democracy and the fundamental principles and values upon which they are founded, (2) the skills necessary to participate as competent and responsible citizens, and (3) the willingness to use democratic procedures for making decisions and managing conflict. Ultimately, the Center strives to develop an enlightened citizenry by working to increase understanding of the principles, values, institutions, and history of constitutional democracy among teachers, students, and the general public.
What’s available: Online courses, eBooks, resource materials, lesson plans, and videos.
Curriculum provides free lessons and assessments that help teach students to evaluate online information that affects them, their communities, and the world.
What’s available: Full curriculum or single lessons, posters, lateral reading activities, videos and research.
EconEdLink is brought to you by the Council for Economic Education, a leading organization that focuses on the economic and financial education of students from kindergarten through high school.
What’s available: Lesson plans, videos, assessments, activities, professional development webinars, and more.
EdSitement – National Endowment for the Humanities
A partnership between the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Trust for the Humanities that offers free resources for teachers, students, and parents searching for high-quality K-12 humanities education materials in the subject areas of history and social studies, literature and language arts, foreign languages, arts, and culture.
What’s available: Lesson plans, teacher guides, and media resources.
A foundation that teaches healthy skepticism when it comes to anything impacting your money or your well-being. The resources are for all ages, are advertising free, and are meant to help people make wise decisions.
What’s available: Curriculum for financial literacy and consumer skills taught by young people. For middle school, high school, and home school.
Ford’s Education provides dynamic learning experiences for all teachers and students.
Our teacher programs and resources explore the leadership and legacy of Abraham Lincoln and the city of Civil War Washington. Through historic site visits, virtual field trips, student matinees, and oratory programs, we offer powerful and unforgettable opportunities to express, explore and engage. All programs are appropriate for students and life-long learners. Specific grade-level recommendations are available with each program.
What’s available: Activities, lessons, how-tos, primary resources, and videos.
iCivics champions equitable, non-partisan civic education so that the practice of democracy is learned by each new generation. Inspiring life-long civic engagement by providing high quality and engaging civics resources to teachers and students across our nation.
What’s available: Curriculum, online games, videos, and lesson plans geared toward students of all ages.
Newly revised lesson plans and digital resources that incorporate best practices for classroom and remote learning — providing you with tools to infuse the arts across the curriculum and engage all students, wherever they may be.
What’s available: Digital resources, practical tips, lessons and activities.
A collection of resources for teachers who are teaching Human Geography (Including Advanced Placement), Geographic Information Systems (GIS), International Studies, and World Geography.
What’s available: Content specific resources, videos, links, games, and activities.
A searchable database of curated financial education resources from hundreds of reputable providers. The Clearinghouse lists only those resources that meet listing criteria and align with the National Standards for Personal Financial Education. Resources listed in the Clearinghouse must be educational or informational only, and may not be used to sell or promote financial products and services.
What’s available: Books, games, lessons and more.
The Kids in the House website is a public service provided by the Office of the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives. The mission is to provide educational and entertaining information about the legislative branch of the United States Government to students of all ages. Topics covered include the role of the U.S. House of Representatives, the legislative process, and House history.
What’s available: Links, lesson plans, and activities for grades PreK-12.
An innovative curriculum that enables Pre-K through grade 12 teachers to easily incorporate Native American stories, lessons and games into regular classroom instruction. Is adapted to include the history and culture of a region’s Native nations.
What’s available: More than 200 searchable lessons ready to use in the classroom for grades PreK-12.
The Library of Congress offers classroom materials and professional development to help teachers use primary sources from the Library’s vast digital collections.
What’s available: Primary resources, lesson plans, virtual student workshops, family engagement, and more.
Music Educators Toolbox- Carnegie Hall
Resources were developed through Carnegie Hall’s five-year residency in a New York City elementary/middle school. The toolbox features grade-specific music education resources that address fundamentals of rhythm and meter, form and design, expressive qualities, pitch, and performing.
What’s available: Lesson plans and activities, summative and formative assessments, video examples, and documented best practices.
Civics for All of US is the new education initiative that promotes civic literacy and engagement. Visit the National Archives through free distance learning programs.
What’s available: Documents, primary resources, engaging activities. You can create your own activities online or print them for your students.
High school students can learn about the text, history, and meaning of the U.S. Constitution from leading scholars of diverse legal and philosophical perspectives.
What’s available: Curriculum, resources, library, online events, and professional learning opportunities.
National Endowment for the Arts – Songwriting Challenge
Held in partnership with the National Alliance for Musical Theatre, the 2023-2024 program will include even more opportunities for high school students to develop and showcase musical compositions that could be part of a musical theater production.
What’s available: Check out past winners and recordings and find links to podcasts and art talks.
National Endowment for the Humanities – Hispanic and Latino Heritage and History
NEH serves and strengthens our republic by promoting excellence in the humanities and conveying the lessons of history to all Americans. A teacher’s guide brings together resources created during NEH Summer Seminars and Institutes, lesson plans for K-12 classrooms, and think pieces on events and experiences across Hispanic history and heritage.
What’s available: Lesson plans, teacher guides, and media resources.
National Endowment for the Humanities – Women in World History
An online resource of educational materials and modules for teaching the history of women in the world, from the female Bhakti poet-saints of 6th-13th century India to conditions for women within Stalin’s Soviet Union.
What’s available: Primary sources, modules, case studies, and more for grades 9-12.
This American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES) program culturally contextualized curriculum was designed to supplement content from Wells Fargo’s Hands on Banking® Curricula to provide financial education for elementary, middle, high school, and young adults to help students start their financial lives smart and strong.
What’s available: Instructor guide, lesson plans, and supplemental materials.
A resource with a step-by-step plan proven in thousands of schools to help expand financial literacy access in communities.
What’s available: Lessons, interactive resources, answer keys, and assessments.
National parks are America’s largest classrooms. Find everything from lesson plans about these great places to professional development about our nation’s historic sites and more.
What’s available: Workshops, virtual field trips, classroom materials, and more.
PBS Learning Media: Asian Americans
More than thirty lesson plans based on the PBS series Asian Americans. The collection includes the stories behind the Chinese Exclusion Act, the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II, Southeast Asian refugees after the Vietnam War, Filipino American Farmworkers, the fight for civil rights and much more. Teachers may utilize these lesson plans which are drawn from the series to explore the ways that Asian Americans have shaped our nation’s history.
What’s available: Videos, media gallery, tools for building lessons for grades 3-5, 6-8 and 9-12.
Explore the past and learn about the present with resources on government, history, economics, and more. Content is available for PreK-12.
What’s available: Video and audio collections, lesson plans, activities, media gallery, and more.
A national arts education program that encourages the study of great poetry by offering free educational materials and a dynamic recitation competition for high school students across the country. This program helps students master public speaking skills, build self-confidence, and learn about literary history and contemporary life.
What’s available: Poems, lesson plans, lesson videos and information on how to organize an event.
Ramsey curriculum covers critical terms and concepts and equips educators with practical ways to help students apply the proven principles.
What’s available: Personal finance and entrepreneurship curriculum for high school students.
An online simulation of the global capital markets that engages students grades 4-12 in the world of economics, investing and personal finance.
What’s available: A free, informative investing experience emphasizing diversification and long-term investing over a simulated 5-year period. Company-specific and market-wide news that may impact returns helps you manage a pretend portfolio of stocks, bonds, and mutual funds, across beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels.
Smithsonian’s History Explorer
Smithsonian’s History Explorer was developed by the National Museum of American History in partnership with the Verizon Foundation to offer hundreds of free, innovative online resources for teaching and learning American history. The site is designed for use by K-12 teachers and students, after school program providers, families, and individuals interested in lifelong learning. History Explorer’s resources focus on learning history by “reading” objects for the stories they hold about the nation and its many peoples.
What’s available: Learning activities and lessons that feature artifacts selected from over three million items in the museum’s collections. Interactive media, themes, books, and more.
Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
The Teaching and Learning Unit serves students and educators in grades 3-12. Offerings for educators are designed to stimulate new ways of thinking and cultivate a passion for lifelong learning. Users can explore well-known and lesser-known moments of history through millions of authentic, digital resources, create content with online tools, and share in the Smithsonian’s expansive community of knowledge and learning.
What’s available: Collection objects, primary sources, reading resources, visual arts, and STEM integration.
Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian
Dedicated to acting as a resource for Native communities and to serving the greater public as an honest and thoughtful conduit to Native cultures — present and past — in all their richness, depth, and diversity. Native Knowledge 360° (NK360°) provides educators and students with new perspectives on Native American history and cultures.
What’s available: Search resources by grade, nation, understandings, and more. Find lessons, posters, teacher guides, videos, and handouts for grades PreK and up.
