Do you have a teen who is interested in science and technology?
Drumlin Farm is offering a special summer program for teens, Ecology in Action, which links ecology with urban land planning. Teens in grades 8-12 will work as virtual interns with a regional land planning firm to design a land use plan for a community in Lowell, MA.
Program highlights:
• Visit the site in Lowell to better understand the urban ecological, historical and cultural atmosphere. Investigate the variety of views of city life offered by the people who live and work there. Examine the city’s fresh water resources and test their quality as it pertains to people and wildlife.
• Visit places that are ecologically and economically important to the city and discuss pertinent topics with various representatives. (For example: learn about Orioles and Blanding’s Turtles, species that are sensitive to habitat loss, and how this can influence the land planning process.)
• Using the knowledge gleaned from the site and field visits, participants will weigh the trade-offs of different land use decisions in the city and elsewhere and will use iPlan, a custom-designed Geographic Information System, to develop a land use plan for the City of Lowell.
Ecology in Action will run August 6-10, 9:30 am-3:30 pm at Mass Audubon’s Drumlin Farm, with a field trip to Lowell, MA. The program is $150.00 for the week. Scholarship funds are available for those who qualify. To register and for further information, contact Robin Stuart at 781-259-2217 or rstuart@massaudubon.org by July 20. Space is limited, so sign up soon!
