Lake Norman State Park
Lake Norman was created when Cowans Ford Dam was built to generate electricity for the people of the area. Though rarely seen there are over 35 species of mammals in the park in addition to birds, amphibians, and reptiles. When visiting the park students will learn the importance of clean water to both animals and humans.
Preview your trip on the web: Lake Norman State Park
Learn more
- Educational in Nature A series of environmental education curriculum supplements designed to foster understanding and environmental awareness in the classroom. These activities, games, lesson plans, and information cover such topics as forests, animals, recycling, and energy.
- Drinking Water for Kids Classroom activities, games, and experiments about drinking water and the water cycle.
- Water Science for Schools U.S. Geological Survey water science website for schools with pictures, data, maps, and an interactive center where students can give opinions and test their water knowledge. There are water science activites, water questions and answers, United States water use summaries, and more.
- Lesson plan: Can we keep the lake clean? This lesson introduces students to the water cycle by having them help draw a picture of a lake ecosystem, adding human impacts that affect water quality.
- Lesson plan: Observing the water cycle Initially, students will observe a demonstration of the water cycle and apply the information gained through the demonstration. Then students will measure and graph rainfall for two weeks.
- Lesson plan: Models of the water cycle The purpose of this lesson is to develop an understanding of the cycling of water by building and evaluating two different physical models.
Related pages
- Cliffs of the Neuse State Park: Extending for 600 yards, this spectacular series of cliffs rises 90 feet above the Neuse River. Students will learn how these cliffs were formed and about the wildlife that live here when they visit Cliffs of the Neuse State Park.
- Jockey's Ridge State Park: Experience a world of the shifting sands and a barren, desert environment as well as an estuarine environment of the tidal waters of the Roanoke Sound at Jockey's Ridge State Park in Nags Head, North Carolina.
- Carolina Beach State Park: Developed in the late 1960s, this state park preserves the unique environment along the Intracoastal Waterway. The Venus Flytrap and other plant life, the dunes, birds, reptiles, amphibians and mammals are all protected in this special place.
Related topics
- Learn more about Catawba River, Iredell County, Lake Norman, North Carolina, ecosystems, environment, habitats, pollution, science, state parks, and watersheds.
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Rangers hold regularly scheduled educational and interpretive programs about Lake Norman State Park. Educational materials about the park have been developed for grades 4-6 and are correlated to North Carolina’s competency-based curriculum in science, social studies, mathematics and English/language arts. The Lake Norman program introduces students to aquatic organisms. It also focuses on water quality and resource management, demonstrating how watersheds should be managed to maintain healthy aquatic ecosystems and drinking water. Accompanying the program is a teacher’s booklet and workshop, free of charge to educators.
Each state park and recreation area has an EELE (environmental education learning experience) curriculum guide that includes on-site activities, pre- and post-visit activities, student information pages, worksheets, fact sheets, vocabulary, and references. You can receive a free copy of an EELE by attending its corresponding workshop at a park, or you can borrow these guides through interlibrary loan at any public library in North Carolina. The EELE for Lake Norman State Park is “Testing the Waters” for grades 4, 5, 6, and 7.
The North Carolina State Parks website offers a search feature for finding the plants and animals that can be found at each state park. Using the drop-down menus, you can choose a park and either an amphibian, bird, reptile, mammal, fungus, insect, or vascular plant. You can search within each group by family, scientific name, or common name. There are photographs from the state parks and fun facts for some of the species.
To arrange a special exploration of Lake Norman State Park for your group or class, contact the park office at (704) 528-6350 or send email to lake.norman@ncmail.net
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