Author: news
Learning and Growing with Nature Preschool
April 18, 2014By Shannon Dryden, Nature Preschool Manager & Lead Teacher
As the preschool manager and teacher at the Schuylkill Center Nature Preschool, it is so exciting to see the benefits of children spending time outdoors unfolding right before my eyes. The children have gained endurance and stamina since the beginning of the year. We now venture to ponds and places that are farther away on our trails and the children enjoy these excursions. For example after describing Wind Dance Pond, the children immediately began asking “Can we go there?” Nature Preschool took on the challenge and showed a tremendous amount of…
First blooming
April 9, 2014By Anna Lehr Mueser
I walk through the forest in the afternoon, listening to the rustle of a light breeze in the treetops and the distant hum of the city, reminding me that I am both immersed in the forest, and still in the city of Philadelphia. At this time of year, I love to watch the woods transform from their winter quiet to the stampede of color and growth that is springtime. This time last year, it seemed everything was blooming, but today, just the first green things, the first buds, the first butterflies, appear. The long winter has…
The Sixth Extinction, Book Review
April 3, 2014By Mike Weilbacher, Executive Director
Book review for the Philadelphia Inquirer, a print version of this review appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer on Sunday, March 30, 2014.
We inhabit an extraordinary planet overflowing with an abundance of life: massive coral reefs built by billions of tiny invertebrates, rain forests teeming with uncountable plants and animals, frogs and toads singing in vernal ponds, bats flitting over summer meadows.
But we also live at an extraordinary moment when all of the creatures named above, and millions more, might disappear in our lifetime. And while climate change gets all the attention as an environmental…
Meandering with Stacy Levy at Swarthmore
March 31, 2014By Christina Catanese, Director of Environmental Art
I recently got to attend a lecture at Swarthmore College's List Gallery given by Stacy Levy, one of the most exciting environmental artists working today. Titled “Constructing Nature: What Art Reveals,” Levy’s talk (video here) touched on her approach to environmental art, some of her past pieces (including one we’re lucky to have onsite here at the Schuylkill Center), and two new pieces that were unveiled that night at Swarthmore. (more…)
Baby Squirrels in November: Unusual Wildlife at the Clinic
March 27, 2014By Rick Schubert, Director of Rehabilitation, the Wildlife Clinic
Anyone who has worked on a farm in a temperate climate knows that winter is no time to take a break; wintertime is a race against the clock, reorganizing, repairing, cleaning, planning, and preparing for the upcoming busy season. Wildlife rehabilitation is no different. Although we take in injured adult wild animals 12 months a year, our business spikes in the spring, summer, and fall with the addition of orphaned and displaced neonates. Usually, winter is a slower time for wildlife patient intakes, but it’s a critical period to spend getting…
Find Nature – Philadelphia: Guest Post from Lauren Ferri
March 24, 2014By Lauren Ferri, posted from Finding Nature Philadelphia
Growing up in the suburbs of New York, I had a huge yard with plenty of space to roam and explore. I remember playing outdoors for hours as a child, unearthing rocks and breaking them open hoping to find gems. I would dig through the dirt, pretending to be an archaeologist looking for lost cities and treasures. We had a garden where I would help my mother harvest lettuce, cucumbers, eggplants and tomatoes. Fortunately I didn't have to leave my property to experience the beauty and wonder of nature. These experiences left…
Vernal stirrings: Spring has come to our fields and forests
March 20, 2014By Anna Lehr Mueser, Public Relations Manager
Today we mark the vernal equinox, the moment when winter, officially, becomes spring. Edith Holden, who, in 1906 published The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady, notes that March was named “stormy month” by the Anglo-Saxons. Indeed, it has been a stormy March, with more to come, it seems.
But let’s take a moment now to feel glad that spring is truly on the way.
We see it in the small green things pushing up from dead leaves and in the many trays of transplants growing in our Native Plant Nursery; red maple…
Photography as Art at Nature Preschool
March 14, 2014The first edition of Children Need Nature, a monthly message from our Nature Preschool. Read more posts here.
Photography as Art
A Nature Preschool Exploration
With the advent of the Frost exhibit here at the Schuylkill Center, we have been delving deeper into art. In particular, we are exploring the many ways that art can be expressed – through sculpture, painting, print, fabric, and even photography. We visited the exhibit as a group and looked in particular at the photographs. The children were able to describe the photos and express the emotions they felt when looking at them. They ran the gamut…
How Do You See Nature? Winners and Runners-Up
March 5, 2014We were thrilled to see over 150 entries to the photo contest, and we thank all of those who shared their photographs with us. Three winners were chosen by a panel of Schuylkill Center staff.
Winners:
[gallery type="circle" ids="522,516,592"]
We're also happy to honor six runners-up. Christina Catanese and Anna Lehr Mueser comment on the runner-up photographs below.
Runners-up:
From Christina Catanese, Director of Environmental Art:
[caption id="attachment_595" align="alignleft" width="300"] Lea Gooneratne-Riedi[/caption]
In the winter woods, we can often find evidence of animals in the landscape even when we can’t see them, and I love that this photo shows…
What does the toad say?
February 24, 2014[gallery type="circle" ids="532,531,529"]
By Claire Morgan, Volunteer and Garden Coordinator, Gift Shop Manager
Pretty soon, we’ll be hearing a lot of what the toad says! In early to mid- March we will start to hear the sound of the American Toad, Bufo Americanus, with its high pitched trill calling for a mate, as they do each spring. Here in Roxborough, at the Schuylkill Center, we’ll be watching and listening during those early spring evenings. When the evening temperature rises to 50 degrees and the ground is moist, the American Toads start to make their journey out of the woods of…
