What is the Nature Center?
The Nature Center dates back to August 1998. Westwood Principal Hazel Johnson, and fourth grade teacher, Tierni Sager, met with Penny Burke and Doris Heard, two long time Friendswood residents to give their vision of a learning center. On May 8, 1999, that vision became a reality. What was once a half acre of flat terrain with only four trees and scattered crab grass is now an area where one might find a heron fishing in the pond, an art class drawing, or a fourth grade class watching a monarch butterfly emerge from its chrysalis. The Nature Center is a beautiful outdoor classroom and laboratory. It is available to the Friendswood Independent School District along with surrounding communities so that students may have fun learning and exploring their environment as they grow to appreciate the interdependence of all living things.

Where is the Nature Center located?
The Friendswood I.S.D. Nature Center is located on the south side of Westwood Elementary School at 506 W. Edgewood before you pass Bales Intermediate School.

What does it look like?
The Nature Center is a perfect sanctuary just outside the walls of Westwood Elementary School. The Center is home to tall and short, narrow and wide, native trees. It is also covered in an exuberant array of beautiful flowers that are native to the Houston area. This vegetation attracts a variety of Texas wildlife that you are bound to see during every visit from exotic Monarch butterflies to majestic herons, to radiant red cardinals. The kids are able to enjoy the sights and sounds of their natural world from the amphitheatre, the kiosk, the bridge, or the gazebo. In the center of the Nature Center is a pond where students can observe the aquatic ecosystem composed of tadpoles, frogs, turtles, and birds.

Who uses the Nature Center?
The Nature is open to all of the FISD campuses. It has been the host of numerous classrooms as well as Science Day, and Family Fun Night. During Science day, representatives from Whiskerville, First Choice Power, the Friendswood Police Department, Texas A&M Sea Camp, Lone Star Animal Rescue, and Millwood Reptiles were on site for presentations. The Nature Center access extends beyond the FISD campuses. Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts of America along with other community organizations have utilized the Nature Center.

What is the most interesting event the Nature Center has hosted?
Ms. Tierni Sager, a Bales teacher, was able to share the Nature Center and stay connected with other students from around the world. Her classes used a new panoramic camera to take pictures of every angle in the Nature Center. With these pictures, the class shared them over the Internet with students in Japan.

Sponsors/Grants
“Working together, and mobilizing the Friendswood community to help, the four [Tierni Sage, Hazel Johnson, Doris Heard, Penny Burke] managed in a short period of time to transform a bare vacant lot adjoining Westwood Elementary into a verdant wildlife habitat area, full of life and learning experiences for Westwood students and the community at large” – Glenda L. Barrett.
A wide variety of grants have been dispersed among the six campuses in FISD for the Nature Center and other projects independent from it. Students are already enjoying the benefits of the curriculum, equipment, supplies, and opportunities that were provided through the Friendswood ISD Education Foundation. Some of the grants given to enhance and support education in FISD include the following: (not all are used in Nature Center but several are)

Integrating Technology and Music in the 21st Century: $5,000
Nature Center Probes: $5,000
Hands On Technology: Engineering: $5,000
Mechanics and Optics Unit: $1,000
America Quest: $1,300
Mavica Digital Camera: $600
Cooking With Math: $500
Project FIRST: $5,000
Induction/Magnetism Labs: $1,000
Discover America: $1,000
Traveling Trunks: $5,000
Environmental Technology Module: $1,000
GEARS: $2,500
Non-Fiction Guided Reading Program: $2,400
Visual Literacy through Photography: $1,200
Unplug Them and Read: $2,500
Phenomenally Fun Phonics: $2,000
Reading Connections: $295
Animal Excursion: $1,450
Quilts for Kids by Kids: $900
Friendswood’s Past, Present and Future Online: $1,050
A Math Enrichment Lab: $1,400
Social Studies Beyond Textbooks: $2,600
Spring Into Spanish: $2,500
The Insiders: $1,850
Making discoveries With Microscopes: $1,600
Project PAL: $1,000
Odyssey of the Mind: $2,000