We expanded our youth program, called “Tours for Kids,” to include not only the tours we take with adults, but also trips to livestock and horse ranches, nature walks that include plant and insect identification, days on the farm for pre-schoolers, career days where we focus on careers in Natural Resources, gold panning and water resources education. We also do classroom presentations on the life cycle of trees with a program called Talk About Trees, and we demonstrate the complexity of the mining industry with a fun activity called “cookie mining.” All of our “Tours For Kids” and the related presentations are correlated with content standards for grade level appropriateness. We actually give teachers lesson plans which can be used before, during and after the field trips and presentations, that were prepared by certificated teachers and meet the educational expectations of schools districts.

Learn About Natural Resources In the Mother Lode

RANCHING & LIVESTOCK

  • Visit a Horse Ranch – 1st grade & up
  • Tour a Working Livestock Ranch – 1st grade & up
  • Experience “A Day of the Farm”—Pre-K & Kinder (May)

WATER, POWER & ENERGY

  • Tour Melones Visitor Center and learn about water cycles— K-3
  • Visit a biomass facility -Wood chips become Energy!—3rd grade & up
  • Tour A Powerhouse and Dam—learn about a renewable source of Electricity—3rd grade & up

MINING & LOCAL HISTORY

  • Try your hand at 49er style Gold Panning (spring)—4th grade
  • Cookie Mining! Own and operate a mine…Then eat it!—Classroom presentation 3rd grade & upinder (May)

FORESTS, FIELDS AND MEADOWS

Tour a local saw mill—3rd grade & up
Participate in “Tree Math” Activities—3rd grade & up
See High-Tech timber harvesting in action – 2nd grade & up
Learn how a forest grows and how people help rebuild the forest—2nd grade & up
Have a hands-on “Talk about Trees” presentation in your classroom— grades K & up
Take a nature walk and learn about bugs, butterflies, biodiversity and habitat—grades K-6

TOURS ARE FREE AND AVAILABLE FOR ALL GRADE LEVELS

  • Pre and Post-Tour Classroom Presentations Available
  • Natural Resource Curriculum Boxes available to complement the tours
  • Don’t see what you want? Call us. We love to customize for your classroom.

Sponsored and Funded by:

  • Tuolumne County Alliance for Resources & Environment, Inc.
  • And our partners in education: USDA Forest Service, Sonora Area Foundation and PG&E

TuCARE tours are free of charge!

All tours can be customized with your needs in mind. Tour materials are available for all age groups/grade levels. Additional activities, nearby recreation facilities, parks, public restrooms and picnic areas can be suggested if needed.

Schools Are Responsible for Their Own Transportation

Note: Some locations do not allow children under the age of 5-6 (with rare exceptions), especially in lumber mills, the biomass plant, the mine and the dam. Sierra Pacific Industries requires all participants to sign a waiver of release of liability before attending the tours. Weather is a big factor for most tours. The Melones Visitor center is not open year-round for tours. Cattle ranch trips (excluding the Brooks and Mother Lode ranches) are only available when cattle are not on high country ranges (usually after October 15th and before April 15th). The Aspen Meadow station is not open after October until late spring. Meadow tours can still be held until wet weather. Ultra Power is usually closed for tours all of May. Tulloch Dam does not allow tours on outage days.