Tag: news-import
Put that phone away!
February 16, 2017By Damien Ruffner, School Programs Manager
June 29th, 2007 changed the world forever: This is not the date of a presidential election, or the start or end of a military conflict. It’s not the day humans first traveled into space, or discovered some profound scientific theory. Think smaller, about 4 inches to be exact. It’s the date the first iPhone was released. And here we are, one decade into the smartphone generation.
The aspect of my position at the Schuylkill Center that takes up the most time every year is the Adventure Treks summer camp program, and specifically the 10-12…
Foraging for Art
February 9, 2017By Liz Jelsomine, Environmental Art & Public Relations Intern
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. Calendars are still available, now 50% off – only $10 each!
What started out as an amateur attempt to forage for mushrooms led to 20 years of exploration, mycology enthusiasm, and art for Philadelphia artist Melissa Maddonni Haims and her husband, Josh Haims.
Josh’s curiosity was initially peaked after noticing mushroom foragers…
On The Circuit: 6th annual Richard L. James lecture
February 7, 2017By Elisabeth Zafiris, Acting Director of Education
On February 23rd the Schuylkill Center will welcome Robert Thomas, a founder and principal of Campbell Thomas & Co. Architects and Planners, as our 6th Annual Richard L. James Lecturer. This year we’ll be talking about The Circuit – a remarkable network spanning the region and connecting urban, suburban, and rural communities.
Thomas dedicated over 40 years advocating for parks, trails, and greenways, planning and building the green infrastructure that Philadelphians and visitors are fortunate enough to call their own. Thomas served on the original committee that created the Schuylkill River Trail, and…
Children Need Nature: An Emergent Curriculum Study
January 30, 2017By Kristina Eaddy, Sweet Gum Classroom Lead Teacher
Children Need Nature is a monthly blog column from our Nature Preschool program. Read more posts here.
Why do leaves change colors? What is under the frozen ice? And where do birds go during the winter? These are questions we hear every day, as Nature Preschool teachers. Young children’s minds are full of wonders and questions, trying to learn about, connect with, and understand the world they are surrounded by.
At Nature Preschool, we nurture this natural curiosity in young children by following the emergent curriculum approach. The goal of an emergent curriculum is…
Winter 2017 Photography Contest
January 26, 2017
By Jenny Ryder, Environmental Art & PR Intern
Winter is in full swing in Southeast PA (though it doesn't always feel like it), and we’re trying our best to get outside every day despite the icy chill in the air. We encourage you to do the same—get out of your home/office/classroom, etc. and take a photograph for our Winter 2017 Photo Contest!
This year, one of my resolutions is to find room in my heart for the wintertime by finding new ways to appreciate nature throughout the cold, dead months. The colors of winter are one of the most striking…
Bringing Nature into the Classroom
January 17, 2017By Damien Ruffner, School Programs Manager
Here at the Schuylkill Center, we set yearly themes. It doesn’t necessarily dictate all of our goals and events throughout the year. Rather it is an ongoing conversation that the staff members have that consequently is reflected in our programming. In 2015 we marked our 50th anniversary, working these celebrations into many aspects of our work. In 2016 our theme was climate change. For 2017 the conversation around the Center is “What does environmental education look like in the 21st century?” It’s a simple enough question, but the answer is not so simple. We’re so…
How to Be Like the Glaciers Melting
January 12, 2017Guest contributor Leslie Birch, 2014-2015 LandLab Resident Artist
A few years ago I sat at my computer reading the latest on the demise of the glaciers in the Arctic. I was angry with the polluting corporations, fed up with the greed of the oil industry, disgusted by people’s consumption, and alienated by a government ruled by lobbyists. I felt frozen, as if calamity had already happened; some days I was even bleak about the future. My home thermostat was set to 69, two of my computers were on, I was surrounded by electronic parts for a project and I was…
Reflection of Environmental Art and Time: January
January 3, 2017By Liz Jelsomine, Environmental Art & Public Relations Intern
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.
Artist Jake Beckman, LandLab Resident Artist from 2014-2015, sheds light to the often over looked world of forest decomposition in his ongoing installation at the Schuylkill Center, Future Non-Object #1: Sol’s Reprise.
Beckman explored the detritus cycle of a forest and its disruption by invasive earthworms by creating sculptural installations that…
Children Need Nature: Teaching Peace
December 21, 2016By Rebecca Dhondt, Sassafras Classroom Lead Teacher
Children Need Nature is a monthly blog column from our Nature Preschool program. Read more posts here.
This time of year tends to be full of excitement and energy. With so much baking, decorating, and visiting going on there are many stories that Nature Preschoolers are eager to share. Children naturally begin to compare notes, trying to understand what is happening in their own homes and wondering about the ways others might celebrate teachers in the Sassafras room heard exclamations such as: “I have a Christmas tree too!”, “What is an Elf on the Shelf?”…
Climate Change Art Spotlight: Jill Pelto
December 15, 2016By Christina Catanese, Director of Environmental Art
Looking back over the year of environmental art at the Schuylkill Center, one of the highlights of 2016 was our gallery show, Going Up: Climate Change + Philadelphia. Along with the work of seven other artists exploring the various facets of climate change, this show included a new work by Maine artist Jill Pelto which was created specially for this exhibition, called Philadelphia Sea Level Rise Scenarios.
Pelto herself is both an artist and a scientist, and uses her watercolor paintings to communicate scientific data in a more visually compelling way. Starting with…