More than 150,000 sculptures, decorative arts, prints, drawings, photographs, and paintings in the National Gallery’s permanent collection. Taken together, they offer a vibrant picture of the power and range of human creativity. Explore to learn more about the collection and the artists who created the works now held in trust for the nation.
What’s available: Free resources with background information on artists and art movements. Films that explore different artists, movements, and regional styles. Lessons, activities, and ideas to integrate art into K–12 teaching.
National Women’s History Museum
Founded in 1996, this online museum is dedicated to uncovering, interpreting, and celebrating women’s diverse contributions to society. The museum brings to life the countless untold stories of women throughout history, and serves as a space for all to inspire, experience, collaborate, and amplify women’s impact—past, present, and future.
What’s available: Virtual field trips, lesson plans, biographies, posters, primary sources, and more.
The Asian American Education Project
By showcasing the struggles and triumphs of Asian Americans over the course of two centuries, lesson plans for grades K-12 amplify the importance and voices of this growing, integral segment of the U.S. population.
What’s available: Video series, lesson plans, thematic units, activity booklets, poetry, and professional development.
Want to explore our world? Here are great virtual field trips to explore from the classroom. From zoos and landmarks to famous museums, you can explore the world.
What’s available: Links for virtual field trips, from the Vatican to ice caves.
Squarely-focused on serving as both a local and global resource, the King Center is dedicated to educating the world on the life, legacy and teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., inspiring new generations to carry forward his unfinished work, strengthen causes and empower change-makers who are continuing his efforts today.
What’s available: Downloadable lesson plans, video library, recordings, a virtual tour, reading resources and more.
Resources from The New York Times to bring the world into your classroom.
What’s available: Lessons and teaching Ideas, writing prompts, quizzes and vocabulary, photos, videos, and contests.
Smithsonian National Museum of the American Latino
See America through the Latino experience in the first-ever exhibition presented by the National Museum of the American Latino. ¡Presente! A Latino History of the United States offers an introduction to the important ideas, moments, and people that shine a light on the many ways Latinas and Latinos shaped the nation.
What’s available: Anthology of notable figures, resources, bilingual materials, and virtual exhibits.
U.S. Currency Education Program
The Federal Reserve’s Currency Education Program has created two sections with fun, engaging activities that will help students better understand the currency in their pockets. Although the current materials are best suited for students in grades 2-5, many of the materials and concepts are applicable to students across a number of grade levels and settings.
What’s Available: Currency Academy, lesson plans, mobile app.
Teacher Resources and Professional Development
Annenberg Learner funds and distributes educational video programs – with coordinated online and print materials – for the professional development of K-12 teachers. Many programs are also intended for students in the classroom with videos that exemplify excellent teaching. As part of the Annenberg Foundation, Learner supports the Foundation’s mission to encourage the development of more effective ways to share ideas and knowledge.
What’s available: Podcasts and videos. Get help with understanding basic science concepts before you teach them or how to integrate art into the classroom. All major subjects are covered.
An expanding library of project ideas that are standards-aligned and cover a range of grade levels and subject areas. Learn more about Project Based Learning or find classroom resources.
What’s available: Videos, planning forms, rubrics, blogs, and more for grades PreK-12.
National Center for Quality After School
K-12 resources with creative experiential learning and subject plans for teachers in various subjects. Lessons can be adapted for in-school hours.
What’s available: Toolkits, resource plans, sample lessons, videos, and games, all to support academic enrichment.
Browse hundreds of TED-Ed Animations and TED Talks – designed to spark the curiosity of your older learners. You’ll also find thousands of other video-based lessons organized by the subjects you teach.
What’s available: Resources to build your own customized lesson and video-based lessons.
Responsive Classroom: In this recorded webinar, a panel of experienced educators will discuss strategies to present lessons and activities so that students find personal meaning in what they are learning. Panel includes Dr. Crystal Cooper Thompson, Rashid Abdus-Salaam, Cory Wade, and Dinna Wade-Ardley and moderated by Amber Searles.
Edutopia: Find and share resources and explore strategies to engage students by connecting to and honoring their cultures, experiences, and backgrounds.
The Student Experience Toolkit is a suite of resources designed to help educators, students, and families take the first steps in acting on the recommendations outlined in its latest major research report, The Opportunity Myth: What Students Can Show Us About How School Is Letting Them Down—and How to Fix It.
What’s available: Resources on everything from assessing the quality of assignments to helping students set goals.
TNTP: To understand how students perceive their daily lessons, you can use this Student Engagement Survey, which is a slightly modified version of the student surveys administered as part of research for The Opportunity Myth. Administer the anonymous survey regularly to understand how engaging and worthwhile your students perceived your lesson for the day to be – and then use that information to make lessons even more engaging and worthwhile.
Central to effective professional learning for SEL is the need to promote adult SEL skills and competencies. All staff members need initial and ongoing professional learning and support to implement evidence-based SEL practices and programs.
What’s available: A playbook, modules, assessment and reflection, and more.
U.S. Department of Agriculture – Get tips on how to start your own school garden.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency – Get tips on how to start a school composting project.
Morning Classroom routines – Get tips for starting the day off right with elementary students, from talking about emotions to journal writing.
Educate Outside – Resources for teachers to take their students outside to learn. Science, math and literacy learning for grades Prek-12.
Dr. Robert Marzano and Marzano Resources associates offer free webinars on a regular basis as a service to the educational community.
What’s available: Explore recorded webinars on a variety of topics.
Section II: Statewide Resources
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- Director of Community Engagement: Kristina Gonzales, kristina.gonzales@ped.nm.gov; (505) 470-6359
- Community Engagement Coordinator: Desiree Romero, desiree.romero@ped.nm.gov; (505) 469-6359
- Director Language and Culture Division: Mayra Valtierrez, Mayra.Valtierrez@ped.nm.gov
- Interim Assistant Secretary Indian Education Division: Rebecca Reyes, Rebecca.Reyes2@ped.nm.gov
- Director Special Education Division: Deborah Dominguez-Clark, Deborah.Clark@ped.nm.gov
- Director Options for Parents and Families: Corina Chavez, Corina.Chavez2@ped.nm.gov
- Director College and Career Readiness Bureau: Breezy Gutierrez, Breezy.Gutierrez@ped.nm.gov, (505) 231-5425
- Director of Community Schools and Extended Learning Time: Feliz Garcia, FelizE.Garcia@ped.nm.gov
- Director Instructional Materials Bureau: Anthony Burns, Anthony.Burns@ped.nm.gov
- Director Literacy and Humanities Bureau: Severo Martinez, Severo.Martinez@ped.nm.gov
- Interim Director Math & Science Bureau: Shafiq Chaudry, Shafiq.Chaudry@ped.nm.gov
- Director Educator Quality and Ethics Division: Candice Flint, candice.flint@ped.nm.gov, (505) 490-3896
- Assistant Division Director Educator Quality and Ethics: Phoebe Walendziak, Phoebe.Walendziak@ped.nm.gov, (505) 396-1992
- Director Curriculum and Instruction: Jacqueline Costales, Jacqueline.Costales@ped.nm.gov
- Director Student Success and Wellness: Michael Chavez, MichaelA.Chavez@ped.nm.gov, (505) 699-4562
- Director Priority Schools: Elisabeth Peterson, Elisabeth.Peterson@ped.nm.gov
SEL Framework – New Mexico Public Education Department
Research examining the relationship between social and emotional competencies and student outcomes has found that the better developed student social and emotional competencies are, the better students do in school and life.
What’s available: Resources for schools to implement social emotional learning.
Climate change can be studied in any subject: English, math, social, studies and science. These lesson plans and activities can be used for a variety of student ages and subjects. The objectives of these activities range from understanding climate change to empowering students to actively work toward solutions in their own schools and communities.
What’s available: Lessons, books, documentaries, videos and other resources.
Big Brothers Big Sisters of America: New Mexico Chapter
Non-profit matches youth with adult mentors for one-to-one mentoring relationships that ignite the power and promise of youth. Mentoring can be school-based available in Otero and San Juan counties.
What’s available: Bigs and Littles meet at the Little’s school during the school day. They eat, play games, go to the playground, work on homework or reading, do crafts, or just spend time talking. It’s all about starting a friendship, providing guidance and inspiring them to reach their potential.
Breaking the Silence New Mexico
A nonprofit organization that promotes mental health literacy, advocacy, and well-being for teens, youth, and adults through education and personal stories. Core programs share the goal of ending the stigma, shame, silence, and secrecy surrounding mental illness and suicide.
What’s available: Lessons, classroom presentations, facilitator training, professional development, and more.
