Tag Archives: classroom

Back to School with Drumlin Farm

Posted on August 28, 2018 by Kelly R.

Pencils? Check.

Binders? Check.

Index Cards? Check.

Screech Owl? ….Check!

Education is at the heart of Mass Audubon and Drumlin Farm’s mission to protect the nature of Massachusetts and inspire the next generation. Unique in its position as both a working farm and a wildlife sanctuary, Drumlin Farm has delivered environmental education programs to hundreds of thousands of elementary, middle, and high school students in Massachusetts. Our teacher naturalists work with students to help them develop an appreciation for native plants and animals and their habitats, as well as the relationships of these ecological communities to our agricultural practices. Now that summer camp season is over, it’s time to get back to school and apply that love for the outdoors and natural life to the classroom.

Drumlin Farm Comes to Your School

Drumlin Farm’s Outreach Program brings our teacher naturalists to your school classroom, or guided exploration of your schoolyard or natural areas nearby. Programs may include bringing native wildlife into the classroom or guided exploration of nature areas near your school. Keeping a class’s attention is a breeze when there’s a broad-winged hawk on the presenter’s arm!

Visit Drumlin Farm with Your Class

Our on-site programs offer opportunities to investigate the ecology of New England habitats and the adaptations of animals and plants that live here. During guided explorations of Drumlin Farm’s forests, wetlands, and fields, students ask questions, investigate, collect data, and share conclusions. While students are out exploring, they have opportunities to use scientific tools, make observations, and experience real science in the field.

Homeschool Programs

Maybe back-to-school for you means back to the home classroom. We coordinate customizable Homeschool Programs for our local homeschoolers to encourage children to interact with the environment through nature exploration and science-based learning, as well as with each other through group building and games.

Afterschool Programs

End the school day with dynamic and inquiry-based engagement at our afterschool enrichment experiences. Students learn about field science, local habitats, and wildlife. Individual and series programs are available and may include nature-based crafts, games, literature, storytelling, journaling, and other activities. Students won’t want to leave school when ending with these fun activities!

Our 4-H Programs also provides an opportunity for kids to become more healthy, connected, balanced, and empowered through hands-on activities with farm and nature themes. 4-H participants practice public speaking, participate in service projects, and cook healthy snacks with farm fresh ingredients.

Professional Development for Teachers

Drumlin Farm offers professional development opportunities for teachers at your site and at our wildlife sanctuary. Workshops are designed to give teachers the tools they need in the classroom to create and lead their own inspiring lessons. In our workshops, we use local habitats and native species to explore ecological principals, cross-cutting science concepts, and core earth and life science ideas, as well as how to teach these lessons in the classroom through a hands-on, and inquiry driven approach. We are a DOE-approved PDP provider and offer year-round science education courses to classroom teachers.

 

We invite you to get involved and join the best part of back-to-school. Balance out the homework loads with hands-on experiences in the settings student learn about in science class. The 2018-19 school year is gearing up to be the best year yet with Drumlin Farm!

 

Our Farm Fields are Living Classrooms

Posted on July 16, 2015 by Heather

Post by Drumlin Farm Food and Farm Educator Emma Scudder

If you’ve ever ventured down to Boyce Field, home of Drumlin’s crops operation, then you know the beauty of the place. As far as the eye can see are rows and rows of vegetable plants. (Maybe I’m biased as a farm educator, but to me there is no better sight!) However, beyond affording a beautiful view, Boyce Field serves the equally important but lesser known role of classroom for our many visitors, students, and campers.

As an outdoor learning space, Boyce Field is a dynamic place where our school programplanting participants experience hands-on learning that’s connected to classroom curriculum and science standards. When schools sign up for field trips, teachers often give us information about the concepts they are studying, where they are in their unit, and the main curriculum connections they hope to make. With this information, we’re able to assign students a chore that’s not only tied to classroom learning but is also meaningful work.

weedoutThis past May, students learned about plant lifecycles while helping to de-bud first-year strawberry plants. (In order to encourage healthy growth in newly panted strawberries, we don’t harvest fruit; instead we remove their blossoms so they will not produce fruit.) Before we began, we reviewed the phases of the plant life cycle and how pulling flowers off of the young plants allows them invest their energy into growing strong roots and leaves, so that next year we can harvest delicious fruit from healthy, hearty crops. Students were able to observe strawberry plants that were in their second season, which were noticeably fuller and heavy with strawberries, and make the connection that the work they did will have a long-term positive impact on the plants and our farm.

Of course the learning doesn’t stop at the end of the school year: In the summer, campers have potatobeetlethe opportunity to delve into the crops operation at the busiest and most exciting time of the season. Recently, one group of campers, whose session focused on sustainable farming, spent an afternoon learning about and practicing sustainable pest control, picking Colorado potato beetles off of potato plants. As we went, campers were asked to think about how the practices we use at Drumlin are different from some other farms, where chemical pesticides are sprayed, and the environmental impacts of both methods. The afternoon flew by as campers explored issues related to our food system.

An added bonus: All this learning happens to be a big help to our crops operation! So far this season, program participants have contributed 65 hours of meaningful work, all while engaging in scientific learning in ways they never could have in an indoor classroom.