Author: news
Naturalist’s Notebook: Giants of the Forest
January 11, 2018By Andrew Kirkpatrick, Manager of Land Stewardship
An excerpt from this piece was published in our winter newsletter in December 2018.
Now that leaves are falling, the giants are revealing themselves in the forest. No, not the fairy tale variety—the trees. Walking the Schuylkill Center’s trails in the summer months, they remain mostly hidden from view. They’re tucked away from sight, obscured by cork trees, devil’s walking stick, and their own young. But once the crisp fall days arrive, the giants appear. (more…)
2018 is the Year of Water
December 28, 2017
By Mike Weilbacher, Executive Director
“When the well’s dry, we know the worth of water.”
Ben Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanac
Water is essential, both to our planet and to our programming. School groups search for living creatures in our ponds while Nature Preschoolers stomp through puddles and play in the mud kitchen. Summer campers hike along creeks, raft in whitewater, and snorkel in the ocean, while University of Nature adults discuss global water issues.
This will happen even more in the New Year, as 2018 will be the Year of Water across our programming. We’ll begin with the Richard L.…
Children Need Nature: The Art of Tree Climbing
December 21, 2017
By Alyssa Maley, Lead Preschool Teacher
Children Need Nature is a monthly blog column from our Nature Preschool program. Read more posts here.
I remember the moment during my childhood when I developed a bond with my favorite climbing tree on my front lawn—a Japanese maple. This tree was particularly challenging because it did not have lower branches. I had to jump up, grab a branch, and then swing my legs up moving my body like a monkey. Then I used my upper body strength to pull myself to begin the vertical climb. I have so many fond memories of tree climbing—I spoke to fairies,…
Rain Yard through the years
December 7, 2017By Christina Catanese, Director of Environmental Art and Liz Jelsomine, Exhibitions Coordinator
Editor’s note: The Schuylkill Center produced a wall calendar for 2017 in celebration of the environmental art program. Throughout the year, we’ll run a monthly post on our blog highlighting the art works featured in that month of the calendar.
Rain Yard is an interactive artwork by Stacy Levy that has been on display in the Schuylkill Center’s Sensory Garden since October 2013. Rain Yard provides a function of mitigating stormwater runoff from our building, while highlighting the critical role soil and plants play in the water cycle.…
Children Need Nature: Joining State Standards with Natural Learning
November 23, 2017By Nicole Brin, Assistant Director of Early Childhood Education
Children Need Nature is a monthly blog column from our Nature Preschool program. Read more posts here.
The inaugural Kindergarten class here at Nature Preschool is deep into its third month of school. If you walk into the classroom you will notice the book corner, art studio, block area, science and math manipulatives, and many other learning centers typical to an Early Childhood classroom. More likely however, you will be drawn to the more homey aspects of the room--the number line made from acorns and sticks, the wall of photographed discoveries, or the shelf of beetles, millipedes,…
Elemental powers
November 2, 2017By Christina Catanese, Director of Environmental Art and Liz Jelsomine, Exhibitions Coordinator
Editor’s note: The Schuylkill Center produced a wall calendar for 2017 in celebration of the environmental art program. Throughout the year, we’ll run a monthly post on our blog highlighting the art works featured in that month of the calendar.
“I imagine a line in space. I build it straight and true and offer it to the wind.
The wind plays with it like a cat with a length of yarn. The wind is the artist.”
Yellow Zinger, Tim Prentice
Tim Prentice’s Yellow Zinger was part of an…
Roxborough’s Kay Sykora is the 2017 Meigs Leadership Awardee
October 26, 2017By Mike Weilbacher, Executive Director
On Thursday, November 16 at 7 pm, the Schuylkill Center presents our highest honor, the Henry Meigs Award for Environmental Leadership, to an old friend and Roxborough neighbor, Kay Sykora.
Founder of the incredibly successful Manayunk Development Corporation in the early 1980s, Kay has over the last 30 years pioneered and tirelessly championed the Schuylkill River Trail through Manayunk and Roxborough, leading the effort to transform the canal towpath into the River Trail, now one of Manayunk’s most-loved amenities. She played a key role in the planning efforts that led to the Manayunk Bridge’s reinvention as a…
The Norristown Program: Mentoring the next generation of environmental leaders
October 17, 2017By Damien Ruffner, School Programs Manager
In February of 2017 the Schuylkill Center entered a partnership with ESCC, or the Extended School Day Center. A vital program in Norristown, Pennsylvania that provides before-care and after-care for the youth in eight elementary schools in Norristown. Our partnership allows education staff to work with two of these schools to enrich their education while providing mentorship to students.
This Norristown mentorship program is something that is very near and dear to my heart. Not only is it one of the largest and most ambitious outreaches we have done, but the program brings environmental…
At the Schuylkill Center, #NatureWelcomes everyone
October 16, 2017By Mike Weilbacher, Executive Director
Across the country, debate is raging on a wide number of increasingly political issues: health care reform, immigration, foreign policy, nuclear deterrence, the role of social media in politics, energy policy, public lands, climate change, and endlessly on and on. The stakes in these arguments only rise by the minute and by the tweet.
While these issues heat up, California is on fire, Houston (remember Houston?) still recovering from a flood, Florida coming back online after its hurricane, and Puerto Rico, well, Puerto Rico is a hellish nightmare of too many people having too little…
LandLab: Introducing our artists in residence
October 12, 2017By Christina Catanese, Director of Environmental Art
Even though I haven’t myself had a first day of school for a few years, in the fall, I still get a back-to-school-esque twinge of anticipation. In this season, you can feel something new coming in the air - something to be learned, something to gear up for - and I find it to be the most exciting time of year. This year, one of the most exciting new things for the environmental art program is the beginning of the second offering of our LandLab residency at the Schuylkill Center.
LandLab is a…
