Nature Museum

Please join us to enjoy three acres of lovely vistas, formal gardens and woodland trails. Throughout the empahsis is on plantings for birds and small wildlife - providing food, cover, and water.

Greenway in Charlotte.

Elizabeth Lawrence (1904-1985) was already a recognized garden designer and writer when, in 1948, she moved from Raleigh to Charlotte, NC, and began building the house and making a garden. Lawrence, the first woman graduate in landscape architecture at North Carolina State University is regarded as a preeminent figure in the region’s horticultural history. As she wrote in an autobiographical essay published posthumously in the collection A Garden of One’s Own, Lawrence quickly learned, “that a knowledge of plant material for the South could not be got in the library, most of the literature of horticulture being for a different climate, and that I would have to grow the plants in my garden and learn about them for myself.” Her books and articles on what she learned constitute a curriculum on gardening in the South and a distinguished library of literary garden writing.

Lawrence’s garden, where she learned and reported many of her lessons, is modest in size (just 70’ x 225’) and located in a historic neighborhood, near Wing Haven Gardens and Bird Sanctuary. It has a formal design, with five intersecting gravel paths outlining four informally mixed borders still filled with a significant number of her plants. A small woodland stands at the back of the property.


In 1984, Lawrence, in declining health, moved to Maryland. Two years later, the property was purchased by its current owner, Mary Lindeman "Lindie" Wilson. Recognizing the significance of the property and being an accomplished gardener herself, Wilson has sensitively maintained the integrity of Lawrence’s garden. The structure is essentially the same and as much as sixty percent of Lawrence’s own plantings continue to prosper.

The Center for Mathematics, Science, and Technology at UNC Charlotte is part of the larger UNC system's Mathematics and Science Education Network , located at Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

The site at UNC Charlotte was established in 1983 as one of two initial Network sites dedicated to strengthening the teaching and learning of mathematics and science in grades K-12 and beyond through collaborative partnerships with the regional schools, community colleges, business and industry, and state and local agencies.

The UNC Charlotte Center is the only Network location that operates both a Pre-College Program for underrepresented minority and female students and a Summer Ventures Program for academically gifted high school students. In addition to offering seminars, workshops, courses and special programs for teachers, the Center sponsors regional student competitions.

With a mission of creating scholars, nurturing spirituality and embracing diversity, Trinity is a K-8 school in Charlotte's center city. The unique location of our campus allows our 450 student population to spill out of the building and into the natural world. Garden projects have been crafted as an integral part of all classroom studies at Trinity with the main areas of application in science, math, language arts, written expression and art.

Charlotte's original Greenway Park, McAlpine Creek Greenway, built in 1978, was the first public greenway trail ever acquired and built in the western piedmont of North Carolina.

Features include 8.9 miles of greenway, cross country trails, and nature trails off of Monroe Road.

RibbonWalk Nature Preserve is a 188-acre urban forest, located in north central Mecklenburg County only four miles from center city Charlotte. The preserve protects a diversity of forest and wetland habitats, including one of the oldest American beech tree groves in the region.

Paved Greenway = 5.9 Miles
University Research Trail = 1.2 Miles

Clark's Creek and Mallard Creek Greenways are a great place to explore in the late summer or early fall when the butterflies are flying. Watch for gulf fritillaries, buckeyes, and bright, orange monarch butterflies migrating south to their wintering grounds in Mexico.

Clark's Creek Greenway
Joggers, walkers, bicyclers, roller bladers, baby strollers, and skateboarders all use this paved path that stretches 4.3 miles to the University Research Park. A 1.2 mile gravel trail through the University Research Park connects greenway visitors to the newly constructed 1.6 mile section of Mallard Creek Greenway. From David Taylor Drive, the greenway meanders through mature floodplain forest and follows the creek under Interstate 85 and Highway 29 to the Kirk Family Fields off of Mallard Creek Church Road.


Great blue herons, gray fox, white tailed deer and a wide variety of birds, including red-tailed hawks can be spotted. In the spring and summer you may see beaver and muskrats.

The Providence Spring Elementary School faculty and administration incorporate outdoor learning into all curriculum areas as they work to meet their NC curricular objectives. In addition to learning through hands-on and experiential activities within the classroom, students also have access to learning opportunities in our school's 12 acre "Branch Creek Preserve." We are a NWF certified "schoolyard habitat" and a UTOTES (Using The Outdoors to Teach Experiential Sciences) School (designated by the NC Museum of Natural Sciences). We feel these learning opportunities contribute to our students' high academic growth each year.

Metrolina Regional Scholars' Academy, Charlotte, NC. Charter School for the gifted with arond 200 students and our school is instilling the values of the 3 R's in all the grades.

Wildlife Refuge

Located on Lake Norman, the EnergyExplorium offers hands-on exhibits, a one-mile long nature trail, wildlife habitats, picnic facilities, a movie about Lake Norman and a self-guided tour through the facility. All programs are free to the public.

Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden, a Garden for all Seasons, provides guests with a chance to reconnect with nature. Located within 380 acres on the banks of Lake Wylie, spectacular gardens, 12 sparkling fountains, a visitor pavilion, and garden store await the visitor. The Garden also recognizes the biodiversity of the North Carolina Piedmont through its half-mile Woodland Trail that features plants native to the region. HGTV named Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden one of the nation’s “20 Great Gardens” and USA TODAY says the Garden is one of the nation’s best places to “welcome fall with a flourish.” Committed to horticultural excellence, Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden is a must-see for all ages.

The Garden offers a variety of services throughout the year, including public events and festivals, education programs, and tours for groups of all ages and types. The Garden also features a 13,000 square foot Visitor's Pavilion, which may be rented for private events.

Please check out the Garden's website at www.dsbg.org for an list of upcoming events and programs.

McGuire Nuclear Power Plant hosts Project WILD workshops in one of their training rooms on site. To get directions to the specific room in site at the Plant, contact Melinda Atwell and ask for directions when you register for the workshop.

Belmont Abbey College

Homeschool for Middle School Students

Piedmont Middle School Union County North Carolina Traditional Schedule Public Middle School Eblock Wild Wednesday NC EE Teacher of the Year 2005

See website for details.