The Plymouth Bluff Environmental Center believes
that outdoor education in a convenient and natural setting can be
a very effective way to begin or enhance environmental and ecological
awareness among all people.
The setting for the Plymouth Bluff Center offers a river, a pond,
woodlands, a cypress slough, nature trails, an outdoor teaching
facility, and outdoor laboratories. Plymouth Bluff is a well-known
Cretaceous fossil bed composed of marine sediments deposited when
the area was part of a vast inland sea. Since the bluff contains
an abundance of fossilized animal remains, including mollusk shells
and shark teeth, it represents an excellent laboratory for geology
and paleontology.
The Plymouth Bluff area has a large
population of deer and is home to wild turkeys, raccoons, beavers,
rabbits, squirrels, armadillos, and occasional foxes and coyotes.
Wood ducks are common, as well as Canadian geese that are on the
Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway. The area also contains a number of
interesting plant species and communities, including some very large
specimens of post oak and osage orange.
Nearly four miles of nature trails provide additional opportunities
to observe nature and enjoy some impressive scenery along the river
bluff. Some of the trails have an asphalt surface for use by physically
challenged visitors.
Plymouth Bluff has acquired an outdoor Challenge
Course, Math Lab, and Environmental Discovery Lab. The LaTerre Outdoor
Learning Systems are a series of structures designed to utilize
the outdoors as a classroom.
The Challenge Quest is a series of components
designed around specific challenges, or initiatives, that are used
by a group to promote both teamwork and individual commitment.
Initiatives
promote skills for living that include communication skills, leadership
skills and thinking skills. Such skills are important not just in
the work force, but also in schools, where youth must live and learn
on a daily basis.
The Outdoor Math Lab is a series of permanent
outdoor wooden structures that are used to teach applicable lessons
in math. The spatial and angular relationships between parts of
specific components of the math lab are used to complete group tasks
that contain lessons in fractions, number manipulations, measuring,
graphing, estimations, etc. Field Guides for each grade level and
field kits facilitate use, bringing a new level of excitement to
the often boring realm of math class.
The Outdoor Environmental Discovery Lab is
an outdoor learning center designed to facilitate the study of habitats,
natural science, ecology, physical science, and biology. It is a
series of structures inside and enclosed area with an outdoor classroom
that, by design, helps teachers plan lessons that include experiential
and hands-on approaches to teaching natural science where it actually
occurs.