National Hispanic Cultural Center
The center is dedicated to the preservation, promotion and advancement of Hispanic culture, arts and humanities through exhibitions, lectures, book readings, performing arts and educational programing that are meaningful to the local community. The NHCC is committed to making a cultural home for the diverse identities that shape the community.
What’s available: NHCC Learning houses curriculum, activities, and other educational resources—all created by staff at the National Hispanic Cultural Center. Visit the center for a field trip or sign up for a virtual classroom visit. You can also find lesson plans on a variety of subjects.
Its mission is to connect students to the art, history, and culture of New Mexico and the global community. Learn about art, different cultures and the past through a variety of virtual presentations that are inspired by the Museum’s collections and exhibitions.
What’s available: Choose from video lessons as well as live virtual presentations on Zoom and Google Meet. Available for grades K–12.
The museum offers free STEM programming for grades K-12. Classroom visits, museum visits and virtual programming allow students to explore with science.
What’s available: In addition to your choice of visit, you can find links to videos, tutorials, challenges and more.
Financial education is one subject for which reliable classroom resources are plentiful, varied, and often free. Educators can search the Jump$tart Clearinghouse for nearly 800 resources from a variety of providers.
What’s available: Comprehensive curricula or single-subject lessons—and everything from traditional, print-based lesson plans to interactive, digital programs.
New Mexico Acequia Association Youth Education
Culturally relevant and place-based educational presentations, training, leadership development, and hands-on learning opportunities to support youth in understanding the history and deep social, cultural and environmental importance of our unique acequia systems.
What’s available: Online and in-person classroom presentations and curriculum resources. and youth leadership opportunities.
New Mexico Agriculture in the Classroom
A non-profit educational outreach program funded primarily by the membership of the New Mexico Farm and Livestock Bureau. The purpose of NMAITC is to educate the general public, with an emphasis on K-12 students and educators, about the importance of agriculture.
What’s available: Resource guides, lessons and activities PreK-12 that are set to the New Mexico standards and benchmarks. The lessons include power points, activities and even some fun facts. An extensive loan library available that includes educational books, DVD’s and resource kits.
A virtual gateway to the state’s 19 pueblos. Learn about Pueblo and Native American culture including art, history, cuisine as well as deep dives into emerging issues of significance to Pueblo people.
What’s available: Videos, virtual events and programming. From Tour Tuesdays, Seasons of Growth, and a View Into the Collection. Attend online events like Pueblo Book Club, virtual museum tours, exhibits and more. Virtual visitors can also enjoy an online tour of murals.
Take a virtual field trip to seven historic sites around New Mexico and use 20 different lessons in your classroom to help teach about New Mexico history.
What’s available: A pre-lesson packet that contains background information, learning objectives and links to New Mexico Content Standards aligned with the lesson for the appropriate grades. Activities are designed for grades K-4, 5-8 and 9-12.
Teaching fractals in schools, with special groups, and at public events with ages ranging from young children to senior citizens. Build an understanding of the interconnections between science, math, art and nature.
What’s available: 45-90 min presentations about fractals and their applications in various STEM fields. Email them for cost.
New Mexico History Museum (Santa Fe)
New Mexico history consists of stories about people from many cultures who have called this place a home for centuries. Students of all ages can engage with this heritage through online resources, as well as museum visits.
What’s available: Resources include lesson plans that can be used in conjunction with a museum visit, as stand-alone activities in a classroom, or as independent learning guides.
Museum of Spanish Colonial Art (Santa Fe)
The Mission of the Spanish Colonial Arts Society is to showcase the cultural heritage of Hispanic New Mexico and its living traditions. Collecting, preserving, exhibiting, researching, and promoting the Hispanic art of New Mexico, from settlement to the present, and comparative pieces from around the Spanish world.
What’s available: Site visit, reference library, video tour, archeology and landscape tour.
SITE Santa Fe connects with educators across all elementary, middle, and high schools in Santa Fe to develop and support curriculum, provide activities in collaboration with classroom teachers and to provide tours in Spanish, ASL, and English for the students.
What’s available: Discussion based tour of the exhibitions followed by an optional hands-on art activity. Classroom presentation featuring the work of the artists we currently have featured at SITE followed by a hands-on art activity.
The Georgia O’Keefe Museum (Santa Fe)
Offers a variety of in-person and virtual tours to all K-12 students to engage students and connect to classroom practice.
What’s available: Activities to learn about the life of O’Keefe and art concepts such as the rule of thirds and positive/negative space. Also includes distance learning and materials organized according to grade level and subject type provided by the Santa Fe Community Educators Network.
Farm to Table collaborates with hundreds of partners across the state, region and nation working to strengthen the economic livelihoods of farmers by building connections to local markets, facilitating sales of local fresh produce to institutions and restaurants, by bringing healthy foods and exploratory learning to schools by way of farm to school programs, by providing trainings that highlight pollinators as allies, by assisting communities with food policy council development to strive for equity in our food system, and by gathering folks in learning environments.
What’s available: Facts, toolkits and additional resources for nutrition, agriculture and health education opportunities.
Teach kids home economics, kitchen safety and healthy eating habits.
What’s available: Lesson plans, farmer letters, food history, nutrition information, English & Spanish student materials. Aligned with Common Core State Standards and Next Generation Science Standards
New Mexico Museum of Natural History
The State of New Mexico’s Department of Cultural Affairs Invite an Educator program is a virtual opportunity for all schools, as well as homeschool and out of school groups, to enhance learning and teaching in the classroom and beyond. Students get the opportunity to interact with an educator and other professionals in a wide field of studies in real-time, learn about content that fits with your curriculum and group’s interests, and participate in engaging activities.
What’s available: Options to request a program. There are program options covering a large variety of topics, targeted for all different age groups (from pre-K to adult), and of varying lengths (from 20 minutes to 2 hours, most 30-60 mins).
Explora Science Center and Children’s Museum
Innovative learning experiences that support educational objectives. Students are immersed in thought-provoking, phenomenon-based science, technology, engineering, math (STEM), and art experiences. In each program, there is the opportunity to apply science and engineering practices and make practical connections to crosscutting concepts. Explora can come to your site, in-person or virtually. Programs are aligned to Common Core State Standards and New Mexico STEM Ready! Standards.
What’s available: Cost starts at $200.
- In-Person exploration programs with Explora Educators facilitating table-top activities such as wind tunnels, engineering challenges, and more for all ages.
- VirtualClassroom Exploration with hands-on material kits or demonstrations.
- Family/Community Science Program requires gathering of materials at home to follow along with the demonstration.
STEAM kits come with all the necessary materials and an easy-to-follow activity card. Activities range from bubbles to bridges. Cost starts at $100 for 25 kits.
Museum of International Folk Art
As part of the Invite a DCA Educator initiative from the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs, the museum offers virtual classroom visits for grades PreK – 8 on various folk art topics.
What’s available: 30 or 45-minute virtual session, includes lesson (all ages) or storytime (PreK – 1st), discovery exercise using 3-6 folk art objects, discussion and art activity demonstration. One virtual classroom visit, per teacher. Folk Art Outreach Trunks are available for area educators to check out to use in the classroom. These include hands-on objects, lesson plans, books, and DVDs.
Museum of Indian Arts and Culture
The museum, the Leadership Institute of the Santa Fe Indian School, the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian, and the Indian Education Division of the Public Education Department of the State of New Mexico have partnered to support the conceptual development of the Indigenous New Mexico—Sharing the Wonders of Our World! curriculum packet.
What’s available: The focus of the curriculum is on the three land-based tribal groups in New Mexico (Apache, Navajo, and Pueblo), which include 24 distinctive tribal communities.
The Native Arts and History Project serves the underserved Native American children and teachers in Santa Fe county and surrounding areas by offering resources and education staff for collaborative school site projects. The purpose of the program is to develop projects and curriculum of cultural significance and relevancy to the Southwest.
Institute of American Indian Arts
Through art-making, curriculum guides, and other fun activities, visitors of all ages are able to engage with various works of art in the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts’ (MoCNA’s) exhibitions and collections.
What’s available: Workbooks, coloring pages and other activities related to Indigenous futurism.
The museum resents changing exhibitions on traditional and contemporary Navajo and other Native American arts. The museum’s holding includes jewelry, metalwork, carving, basketry, folk art, and textiles.
What’s available: A 10-minute film, Following Enchantment’s Line, celebrating the diverse cultural connection of Santa Fe. You can also find coloring sheets and videos that range from artist interviews to art lessons.
The New Mexico Museum of Art fosters a deeper understanding and enjoyment of art throughout the state and beyond. It works with art and artists to explore the human experience, new ideas, and diverse cultures. You can explore a wide variety of activities to get you thinking and creating through the power of art.
