Author: news
Children Need Nature: Tiny Worlds Terrarium
May 3, 2018Children Need Nature is a monthly blog column from our Nature Preschool program. Read more posts here.
When children have access to natural spaces and time to explore these spaces beautiful things happen. With nature’s diverse textures, scents, tastes, sounds, colors, and shapes, young children find playtime in natural settings compelling and aesthetically inviting. As mindful adventure seekers propelled by innate curiosity, children eagerly seek nature’s loose parts (the leaves, the flowers, the pinecones, the shells, etc.) and use them in their play. In this way, young people build an intimate understanding of the natural world, one element at a time.
From fairy houses in the woods…
Moving Field Guides: Learning through Dance at Naturepalooza
April 19, 2018“The Moving Field Guide relies on discovery and observation, which are important skills across all disciplines. It allows nearly all age groups to participate, it promotes critical thinking, it encourages participants to engage their environment, and allows for creative expression.” —Jessie L Scott III, Boston Urban Connections Coordinator, USDA Forest Service
Cassie Meador is thrilled to be returning to Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education as part of Naturepalooza, the Center’s Family Earth Day Celebration. As part the festivities, families will get outdoors to learn about local ecology and the ways in which water shapes our lives through a series…
Naturalist’s Notebook: Native Plants, Harbingers of Spring
March 29, 2018
The end is near! The world? No, just the winter season. And what bears such glad tidings you wonder? Our native plant friends. In February, the Schuylkill Center staff took its monthly nature walk down Ravine Loop hunting for the first tell of spring, skunk cabbage (above). I’m happy to report that we found it on February 9th in a particularly wet area just above Smith Run where the little stone bridge crosses a semi-perennial tributary. Just barely visible was its little purplish hood, the forbearer of the true flower. The first source of pollen in late winter, skunk cabbage…
Field Guide: Post-Storm Tree Assessment
March 15, 2018By Steve Goin, Director of Land and Facilities
See other Field Guide posts here.
As Director of Land and Facilities at the Schuylkill Center, the care of our trees rests on my shoulders. With 340 mostly forested acres, our tree population is large and diverse in both species and maturity. The recent nor’easters brought heavy, wet snow and a barrage of winds, impacting our trees and in some cases causing damage. The damage is as varied as the trees themselves. Some trees barely lost a twig, others had major limbs break, and some even blew completely over, known as windthrow.…
Children Need Nature: Jardín de Español
March 1, 2018
By Eduardo Dueñas, Environmental Educator
Children Need Nature is a monthly blog column from our Nature Preschool program. Read more posts here.
In the course of my week, I have the opportunity to give a Spanish class to the kindergarten class at the Schuylkill Center. I honestly can’t hide my happiness when I enter the classroom and see children eager to practice and learn new words in Spanish—words that they use every time when they pass by me in the hall. I am amazed at the speed and retention that a child of four or five years has when learning a new language. Ideally,…
Four Black-led Initiatives Nourishing a Greener Philadelphia
February 23, 2018Happy Black History Month! This February, we’ve been honoring Black leaders in the environmental movement.
Here are four of the many Philadelphia-based environmental initiatives led by Black educators, healers, scientists and activists you can support not just this month, but all year round.
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Children Need Nature: Rainy Day Hike
February 22, 2018
Children Need Nature is a monthly blog column from our Nature Preschool program. Read more posts here.
Activity: Rainy Day Hike
You will need:
Rain gear
Raincoat
Umbrella
Hat
Rain boots
What to do:
On a rainy day (either during or after the rain stops), go outside and take a walk around your neighborhood. Follow the path of rainwater from your roof, your doorstep, or the sidewalk in front of your house. Where does it lead?
Is the water carrying anything with it? Where do you think these objects end up?
Notice areas where the water puddles. Why do puddles form in some places but…
Roxborough’s Toad Rage
February 15, 2018By Claire Morgan, Volunteer Coordinator & Administrative Assistant
It’s early spring, just around sunset, and the conditions are just right—55 degrees and humid. A high-pitched trilling rings out in the distance. The shallow water of the Upper Roxborough Reservoir Preserve stirs with excitement. The toads of Roxborough are ready to run—and ready to attract a mate.
On some evenings, as many as two hundred toads can be seen heading from the Schuylkill Center’s forest to the Upper Roxborough Reservoir Preserve in a period of just two hours. The steady stream of traffic at the intersection of Hagy’s Mill Road and Port…
School District Partnerships Bring Outdoor Education to Classrooms
February 8, 2018
By Damien Ruffner, School Programs Manager
One year ago, the Schuylkill Center entered a partnership with Extended School Day Care Center (ESCC), an organization in the Norristown School District that provides extracurricular programming to families in the Norristown community. This mentorship program connects Schuylkill Center educators with district students, allowing us to bring the wonders of the natural world into an afterschool setting far away from our forest. (more…)
Getting to know rivers through art
January 18, 2018By Christina Catanese, Director of Environmental Art
[caption id="attachment_269449" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] An underwater video still of the Brandywine River, from Dylan Gauthier's highwatermarks: six ways of sensing the river, a micro level investigation of environmental issues that affect rivers and streams throughout the world[/caption]
What’s in a name? It’s one of the first things we ask someone, but can be quickly forgotten. It’s often given to us by others, yet is expected to serve as a distillation of our identity. Who gets to decide a name is a question layered with power dynamics, whether it be people, places, organisms, or…
