Students can try their hand at the Southwest Indian coil pottery technique. Also, students can gain historical perspective with the Western arts of blacksmith artist, tool craftsmen, saddle makers, and whittlers. When the sun sets, students gaze at the night sky through the DMEC telescopes and learns about constellations, planets, the moon, and even how the Southwestern Indians once viewed the stars. The focus of this program is on radio astronomy and how the associated instruments work. Field identification of native plants, including trees, shrubs, and cacti, is stressed.
Students learn how plants adapted to survive in the desert climate.
Also, students learn how humans, living in the desert, depend on these plants. Cowboy artists, local musicians, or storytellers perform in song and prose that sets an atmosphere of friendship and sharing 'round the campfire. This program is excellent either as a first night get-acquainted or as a final closing ceremony. Students learn about the relationships that insects have with their habitats. Proper field collection procedures are taught as well as field observation methods.