What’s available: Workbooks, lessons and activities covering everything from painting and the written word to photography and sculpture.
New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department
The State Parks Outdoor Classroom Program has provided meaningful, hands-on experiences for 173,775 students statewide. With 35 outdoor classrooms across the state, and many cultural and natural resources, State Parks provide a safe, friendly environment for outdoor learning that ties to classroom study.
What’s available: Curriculum guides that cover everything from habitat and plants to geology.
New Mexico Department of Game and Fish
The NMDGF Conservation Education Program provides a comprehensive, interdisciplinary fish and wildlife conservation education program to assist students of any age in developing the awareness, knowledge, skills and commitment to stewardship of New Mexico’s wildlife and wildlife habitats.
What’s available: Classroom presentations with a colorful slideshow on New Mexico wildlife and wildlife conservation is available statewide. Presentations include hands-on discovery critter boxes with wildlife skins, skulls and more. You also can find lessons and activities that target upper elementary and middle school grade levels.
Wonders on Wheels is the mobile museum program of the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs. The WoW RV travels all over the state bringing museum exhibits to the people of New Mexico.
What’s available: Arts, culture, history, and science exhibits and curriculum-based programming. Exhibits curated from one of DCA’s eight state-run museums to public PreK-12 schools and libraries in communities throughout New Mexico.
Office of Archaeological Studies
The award-winning program uses educational tours, lectures, artifact displays, and direct assistance to generate an appreciation for the richness of the cultural heritage of New Mexico. Education outreach activities have been designed around individual grade school classes interested in archaeology. Programs have been delivered to elementary, middle, and high school students.
What’s available: Activities include lectures and slide shows on a wide range of topics and hands-on demonstrations of ancient and historic period technologies and lifeways. Topics can often be customized around audience interests.
New Mexico MLK State Commission
The MLK Commission operates a Youth Ambassador program for students ages 14-21. Youth become knowledgeable about the life and works of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and how his principles of nonviolence affect their lives; the fundamentals of community service; advocacy; and leadership skills. The program is being expanded to include youth from cities across the state, particularly those represented by the Commission.
What’s available: Leadership/mentorship programs
Professional Development Opportunities
Explora Science Center and Children’s Museum
Explora Workshops embrace an inquiry approach to learning, involve participants in fun, active explorations of phenomena, and foster an understanding of New Mexico STEM Ready! Standards and 21st Century Skills. CEUs are available for early childhood providers and teachers. Workshops can be virtual with an additional $500 for 30-material kits mailed to your site.
What’s available: Cost starts at $500. Topics cover everything from animals to animation.
With the support of the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center is working to advance its popular Indigenous Wisdom Curriculum, with the goal of reaching additional K-12 educators throughout New Mexico in 2023. It has assisted over 300 teachers to educate thousands of students about the factors that shape Natives’ community, governmental, cultural, and personal relationships.
What’s available: STEM instruction to enhance the current curriculum with a concentration on science-related topics. More than 120 lesson plans.
New Mexico Museum of Natural History
In partnership with the University of Cincinnati Economics Center, the museum is offering a FREE $martPath Training Session for teachers of grades 1-8. Learn how to embed relevant and fun economic and financial education in your classrooms.
What’s available: A walkthrough of the $martPath platform as well as provide attendees with suggestions for how to best implement it in their classrooms. Get a $50 gift card for attending a workshop and another $50 for implementing the learning in your classroom.
New Mexico Public Education Department
The New Mexico Public Education Department (NMPED) is providing this High-Quality Professional Learning (HQPL) Marketplace List as a guide and tool for teachers, schools, and districts to identify professional learning provider programs that support orientation and on-going implementation of HQIM. The HQPL Marketplace List includes provider professional learning programs that were reviewed and vetted to ensure they demonstrate evidence-based strategies and results.
What’s available: Links to program information, videos and contact information. The list is not all-inclusive and only providers who responded to the Request for Applications were considered for inclusion on the list.
Section III: Regional Resources
Jump to:
Region A Region B Region C Region D Region E Region G Region H Region I Region J Region K
Region A: Central, Aztec, Farmington, Gallup, Cibola, Zuni, Bloomfield
Pueblo people describe this site as part of their migration journey. Today you can follow their ancient passageways to a distant time. Explore a 900-year old ancestral Pueblo Great House of over 400 masonry rooms. Look up and see original timbers holding up the roof. Search for the fingerprints of ancient workers in the mortar. Listen for an echo of ritual drums in the reconstructed Great Kiva.
What’s available: Field trips, photo gallery, information on local plant and animal life.
Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness Area
A rolling landscape of badlands which offers some of the most unusual scenery found in the Four Corners Region. Time and natural elements have etched a fantasy world of strange rock formations made of interbedded sandstone, shale, mudstone, coal, and silt.
What’s available: Resources from the Bureau of Land Management include classroom investigations, archaeology materials, teacher professional development and an activity database.
Chaco Canyon National Monument
A major center of ancestral Pueblo culture between 850 and 1250 that was a focus for ceremonials, trade and political activity for the prehistoric Four Corners area. Chaco includes public and ceremonial buildings and its distinctive architecture.
What’s available: Guided tours, hiking & biking trails, evening campfire talks, night sky programs, web exhibit, lesson plans, and curricula. Invite rangers, archaeologists, geologists, biologists, and paleontologists into your classroom.
The El Malpais National Conservation Area (NCA) was established in 1987 to protect nationally-significant geological, archaeological, ecological, cultural, scenic, scientific, and wilderness resources surrounding the Zuni-Bandera volcanic fields. El Malpais translates to “the badlands” in Spanish.
What’s available: Opportunities for photography, hiking, camping, and wildlife, a junior ranger program and guide, and learn about the community art program.
This sandstone bluff contains more than 2,000 signatures, dates, messages, and petroglyphs that span a continuum of almost 1,000 years. The park also protects significant archeological resources, including a largely unexcavated Ancestral Puebloan village site atop the bluff which is among the largest 13th and 14th century settlements in the American Southwest.
What’s available: Learn about Geology, Indigenous history, Spanish exploration, American expansion through site visits, videos, a photo gallery, and more.
E3 Children’s Museum (Farmington)
Hands-on, science-related interactives in the main gallery with special programs scheduled throughout the year. Sound, light, magnetism, shadows, and art.
What’s available: Site visits.
Experience a wide variety of exhibits relating to the diverse history of the area’s cultures, traveling exhibits, and art shows.
What’s available: Site visits. Lecture series, performances, workshops, and special demonstrations are offered year-round.
Museum of Navajo Art and Culture (Farmington)
The museum features a truly significant collection of Navajo Rugs with Navajo textiles from the early 1900’s to today.
What’s available: Museum visits.
Region B: Jemez Mountains, Cuba, Chama Valley, Questa, Española, Taos, Pojoaque, Los Alamos, Santa Fe, Mesa Vista, Peñasco, Dulce
Bandelier National Monument protects over 33,000 acres of rugged but beautiful canyon and mesa country as well as evidence of a human presence here going back over 11,000 years. Petroglyphs, dwellings carved into the soft rock cliffs, and standing masonry walls pay tribute to the early days of a culture that still survives in the surrounding communities.
What’s available: Onsite tours. The website includes virtual tours, slideshows, the museum collection, maps, historic photos, and more.
A living history museum located on 200 acres in a rural farming valley just south of Santa Fe. The museum is dedicated to the history, heritage and culture of 18th and 19th century New Mexico. Original colonial buildings on the site date from the early 1700s. Villagers clothed in the styles of the times show how life was lived on the frontier in early New Mexico.
What’s available: Guided tours available upon request, June 1 through October 28; reservations required. New Mexico Heritage Days for grades K-6.
Offering an innovative program that local gives students and teachers a unique experience bridging the classroom and real life in an exciting outdoor setting. The program enables students to participate in hands-on activities, including simulations of historical events, natural resource surveys, and games embellishing science concepts as well as physical and mental challenges.
What’s available: FITaos will conduct half day (3-4 hours), full day (5-7 hours) and multiple day programs as well as expanded overnight camping experiences. Program costs vary and are all-inclusive (planning and preparation, pre-trip materials, trip lead instructors, program materials, use of FITaos equipment, and transportation.)
Ghost Ranch (Abiquiu)
The landscape encompasses 21,000 acres of towering rock walls, vivid colors and vast skies. The O’Keeffe Landscape Tour allows visitors to see the actual scenes and locations of O’Keeffe’s paintings and hear the stories of her fifty years at Ghost Ranch. The museums specialize in anthropology and paleontology with ongoing research.
