Springboard Virtual Learning
Launch your students into science and history through our engaging Springboard Virtual Education Program. Offering virtual, real-time interaction with conservation and water resource experts, chemists, biologists, zoologists, archaeologists and naturalists from the Springs Preserve, Springboard’s multimedia explorations dive into local natural phenomenon, issue-based science and regional history.
Bring a STEM expert into the classroom! Check out our videos and book an expert today.
Region-specific videos produced by Springs Preserve experts
Live sessions with zoologists, biologists and horticulturalists
Topics aligned with state standards to help achieve academic goals
Select a video topic and request an expert!
The Zoologist's Apprentice
Intended Audience: Kindergarten - Third Grade
Explore the fascinating adaptations of Mojave Desert animals. Learn about the habitat, defense mechanisms, traits and adaptive features of animals that share our desert home. Also, discover how humans apply animal adaptations to everyday life.
Desert Tortoise
Intended Audience: First - Third Grade
Meet Nevada’s state reptile and learn how this shelled quadruped survives in North America’s driest desert. Explore the unique adaptations that help the desert tortoise not only survive in the Mojave Desert, but also thrive in it. Discover how the Desert Tortoise’s adaptations influence human design.
From a Spring to a Town: Early Peoples to the New City of Las Vegas
Intended Audience: Third - Fifth Grade
Take a virtual tour of the history of the Las Vegas Valley. From indigenous peoples to European settlers, from dusty watering hole to bustling city, learn about the humble beginnings of Las Vegas in this quick, digital field trip at the Springs Preserve.
Anatomy of a Barrel Cactus
Intended Audience: Third - Eighth Grade
Discover how this prickly plant thrives in North America’s driest desert. Learn about our regional cacti and their traits, defense mechanisms and specialized plant structures.
Water and Energy
Intended Audience: Fourth - Fifth Grade
Explore the inextricable relationship between water and energy. Discover how we use water, one of many natural resources, to produce energy and how we use energy and water to produce everything else. Learn about “embedded/virtual” water and how conserving any single thing, conserves many.
Drought: Our Water Resources and Community Response
Intended Audience: Fourth - Twelfth Grade
Explore drought as a natural hazard, its impacts on humans and the natural environment, and the design solutions needed to reduce those impacts.
Introduction to the Colorado River
Intended Audience: Sixth - Eighth Grade
Meet the West’s “hardest working river” aka Southern Nevada’s main water source. Learn more about the 40 million people who rely on the river and the critical challenges it currently faces.
Frogs in the Middle of the Mojave: Biodiversity and Our Ecosystem
Intended Audience: Sixth - Eighth Grade
Learn about the Refugia Ponds located at the Springs Preserve and how we recreated an environment to help populations of two endangered species reproduce.
The Las Vegas Wash
Intended Audience: Sixth - Eighth Grade
Learn about the biological importance of the Las Vegas Wash and why it is home to several species.
Water Doctors
Intended Audience: Sixth - Twelfth Grade
Take a virtual tour of Southern Nevada’s water treatment facilities. Explore the science, stat-of-the-art technology and complex systems that deliver high-quality drinking water to your tap.
Chemistry of Composting
Intended Audience: Sixth - Twelfth Grade
Learn about how compost is made, why it is important and how it affects the health and growth of plants.
Vegas Since the Beginning of Time
Intended Audience: Sixth - Twelfth Grade
Compare and contrast the variety of methods by which geologic time is determined, including radioactive dating. Also, explain the fossil record of ancient life forms by applying the idea of natural selection and its evolutionary consequences.
Poop Don’t Lie: Looking for COVID-19 in Wastewater
Intended Audience: Ninth - Twelfth Grade
Learn how COVID-19 can be discovered in wastewater, methods used to get the data needed to help identify where COVID is present and the future of wastewater epidemiology.
How To Register Your Class
To schedule a virtual meeting with one of our experts, click the button below. Our experts are working in their fields of expertise. Scheduling may take one day or up to one week. Thank you in advance for your patience.
Request an expertFrequently Asked Questions
Browse below for answers to the most frequently asked questions about the Springboard virtual learning program. If you don't see the answer you need, please email us or call 702-822-7709.
Class registrations for the Springboard Series are available through the school year.
When requesting an expert, please keep in mind, many of our experts have extraordinarily busy schedules as they are working in their fields of expertise. Scheduling an expert may take one day or up to one week. Thank you in advance for your patience.
Yes, it's possible to book more than one expert. We are happy to schedule up to two experts for your class and then explore availability if you have additional requests.
If you are a middle or high school teacher with several classes of a grade-level subject on the same day or on an A/B schedule, please give us ample notice. We will try to find experts who can meet more than once in the same day and/or within two-days. However, we cannot guarantee their availability.
The Springboard Series was made possible by Sharon & Stephen Pierce, The Rosenblum Family Foundation and NV Energy