Durango Nature Studies has been bringing hands-on, nature-based, science education to the Four Corners community since 1994. We teach students, adults, and families from Durango, CO to Cortez, CO, and from Silverton, CO, to Farmington, NM. With a small core staff and dedicated volunteers, DNS serves an average of 4,000 students every year, including every elementary school student in the 9R school district! Our two-part school programs conform to national, state, and local education standards and have served as a state model of how environmental education organizations and school districts can work together.
As a licensed child care provider, we host week-long and individual day summer camps for elementary kids and middle schoolers, too, to give them a chance to keep learning about and playing in nature during the summer months. During the school year, we host after-school enrichment programs for K-3rd graders at several Durango elementary schools.