What’s available: Field trips offer the opportunity to learn about local cultures through related educational activities such as traditional tinwork, sand painting, and straw-inlay work, as well as having the chance to hike to archaeological sites found on Ghost Ranch.
Harwood Museum of Art (Taos)
The Harwood Museum of Art celebrates Taos’ artistic legacy, cultivates current connections through art, and inspires a creative future.
What’s available: Request a 45-minute guided exploration of the museum. Choose the focus either on the permanent collection or current special exhibition. Add on a 45-minute art making activity to make your visit a 90-minute adventure in the Fern Hogue Education Center. STEAM tour focused on the historic architecture at the Harwood.
This historic Landmark includes the stone remnants of a 700 year old village and the San José de los Jemez church dating to 1621/2. The village of Giusewa was built in the narrow San Diego Canyon by the ancestors of the present-day people of Jemez Pueblo (Walatowa). The massive stone walls were constructed about the same time the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock. The heritage center contains exhibitions that tell the story of the site through the words of the Jemez people. A 1,400-foot interpretive trail winds through the impressive site ruins.
What’s available: A virtual tour, virtual camp, wildlife cam, videos, bird guide and more.
Kit Carson Home and Museum (Taos)
Kit Carson grew up in the frontier west, and became renowned as a fur trapper and guide on numerous United States Army expeditions against Native Americans and also during the American Civil War. In 1843 he married Josefa Jaramillo, who was from a leading Taos family, and purchased this house. It remained the couple’s principal home until 1868.
What’s available: Site visits.
The museum tells stories from many eras: Homesteading, Los Alamos Ranch School, the Manhattan Project, and the Cold War. Historic buildings house artifacts, documents, photographs, and audio and video recordings.
What’s available: Guided tours, driving tour, online exhibits, and more.
The picturesque 148-acre ranch is located north of Alcalde on the east bank of the Río Grande. Upon arriving at the site visitors quickly realize why people have called the beautiful property home for over six hundred years. The centerpiece of Los Luceros Historic Site is a magnificent Territorial-style Hacienda that houses centuries of history within its walls. The property also includes an 18th century Capilla (chapel), Victorian cottage, carriage house, guesthouse, and farmyard.
What’s available: On-site tours, virtual classroom visits, lesson plans, videos, photo gallery and more.
The museum displays a collection of Native American jewelry, Maria Martinez pottery, textiles, and Spanish devotional artwork in New Mexico, preserving and interpreting the arts and diverse cultural heritage of the American Southwest.
What’s available: Personalized tours of the Museum are scheduled throughout the year. Online writing prompts, online exhibits and more.
New Mexico Military Museum (Santa Fe)
The primary goal of the museum is to discover, preserve, and disseminate knowledge about New Mexico’s military history. This museum seeks to strengthen public understanding of how conflicts have shaped the state of New Mexico as well as the national experience.
What’s available: Site visits, Glorieta interactive display, artifacts, archives and art work.
New Mexico Wildlife Center Caring Kids (Santa Fe)
An educational partnership presented by the New Mexico Wildlife Center and the Santa Fe Animal Shelter. This free program is specifically designed for fourth grade classrooms and is focused around animals. Encourages a healthy connection with companion animals and wildlife through the use of the curriculum’s core principles: Responsibility, Compassion, Safety, and Environmental Awareness.
What’s available: Four-week program in which educators from the Wildlife Center and the Animal Shelter will introduce the core principles and alternate live animal presentations to show how they relate to companion and wild animals. The final session will give the students a chance to demonstrate what they’ve learned while becoming a Caring Kid.
Pajarito Environmental Education Center (PEEC) (Los Alamos)
Nature center based in Los Alamos. Equipped with a full-dome planetarium, wildlife observation room, indoor and outdoor play areas, and interactive indoor and outdoor exhibits, the Los Alamos Nature Center is a great place to orient to the region and enjoy the breathtaking views of canyons, mesas, mountains, and skies. Resources include the nature center; public programs such as talks, hikes, outings, and classes; school lessons and field trips; and our state-of-the-art planetarium.
What’s available: Field trips, virtual field trips, nature guides, educational video library.
Experience one of northern New Mexico’s most awe-inspiring cultural attractions featuring cliff & cave dwellings, early Pueblo architecture, an original Harvey House and a stunning panorama of the valley.
What’s available: Tours and exhibit hall.
Randall Davey Audubon Center and Sanctuary
Outdoor environmental education programs offer hands-on, nature based activities that will bring science curriculum to life. The activities are designed to meet both Common Core State Standards and the New Mexico STEM Ready Standards and Benchmarks. The programs blend scientific concepts with literacy, math, history, and inquiry to provide an educational and inspirational experience.
What’s available: Audubon educators can visit classrooms and afterschool programs.
The Santa Fe Botanical Garden celebrates, cultivates and conserves the rich botanical heritage and biodiversity of our region. Demonstrating a commitment through education, science, conservation, community service, presentation of the arts, and the sustainable management of our public garden.
What’s available: Students engage directly with the natural world with grade level activities. Garden educators will lead your students through hands-on experiences.
The Santa Fe Children’s Museum builds upon a child’s sense of joy and discovery by cultivating habits of inquiry in the arts, sciences, and humanities.
What’s available: Site visits, a portable planetarium, virtual field trips and the Van of Enchantment.
Santa Fe/West Las Vegas: Reading Quest
Tutors support students in grades 1-8 each during the school day, afterschool and weekends at our Reading Quest Center. Programs are free for Title 1 students or offered on a sliding scale. Also partner with Native American Student Services, Adelante and the Emergency Youth Shelter.
What’s available: Summer camps, teacher workshops, video library, word cards and links to resources.
Santa Fe Conservation Trust- Passport to Trails Program
The program includes a nifty-looking passport that gives kids information about four trail systems to hike, along with a list of other local trails they can conquer.
What’s available: When kids complete a trail, they get a sticker, and when they get all four stickers, they receive a free hydration pack. The program works primarily with Santa Fe’s south-side schools.
Santa Fe Watershed Association
The Santa Fe Watershed Association’s education program provides opportunities for locals to experience the Santa Fe River and its watershed through both school and public programs. Programs are designed to highlight a variety of ecosystems and explore ways that humans impact water and water impacts humans.
What’s available: Activities aligned to Common Core Standards, including inquiry-based learning, mini-units, measuring water quality, climate and watershed hikes.
Region C: Cimarron, Raton, Maxwell, Des Moines, Clayton, Mora, Wagon Mound, Roy, Springer, Pecos, Las Vegas City, Las Vegas West, Santa Rosa, Vaughn, Tucumcari, Logan, Mosquero, San Jon
Capulin Volcano National Monument
Part of the 8,000 square mile Raton-Clayton Volcanic Field, Capulin Volcano showcases the volcanic geology of northeastern New Mexico. The views are spectacular day or night, with views of 4 different states from the volcanic rim and one of the darkest night skies in the country.
What’s available: Site visits, virtual tour, history, stories and more.
City of Las Vegas Museum and Rough Rider Memorial Collection
Explore the heritage of the Las Vegas area through objects, dating from as early as the 1300s. Most of the collection is from the mid 19th through the mid 20th century. Altogether, you will learn about the diverse backgrounds and lifestyles of settlers, and those who have have passed through the wildest town in the West.
What’s available: Site visits and virtual tour.
Clayton Lake State Park and Dinosaur Trackways
Get a unique glimpse of the past when you explore one of the most extensive dinosaur trackways in North America and a close-up look at the stars at the Lake Observatory.
What’s available: Picnicking, trails, wildlife viewing, visitor center exhibits and education programs.
Territorial-style adobe remnants of the largest 19th century military fort in the region. For forty years, 1851-1891, Fort Union functioned as an agent of political and cultural change, whether desired or not, in New Mexico and throughout the Southwest.
What’s available: Site visits, events, special programs, videos, photos and more.
Herzstein Memorial Museum (Clayton)
Exhibits include artifacts from the Santa Fe Trail, Native American artifacts, the Dust Bowl era and much more.
What’s available: Free site tours.
Las Vegas National Wildlife Refuge
Gently rolling prairies of the east abruptly meet the rugged terrain of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, the Creston, gravel-capped mesas and buttes on the west, and the deep, narrow river canyons of the Gallinas River and Vegosa Creek on the south. The distinct landscape, diversity of biological communities, and secluded location are inherent characteristics that contribute to the area’s value as a natural preserve. This provides wonderful opportunities for wildlife viewing.
What’s available: Rangers lead wildlife walks, tours and educational programs at many sites. Events may focus on wildflowers or birds or on seasonal spectacles, such as elk bugling or sea turtle nesting. Some programs may be limited in size or require advance registration. See individual websites for details.
