Lake James State Park

Located in both Burke and McDowell counties, Lake James State Park is a place where students can learn about the animals and plants that inhabit the area.

http://www.ils.unc.edu/parkproject/visit/laja/home.html

Rangers hold regularly scheduled educational and interpretive programs about Lake James State Park. To arrange a special exploration of the park for your group or class, contact the park office at (828) 652-5047. Educational materials about Lake James State Park have been developed for grades 6-8 and are correlated to North Carolina’s competency-based curriculum in science, social studies, mathematics and English/language arts. The Lake James program introduces students to the lakeshore environment, focusing on the plants and animals that live there. 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 James State Park is “Aquatic Critters” for grades 2, 3, 4, and 5.

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.