Playcard Environmental Education Center
Please note that Playcard now has options for field trips including online and traditional face-to-face field experiences.
Register your class for face to face field trips by visiting our online registration calendar (this calendar is read only and shows the dates available. To register, one more step is needed. Please view the Playcard booking calendar to register). Note: Registration for each school calendar year starts July 1 of upcoming school year.
A calendar invite will be sent to your registered email address. Please note that there is differing paperwork required for trips be they from inside the HCS District or outside entities. (Please see links below for your group type).
Cost of a face to face day trip is $3 per student no charge chaperones. Arrival for day trips is after 9 am.
Price for overnight camp is $15 per person, extra fees applicable for extra services and food costs.
Trouble finding paperwork for your upcoming Field Trip to Playcard?
Digital Outreach Programs: Playcard offers Google Meets, Zoom Classes, Google Classroom, Forever Wild! Videos, and various other digital outreach programs for the fall semester of 2025 into spring 2026.
Baby Animal Day: Friday, April 2nd, 2027. Open enrollment to pre-k, k, and 1st graders. Admission is $3 per child no charge for chaperones. Enrollment is now open. Enroll today!
SwampFest Free public open house festival for all ages! Saturday, November 7th. 10:00am - 3:00pm. Free admission, public invited. Games, natural history, cultural displays, outdoor recreation opportunities (fishing, hiking, kayaking, etc.), music, and fun for the whole family!
In-person events: We are hosting free periodic public outreach days on special events topics such as pollinators, mushrooms, astronomy, birding, fishing, primitive survival, and other useful outdoor skills. Please like us on Facebook for updated public events!
Our Mission: Playcard is committed to fostering knowledge of the relatedness of plants, animals, soil, water, and human beings through teaching the natural sciences in the special world of a blackwater swamp. Although primarily focused on Horry County, it can provide a model for environmental education centers across the Southeast.
At Playcard Environmental Education Center our goal is to instruct students in the natural sciences on-site, enabling them to experience first-hand the inter-relationships of living things. Teachers receive training which enhances their effectiveness in the classroom by increasing their knowledge and enthusiasm for teaching. The Center also provides a site for observation and study by various scientific disciplines.
In addition to natural science programs, the Education Center provides experiential leadership challenge course opportunities. Playcard facilitates day field trips, overnight camp-outs, special events, and teacher staff development.
Searching for Environmental Education Resources?
Internship opportunities are available through a partnership between Horry County Schools, Coastal Carolina University, and the Horry County Conservation Foundation.
Many students have a critical need to be able to gain hands-on skills and abilities as well as relevant outdoor job experience, if you are interested, please contact us.
Community opportunities: If you have any community partnership ideas or resources please forward them to Playcard Environmental Education Center as we provide many volunteer opportunities for youth and adult community groups throughout the region. From community organizations, school collaborations, Eagle Scout projects, shadowing opportunities, special event collaboration, research, and community engagement, Playcard welcomes the community to assist with making Playcard be the best it can be. We are only limited by our ideas and resources as well as the hands-on work to make them happen.
If you have a unique knowledge or skill that you wish to present or to share that is relevant to the outdoors, conservation, natural history, the arts, or the natural sciences or would like to serve the community through learning with an exciting, engaging, dynamic outdoor community, please contact us.
Playcard Environmental Education Center, by the community, for the community.
"Forever Wild!"
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Check out our "Forever Wild!" Series!!
'Forever Wild' Crew
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