Pecos is a cultural crossroads through which hunters and gatherers, traders, conquerors and explorers, immigrants, soldiers, ranchers and tourists passed. Walk the trails and imagine Pecos through the centuries. Explore sites where cultural demonstrations and traditional practices continue today – a living legacy of the people who passed this way.
What’s available: Virtual tour, history timeline, a nature page and more.
Santa Fe Trail Museum (Springer)
Built in 1881, this old courthouse is on the State Register of Cultural Properties and the National Register of Historic Places. Includes many art exhibits and artifacts pertaining to the Santa Fe Trail and early pioneering life.
What’s available: Site visits.
The park is four miles north of Las Vegas with about 81 acres of land.
What’s available: Picnicking, wildlife viewing, and education programs.
The park features a historic early-20th Century coal-mining camp and natural scenery at the border of the Rocky Mountains and the Great Plains. Sugarite Canyon State park is 3,600 acres in size. Both lakes at the park are also historic. Lake Alice was built in the late 1800s to store water for the town of Raton. Lake Maloya upstream from Lake Alice was built by the town in the early 1900s and was enlarged in the 1940s. The park’s brand new Lake-to-Lake trail takes you to both and provides dramatic views of each.
What’s available: Picnicking, trails, wildlife viewing, historic coal camp, volleyball and education programs.
Region D: Albuquerque
Free puppet shows for younger students, in-class science activities for grades 1-12, an immersive half-day field trip to the river for all Albuquerque area fourth graders, and tours of our wastewater treatment plant. Presenters give lessons on water policy, conservation, and use.
What’s available: Virtual tours, videos, online curriculum and additional links to resources.
ABQ Biopark, Botanic Garden and Aquarium
Established in 1927, the Zoo is home to more than 900 animals from around the world. Many of these animals have been part of successful conservation plans and captive breeding programs. Opened in 1996, the Botanic Garden has grown to 32 acres of exhibits, and showcases plants from the American Southwest and around the world. The Botanic Garden’s BUGarium is one of the most elaborate exhibits dedicated to bugs and arthropods in the country. The Aquarium has colorful fish native to a variety of ecosystems found throughout the United States.
What’s available: Professional development, and new outreach programs are coming soon! New programming will offer opportunities to add to your field trip or classroom outreach experience with professional, staff-led activities. A variety of experiences to meet every budget.
Anderson Abruzzo International Balloon Museum
Field trips to the museum help students discover the exciting world of ballooning and other innovative forms of flight through tours and learning activities.
What’s available: Free transportation and admission for Title I Schools in the Albuquerque Metro Area. Programs typically include a guided tour and a ballooning learning activity. The museum can provide self-guided tour materials and activity handouts for all groups.
Bosque Ecosystem Monitoring Program
BEMP is a K-12 program through the Bosque School and currently has 33 active sites, across 270 miles of the Middle Rio Grande, and over 1 million data points are collected each year. Data is primarily collected by K-12 students and their teachers, demonstrating how local science initiatives like this can successfully connect people to their landscapes while helping inform resource management policies.
What’s available: Lessons, activity sheets and classroom visits focused on wildlife and nature at the Middle Rio Grande Valley and Bosque.
Center for Water and the Environment
The University of New Mexico offers hands-on activities that range from aquifers and reverse osmosis to a floodplain simulator.
What’s available: Contact the center to request that a volunteer bring a hands-on activity to your school.
Maxwell Museum of Anthropology – UNM
The staff, students and volunteers work together to study, preserve, partner, and present the human story from our origins more than 2.5 million years ago to today. Collections and majority come from the U.S. Southwest.
What’s available: Site visits, traveling trunks, checkout kits, activities, videos and more. Title I schools in APS can apply for a bus sponsorship.
National Museum of Nuclear Science & History
The museum offers hands-on programs and activities that can be customized to grade level and curriculum. All programs align with the New Mexico Education Standards and the Next Generation Science Standards and are dedicated to the topics of energy, forces, nuclear radiation, and the history of nuclear science.
What’s available: Field trip busing assistance to Title 1 public schools in Albuquerque and the surrounding area. The program provides up to two buses (at the same time) per school per year for transportation to and from the museum.
Expands access to the outdoors by inviting youth and families who might not readily access the outdoors into a safe, inclusive, and welcoming community where youth build skills to grow the next generation of conservationists, land stewards, and recreationalists.
What’s available: Live classes, recorded classes, home school resources, hiking recommendations and more.
Rio Grande Nature Center State Park
What’s available: Self-guided visits, guided nature walk or guided pond exploration.
Petroglyph National Monument protects one of the largest petroglyph sites in North America, featuring designs and symbols carved onto volcanic rocks by Native Americans and Spanish settlers 400 to 700 years ago. These images are a valuable record of cultural expression and hold profound spiritual significance for contemporary Native Americans and for the descendants of the early Spanish settlers.
What’s available: Virtual tour, history, photo gallery and more.
Students explore local water resources and conservation concerns with water resource professionals and educators from local institutions. Through our hands-on curriculum, students learn about The Big Water Questions and gain the knowledge they need to decide for themselves what they can do to protect water resources. Priority registration is offered to returning schools.
What’s available: Classes receive four in-class presentations and a field trip to help students explore these issues.
Sandia Mountain Natural History Center
An environmental education center owned by Albuquerque Public Schools and jointly operated with the New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science. It lies on 128 acres of mixed conifer forest in the mountains east of Albuquerque. Area students have been engaged in outdoor science programming at the center since 1967.
What’s available: Offerings include the Ecology Field Program for 5th-grade classes on-site, outreach programs statewide, classroom programs, public events, teacher workshops, curriculum, lessons, and activities.
The UNM STEM-H Center is a diverse portfolio of dynamic, signature regional pre-college STEM competitions, professional development training, resource-rich websites, & equipment/curricula reaching thousands of students/educators annually and managed by a full-time staff of 2 along with an on-call web developer/instructional designer.
What’s available: Student research and challenges, teacher professional development and more.
UNM Center for High Technology Materials
CHTM hosts a large number of laboratory and facilities tours for local elementary through high school students. Students get a unique opportunity to look at the scientific research performed in their hometown. They also have a chance to conduct some experiments of their own with liquid nitrogen and everyday objects like flowers, water balloons, and rubber gloves.
What’s available: Contact for more information: weisburd@unm.edu
Wild Friends Teacher Program of UNM Law
Various classroom activities throughout the school year to enhance student learning through hands-on activities and student advocacy, all while students create a real impact through their legislative work. Students can understand a legislative topic and learn how the government works. In the spring, it offers various outdoor or wildlife activities, including bringing wildlife in the classroom.
What’s available: Science and civics lessons along with guest speakers and in-class wildlife activities/programs
Region E: Estancia, Belen, Socorro, Los Lunas, Rio Rancho, Bernalillo, Mountainair, Moriarty
Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge
Bosque del Apache was established in 1939 to provide a critical stopover site for migrating waterfowl. The refuge is well known for the tens of thousands of cranes, geese, and ducks who winter here each year. Over 30,000 acres of Bosque del Apache are designated wilderness.
What’s available: Self-guided and ranger-led environmental education programs, auto tour, wildlife viewing and more.
Coronado Historic Site (Bernalillo)
When archeologists from the Museum of New Mexico excavated the ruins of Kuaua Pueblo during the 1930s, they discovered a square kiva in the south plaza of the community. This kiva, or ceremonial chamber, contained many layers of mural paintings. These murals represent some of the finest examples of Pre-Columbian art ever found in the United States.
What’s available: Lesson plans, video, activities and more. The site offers picnic tables with magnificent views of the Rio Grande and Sandia Mountains. Access to the reconstructed painted kiva is by guided tour only.
Harvey House Museum (Belen)
Specializes in Harvey House, railroad, and Southwest history. Houses a model train display.
What’s available: Site visits, videos, special online exhibits
Los Lunas Museum of Heritage and Art
The museum preserves history and showcases the differing cultural arts of Valencia County. Also offers a research and genealogy collection.
What’s available: Site visit, videos, presentations, a digital collection and more.
New Mexico Tech – Robot Combat
The Robot Outreach program’s mission is to promote interest in STEM education at all levels of education and skills development through the challenging and thrilling projects and competitions.
What’s available: Resources for educators including equipment, additional training, and assistance. The program will include multiple missions for teachers to choose from and provide classrooms with kits, customized and adaptable teaching material, virtual help sessions, and in-person classroom visits.
The Loma Colorado Main Library has 25 storytime kits for preschool teachers, parents, and caregivers of young children to check out.
