Polk County Public Schools
The PEER Center will advance and support education efforts to develop environmental consciousness and responsibility. The Center will inspire students with a sense of personal responsibility for the care of the environment.
Janet Henderson
Environmental Specialist
Diane Herron
Environmental Specialist
1010 Old Lake Alfred Road
Auburndale, FL 33823
Phone: 863-965-5479
Fax: 965-6330
Click here to e-mail.
Welcome to Polk County School's Environmental Center. Our goal is to offer programs in environmental education to the young people of Polk County. Programs are designed to keep the participants involved through hands-on activities in forest ecology utilizing our boardwalk, nature trails, labs, and exhibits.
Two classes a day come to the Center. Your day will start either in the Discovery Room/Lab areas or on the Boardwalk Observation / Trail.
Classes will be presented with their own personal Discovery Booklet at the beginning of the day to record their observations. They will record their findings as they rotate through each area. At the end of the day we will share our findings, draw conclusions, and eat our lunch by the pond while watching the turtles explore their habitat.
Click here to view photo gallery.
The P.E.E.R. Center is a special branch of the Instructional Services Division of the Polk County School System. Established in 1974, the Center serves as a unique outdoor classroom for Polk County students and teachers. Environmental programs are specifically correlated to Florida’s Sunshine State Standards.
Located on 17 acres within the city limits of Auburndale, the Center offers a variety of Florida community types such as sandhill/oak scrub community, a loblolly bayhead/hardwood swamp community, and a freshwater pond. A self-guided, interpretive trail allows visitors to observe a variety of wildlife from broad headed skinks, alligators and heron to the gray fox.
The Center services over 3,400 students annually, with the target population primarily Third grade. Lessons are stated reinforcing forest ecology objectives along with correlations to science content assessed by FCAT. Student achievement of concepts taught while at the Center were evidenced in a pretest/posttest comparison. Student scores showed a 21%+ average increase in knowledge of concepts, after attending the Center.
Instruction and resources are provided to over 52 Polk County elementary schools and their teachers, serving 75% of the current elementary schools. Also the PEER Center services middle school and high school science teachers by sponsoring workshops each semester that model hands-on science lessons and provide resources for on-going environmental studies.
2004 marks a 30 year tradition for the PEER Center. Teachers and parents alike, fondly reminisce on coming to the Center over the years. (Some attended when they were students in Polk County schools.) Many have expressed what an impression it made on their interest toward science and environmental education, as a student and later as an adult.
A piece of Florida wilderness is in the heart of Polk County. Students can experience firsthand a pond, forested wetlands and swamps, to hardwood forests leading into sandhill areas. These habitats are biologically rich, supporting aquatic invertebrates, turtles, snakes, amphibians, and birds.