Sandia Mountain Natural History Center

Sandia Mountain Natural History Center (SMNHC) is run by the museum along with Albuquerque Public Schools (APS). It is located on land owned by APS in Cedar Crest, NM. Their environmental educators create and lead ecology programs for 5th graders, as well as other grade levels and the general public.​ The SMNHC provides ecology lessons and activities for use in the classroom and outdoors, and a large collection of videos teaching about and exploring natural places in the Sandia Mountains and throughout New Mexico.

New Mexico Ecology Videos

The SMNHC YouTube channel will take you all around New Mexico, exploring a wide array of natural areas as you learn about animals, plants, geology, outdoor recreation, and more in the Land of Enchantment. You can watch all their “Quick Trips” videos, or explore playlists specific to Animals of New Mexico, New Mexico State Parks, Outdoor Skills, and beyond. 

Like and subscribe to the SMNHC channel to get notified about new videos.

Virtual Ecology Field Trips

The SMNHC Virtual Field Trip is a series of longer lessons created for APS @Home during the Covid-19 shut-down as a virtual alternative to the Center's on-site Ecology Field Program. Each video lesson is 15-30 minutes long and aligned to Next Generation Science Standards for 5th grade.

The lessons cover topics in-depth, include lots of visuals, and provide hands-on activities for students to do. Lesson topics include understanding abiotic and biotic, producers (leaves), consumers (scat, skulls), decomposition and soil, and ecosystem change over time. The series is intended to be watched in order, and it culminates with a review and final project video.

Curriculum and Activities

Visit the SMNHC website for outdoor activities to do in different ecosystems throughout New Mexico, as well as an Ecology Mini Curriculum and Ecosystem Explorations- an in-depth exploration of ecosystems, for classroom use. All of these activities are aligned to 5th grade standards and adaptable for other grade levels as well.

For middle school students, there are 3 curriculums for teachers to utilize: Wildlife Visits to Springs- an activity graphing and interpreting real wildlife camera data, an Endangered Species curriculum featuring New Mexico species of concern, and Climate Change video lessons. Additionally, there is a Climate Hope curriculum, consisting of 4 lessons and a final project, that was created with 350 New Mexico and Talking Talons Youth Leadership. Contact Fiana Shapiro at fiana.shapiro@dca.nm.gov to request access to the Climate Hope curriculum.

• For printable activities for further ecosystem exploration, please check out their website at: https://sites.google.com/a/aps.edu/smnhc/teacher-resources/curriculum
• To subscribe to the SMNHC youtube channel and stay up to date on all their new videos, please follow this link:https://www.youtube.com/user/smnhc1