What’s available: Each kit contains four books, a music CD, a puppet or a puzzle, and a list of nursery rhymes and songs to go along with the theme.
Rio Rancho Public Libraries is one of 75 public libraries selected to be part of the NASA@ My Library initiative to engage public audiences nationwide in informal and lifelong learning with the excitement of NASA exploration and discovery.
What’s available: As a NASA@ My Library partner, the library will offer free programs and activities for various age groups that explore NASA science and technology.
Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument
Three sites offer a history of the Spanish and Pueblo peoples’ early encounters. Learn about the history and culture of the Puebloan and Spanish peoples, and enjoy hiking and birdwatching in the surrounding desert landscape.
What’s available: A variety of educational opportunities, both at the park and in the classroom. The three park units, Abó, Quarai, and Gran Quivira, offer many resources and opportunities for students of all ages to explore both prehistoric and historic time periods.
Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge
The refuge is one of the largest in the National Wildlife Refuge System in the lower 48 states. Four different biomes intersect here and support a wide array of biological diversity.
What’s available: Picnicking, trails, wildlife viewing and ranger-led programs.
The National Radio Astronomy Observatory outreach department is developing Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM) programs for local and national outreach efforts. The initiatives focus on designing and delivering engaging radio astronomy programs and products for the general public, K-12 students, and formal and informal educators. We are also developing innovative methods to explore the intersection of art and science.
What’s available: NRAO offers a variety of educational resources that can be tailored to specific topics and age groups. They offer both virtual and in-person programming for a range of settings (classroom, afterschool, libraries, conferences, etc.).
The museum is one of only two in the United States that is dedicated to gliding/ soaring, sailplanes and related aircraft. The focus is the history of gliding and soaring in the Western U.S. The museum is an affiliate member of the Soaring Society of America.
What’s available: Visit the museum to see the collection of aircraft that dates all the way back to 1902.
Valencia Soil and Water Conservation District Education Program
The District encompasses 1,438,000 acres, including all of Valencia County, a small portion of northern Socorro County, Isleta Pueblo, and Laguna Pueblo.The District is responsible for the conservation and sustainability of natural resources such as agriculture, soils, water, plants, and animals.
What’s available: A youth park ranger program for ages 4-16, free nature lessons, a 5th grade program about the basic elements of ecosystems, tours at Whitfield Wildlife Conservation Area on specific days in January and February. Bus scholarships are available to schools within Valencia county.
Region G: Quenado, Magdalena, Reserve, Truth or Consequences, Cobre, Silver City, Lordsbug, Deming, Animas
Located 20 miles downstream from Elephant Butte, with the majestic Caballo mountains serving as a backdrop.
What’s available: Trails, wildlife viewing and education programs.
The park encompasses a one square mile at an elevation of 5,200 feet. The “city” is a geologic formation made up of large, sculptured rock columns, or pinnacles, rising as high as 40 feet and separated by paths or lanes resembling city streets. These rocks were formed about 34.9 million years ago when a very large volcano erupted. Then, erosion over millions of years slowly formed the sculptured columns seen today, creating a stunning, otherworldly landscape.
What’s available: Picnicking, wildlife viewing and education programs.
The museum houses exhibits relating to the everyday lives of the citizens of Deming and the Mimbres Valley, including a history of Deming Schools. Exhibits include paintings, furniture, period rooms, antique machines and tools, toys, dolls, clothes, vehicles, farm equipment, war memorabilia, photographs, Indian artifacts, gems and geodes, and an important collection of Mimbres pottery.
What’s available: Free site visits and archives.
Chiricahua Desert Museum (Rodeo)
The museum displays over 60 species of wildlife, including among the rarest and most endangered species native to the Chihuahuan Desert. The art gallery showcases the works of many well-known and respected artists. The gallery also displays the largest collection of herpetological art in the world, representing a diverse array of media – sculpture, jewelry, pottery, and original oil, acrylic and sketched works. A wildlife and botanical garden provides ample opportunity to intimately observe and photograph native wildlife in natural settings.
What’s available: Site tours.
Fort Bayard Historic Preservation Society and Museum
The Fort Bayard Historic Preservation Society promotes the preservation and interpretation of the Fort Bayard National Historic Landmark, located eight miles east of Silver City, New Mexico. What’s available: A museum on the property, and offers guided tours, as well as special events designed to educate the public about the role and importance of Fort Bayard to the state of New Mexico, and the history of the American West, from 1866 to the present.
What’s available: Guided tours, a podcast, videos, and archives.
Geronimo Springs Musuem (T or C)
Several rooms full of history displays from prehistoric to present in Sierra County. Revolving art displays and a world-class collection of prehistoric Mimbres pottery. Research and reference materials.
What’s available: Site visits.
For thousands of years, groups of nomads used the caves above Cliff Dweller Creek as temporary shelter. In the late 1200s, people of the agricultural Mogollon (Southern Ancestral Pueblo) culture made it a home. They built rooms, crafted pottery and raised children in the cliff dwellings for one or two generations. By approximately 1300, the Mogollon had moved on, leaving the walls behind.
What’s available: Field trips, photo gallery and information on area plant and animal life.
Shakespeare Ghost Town (Lordsburg)
At this national historic site you can walk the streets once traveled by Billy the Kid and hear stories of the old west. The town dates back to the 1850s.
What’s available: All tours are guided and include the interiors of eight buildings.
The museum opened in 1967 as a department of the Town of Silver City. It offers exhibitions, and public programs for all ages, community-wide events, publications and a gift store offering regional crafts, local history books and southern New Mexico souvenir items, and it cares for a vast collection of historical objects.
What’s available: Staff is always available to work with teachers to create engaging, curriculum focused fun learning activities for your students. Museum staff will also travel to your classroom with materials and activities to help support your teaching goals.
Region H: Corona, Alamogordo, Cloudcroft, Tularosa, Carrizozo, Capitan, Ruidoso, Hondo Valley
Founded in 1898 as a deer park at its present location at the south end of Alameda Park to entertain train passengers while they waited for the train to refuel. Currently, it is home to nearly 200 animals representing 90 species, the 12-acre Alameda Park Zoo offers an education center, picnic area, playground and gift shop that’s perfect for families and visitors of all ages. With a mission to promote education in the environmental fields of study, conservation, recreation, and biological research, the zoo connects humans with animals through audio, visual and tactical experiences.
What’s available: Site visits. The Education Center offers guests the opportunity to learn about our conservation efforts, the zoo’s history, and all of the animals at our facility from the native to the nonnative.
The building shows how things used to be in Carrizozo and Lincoln County when it was built in the 1940s. Exhibits include a 1930’s ranch kitchen; an early country schoolroom; a 1905 Barber Shop; a Milady’s Millinery Shop; a Western area with saddles and tack; and a homesteader’s log cabin.
What’s available: Site visits.
Fort Stanton Historic Site has almost 165 years of history that tells a unique story of western expansion and the resulting clash of cultures. Fort Stanton’s story continued long after its use as a military fort when it became a public health facility that was responsible for groundbreaking research and treatments in the fight against tuberculosis, as well as providing a stabilizing economic and social foundation for nearby communities. The goal is to give your students an in-person appreciation of our shared history while incorporating concepts that tie in with NM standards for your social studies curriculum.
What’s available: On-site tours, classroom presentations, photo gallery, digital archive and more. Education programs are on-going.
The historic site includes 17 structures and outbuildings that are part of a community frozen in time — the 1870’s and 1880’s. Most of the buildings in the community are representative of the Territorial Style of adobe architecture in the American Southwest. Visitors can see the Old Lincoln County Courthouse with museum exhibits that recount the details of the Lincoln County War, Walk in the footsteps of Billy the Kid, Pat Garrett, and other famous and infamous characters of the Wild West.
What’s available: On site tours and online resources that include videos, a photo gallery, lesson plans and more.
New Mexico Museum of Space History (Alamogordo)
New Mexico Rocketeer Academy has something for the young astronaut in each of us. Activities can touch on any of the sciences and New Mexico’s rich history in the space program, and encourage kids to pursue education and careers in STEM-H fields.
What available: Activities range from camp-ins and a portable planetarium to classes on rockets and weather. Prices range from $50 to $145. Some activities include additional fees for materials.
Understand the basics of wildfire, fire’s natural role, and how fire is often the best defense against wildfires. Spread Smokey’s message while teaching kids a variety of skills and subjects with resources for grades K–8. At the park’s visitor’s center, guests can find fascinating exhibits about forest health, wildfires, the science of fire ecology, and a historical look at wildfire prevention. The theater features a short film about how forest health and fire impact our lives today.
