Sandia Mountain Natural History Center

08/28/2026

We're welcoming back schools to the SMNHC this week for our Ecology Field Program!

Teachers prepare their students for coming in a variety of ways.

To get A. Montoya 5th graders ready for their program today, Faye Spruance worked with them to create this anchor chart.

Kira Murphy used our ecology classroom kit with her Kirtland Elementary 5th graders before their visit on Tuesday.

Start off your ecology unit with our lessons & activities so your 5th graders are ready to get on trail:
https://www.aps.edu/sandia-mountain-natural-history-center/planning-your-visit/in-class-lessons

Albuquerque Public Schools
APS Education Foundation

08/27/2026

Calling Albuquerque Public Schools elementary educators who want to learn how to make outdoor learning part of your everyday teaching. You have until Sunday to apply!

TOTAL NM's Growing Outdoor Leaders for Change is a six-month professional learning and leadership opportunity designed to support 15 APS outdoor educators in the making.

Through professional learning, coaching, relationship-building, leadership development, and practical tools, educators will work together to transform their schoolyards into meaningful outdoor learning environments.

Through the Growing Outdoor Leaders for Change program, 15 educators will receive professional learning, coaching, leadership development, and practical tools to help transform schoolyards into engaging outdoor classrooms. Together with APS Outdoor Learning and the UNM Evaluation Team, we’re build...

08/12/2026

Update: Event full. We hope you can make our next public event.

Join us to celebrate International Observe the Moon Night 2026!

Learn about moths and observe nocturnal insects with Sierra Necessary. Gaze at the moon and stars with our New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science and The Albuquerque Astronomical Society.

Register to park:
https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/ev/reg/5ka7y4h/lp/09d358b2-ee75-4736-ad44-e49aa79a3cd6

Gates open at 6pm, moth presentation at 6:30 pm, and night moon/star/insect viewing from 8:00 to 9:00pm. Everyone is welcome to this free event, but please no pets. A parking registration is required. Cash donations appreciated.

08/07/2026

climbing and chilling. These consist of about 8,000 species! They are related to crickets. Katydids are good at communication and camouflage.

08/06/2026

Professional Development Workshop by Explora! for educators, early childhood teachers, librarians, and out-of-school time staff.

Register by Sept 9 for kit pick up or shipment for first 20 registrants.

Please contact Explora with questions - [email protected]

Register here:
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeoHpC6Ed1gkvElUPokkYPpb3ALUSyRKzXt_bf1tBJS7rw7tw/viewform

08/02/2026

In Santa Rosa, New Mexico, a rural community and a botanist join together to save the endangered Pecos sunflower and a unique, disappearing ecosystem in Saving Beauty, a film by Christina Selby.

Watch the film here: https://vimeo.com/603314252?&signup=true

Ciéngas are a unique type of wetland found in arid lands of North America. They are among the most rare and endangered ecosystems of the American Southwest.

https://www.christinamselby.com/saving-beauty-project

This is "Saving Beauty_ Learning to live with the rare ones among us 2048x1080" by Christina M. Selby Photography on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

07/30/2026

A bee 🐝 absolutely coooooovering itself in pollen inside our first sunflower 🌻 bloom of the summer.

07/29/2026

Our educator Susanna collaborated with A. Montoya Elementary teacher Faye Spruance and art teacher Ryah Cheney to teach kids how to identify birds in the field with a program provided by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology K-12 Education team.

Ryah wrote a grant to have local artist Shelly come in and work with fifth graders to draw pictures of mountain birds, mammals, and plants and trees they learned about in the bird program and during our Ecology Field Program. Shelly used the student drawings to cut the pieces out of wood and have students paint them to decorate the school garden.

07/21/2026

We had a very exciting visitor in May and again at the beginning of June- a red fox!

In many parts of the country, red foxes are common, but here in New Mexico they are relatively rare. Of the thousands of gray fox photos we've gotten on our wildlife cameras, these are the first of a red fox (Vulpes vulpes).

Take a look at iNaturalist.org maps in NM of 680 gray fox observations statewide vs. 80 red fox ones in the northern half of the state.

Wild Carnivores of New Mexico, edited by Cartron & Frey, lists only 3 confirmed observations in Bernalillo County.

07/19/2026

It's , a fabulous time to pay attention to these important insects that get less attention than butterflies.

Take photos of moths and post them to iNaturalist to contribute to our scientific knowledge of them. nationalmothweek.org/mothing-101

"National Moth Week is an annual, volunteer-driven celebration encouraging people of all ages to observe, photograph and document moths while contributing to a global citizen science project. The data collected during National Moth Week contributes to our understanding of these insects’ diversity, distribution and ecology worldwide."

Photos taken during ABQ 2026.
Carpetworm moth by Moses Michelsohn
Great ash sphinx moth by Lindsey Frederick
Knot-horn moth by Mariel Campbell
Geometer moth by Christopher Rustay