What’s available: Videos, activity guides and books for elementary and middle school are available at smokeybear.com.
Spencer Theater for the Performing Arts (Ruidoso)
The mission of the theater is to enrich the cultural lives of South-Central New Mexico’s residents and visitors. The theater opened in October of 1997, creating a year-round venue for world-class performances in theater, music and dance. Class Acts are performances of dance, music and drama to present art that is educational and entertaining.
What’s available: Performance for children of all ages. Tickets are $5 per student and run approximately an hour in length.
Located at an altitude of 9200 ft in the scenic Lincoln National Forest, Sunspot Solar Observatory is home to gorgeous vistas, historical landmarks, and one of the largest active solar telescopes in the world.
What’s available: The observation room for the Dunn Solar Telescope is open for tours on select days and times.
Tularosa Basin Historical Society (Alamogordo)
The museum contains displays of artifacts with provenance that reflect the historical significance of the Tularosa Basin.
What’s available: Site visits, collections, research files, research library, photos and oral histories.
Rising from the heart of the Tularosa Basin is one of the world’s great natural wonders – the glistening white sands of New Mexico. Great wave-like dunes of gypsum sand have engulfed 275 square miles of desert, creating the world’s largest gypsum dunefield. White Sands National Park preserves a major portion of this unique dunefield, along with the plants and animals that live here.
What’s available: Tours, community education classes, videos, and more.
Region I: Fort Sumner, Melrose, Clovis, Grady, Floyd, Portales, Dora, Elida, Texico
Fort Sumner/Bosque Redondo Memorial
The Bosque Redondo Memorial acknowledges the events of the 1860s and to allow those affected by the history to have a voice to tell their history. Designed by Navajo architect David Sloan in the shape of a hogan and a tepee, the museum and an interpretive trail provide an exhibit and educational programs to all who seek it. The nature trail and walking path is supported by a complimentary QR code-based audio tour.
What’s available: A virtual classroom also offers lesson plans, videos, hands-on activities such as weaving on a cardboard loom or building an adobe brick mold, poetry, an old army cookbook and more.
Hillcrest Park Zoo (Clovis)
A zoological park and second largest zoo in New Mexico. There are more than 140 acres of park land, lots of playground equipment for children to enjoy, a seasonal Splash Park and plenty of picnic areas available.Visitors have the chance to see many different wild animals including a Bengal tiger, giraffes, reptiles, primates, and more.
What’s available: Site visits, three unique animal encounter experiences and a photo contest.
Petty Rock N’ Roll Museum (Clovis)
Designed to give visitors a glimpse into the Norman Petty Studios on Seventh Street, where musicians such as Buddy Holly, Buddy Knox, Roy Orbison and other early rock and roll greats recorded some of their hits. Some of the museum’s attractions include the working equipment from the actual studios, including the original mixing board used during Buddy Holly’s recordings.
What’s available: Site visits and informational videos online.
Region J: Hatch Valley, Las Cruces, Gadsden
Asombro Institute for Science Education
Asombro manages an outdoor classroom, the 935-acre Chihuahuan Desert Nature Park, just northeast of Las Cruces.
What’s available: A variety of standards-aligned classroom and schoolyard lessons, field trips, and small group programs.
Located in a historic Santa Fe Railroad depot, the Las Cruces Railroad Museum interprets the railroad history of Las Cruces and the impact of the railroad on southern New Mexico.
What’s available: Site tours, gallery talks, workshops and demos.
New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum
The interactive museum brings to life the 4,000-year history of farming and ranching in New Mexico. The main building contains more than 24,000 square feet of exhibit space, along with catering space for meetings and events, a mercantile and theater. From PreK to college, tours can enhance the learning experience. A visit to the museum extends the resources available in the classroom, compliments classroom curriculum, and reinforces important concepts. The museum also has an outreach program.
What’s available: Call for pricing and availability
- Outreach program where the museum comes to you. Featuring everything from hands-on corn grinding to weaving, the museum’s engaging presentations will boost your classroom curriculum or enhance your community event.
- Demonstrations, DIY projects, coloring pages, and more.
STEM Outreach Center at New Mexico State University
Provides STEM activities for field trips, community groups, school Math and Science Nights and family events.
What’s available:
- STEM resources are available for teachers to check out.
- Field trips that cover everything from robotics and rockets to a planetarium experience.
Visitors to this historic site can experience more than 1400 years of history. As early as 400 A.D. Native American farmers, the Mogollon, lived on the same land that would become Fort Selden centuries later. In 1598, the area was known as Paraje Robledo, a welcome campsite on El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, or the Royal Road to the Interior Lands. Fort Selden was established in April 1865 to bring peace to the region. Several of the units that served there were African-American only regiments referred to as Buffalo Soldiers.
What’s available: Guided tours, self-guided tours, and hands-on activities at the site. The website offers history, a photo gallery and an opportunity to become a junior ranger.
Mesilla Valley Bosque State Park
The park preserves is along the Rio Grande with river woodlands and restored wetlands. It is used by migratory birds, and is popular for birdwatching, walking, and bicycling.
What’s available: The Bosque Ecosystem Monitoring Site (BEMP) student/citizen scientist site through a partnership with the Bosque School in Albuquerque. Picnicking, birding and guided ranger tours or trails accompanied with a self-guided trail booklet.
Leasburg Dam State Park offers peace and relaxation, a beautiful cactus garden, several hiking trails, and opportunities for fishing, canoeing, kayaking, and birding.
What’s available: Monthly bird identification programs, month night sky programs at an observatory, picnicking, trails and birding.
Region K: Roswell, Dexter, Lake Arthur, Artesia, Carlsbad, Jal, Eunice, Hobbs, Lovington, Tatum, Loving, Hagerman
Artesia Historical Museum and Art Center
Located in the unique Moore-Ward cobblestone house, there are exhibits in the main house with a focus on local and area history, featuring photographs, Native American artifacts, farm and ranch displays, and a hands-on children’s room with hats and clothes to try on. The Art Annex gallery next door features rotating exhibits such as local art shows, traveling exhibits and temporary in-house displays.
What’s available: Tour groups are welcome. Programs are available at the museum or at a chosen site. Popular children’s activities include a Family Scavenger Hunt (with prizes!), a Safe-Cracking at the Museum game, and a make-your-own-adobe-brick project.
The modern library supports lifelong learning, advances knowledge creation, and strengthens its community. It provides the tools and resources to support creativity, research, and problem-solving while asking and answering questions that challenge patron assumptions. Both the physical and virtual library spaces encourage patrons to engage with information, process it, reflect on it, have conversations about it, and develop new ideas.
What’s available: Resources for kids include video collections, interactive eBooks and audiobooks, coding software and more.
High ancient sea ledges, deep rocky canyons, flowering cactus, and desert wildlife—treasures above the ground in the Chihuahuan Desert. Hidden beneath the surface are more than 119 caves—formed when sulfuric acid dissolved limestone leaving behind caverns of all sizes.
What’s available: Ranger guided tours, trails, bat and night sky programs, online photo gallery.
Living Desert Zoo and Gardens State Park (Carlsbad)
Living Desert Zoo & Gardens is a zoo with desert animals and vegetation. Overlooking the Pecos River Valley, this fascinating park exhibits the Chihuahuan Desert region’s varied plant and animal life. Visitors can enjoy a 1.3-mile walk along a nature trail to view plants and animals of the Chihuahuan Desert.
What’s available: Field trips, classroom visit programs, power points, and events throughout the year.
Ocotillo Performing Arts Center (Artesia)
The Ocotillo Performing Arts Center is home to a 198 fixed-seat auditorium with state-of-the-art audio and visual systems. It was designed to accommodate a wide range of productions from community theater to film and professional touring concerts and events.
What’s available: Classes, workshops and camps.
The museum is a 50,000 square foot facility that includes twelve galleries dedicated to the exhibition of art and history, the Patricia Lubben Bassett Art Education Center, and the Robert H. Goddard Planetarium. The Museum is accredited by the American Association of Museums and is southern New Mexico’s preeminent museum, lauded for the quality of its exhibitions, programs, and collections.
What’s available: Field trips, star shows, planetarium presentations, hand-on activities and year-round classes and workshops.
Western Heritage Museum and Lea County Cowboy Hall of Fame (Hobbs)
The home of “Hobbspitality,” located on the Campus of New Mexico Junior College in Hobbs, NM, the Western Heritage Museum and Lea County Cowboy Hall of Fame strives to be the regional leader in the preservation and exhibition of artifacts and materials documenting the Cowboy and Ranching Heritage of Southeast New Mexico and West Texas.
What’s available: School tours, self-guided tours, lesson plans, traveling trunks and oral histories.
