Tag: news-import
A Real Picnic: Celebrating 50 Years
July 15, 2015By Mike Weilbacher, Executive Director
Editor’s Note: We celebrated our 50th anniversary with a public picnic on July 11, 2015. Below is an excerpt from Executive Director Mike Weilbacher’s remarks at the event.
On July 1st 1965, a young science teacher reported to his first day of work, and what was then called the Schuylkill Valley Nature Center opened its doors to the public. The science teacher’s name was Dick James, and Dick went on to build one of the country’s premier centers for environmental education, retiring almost 20 years ago in 1996. His widow Karin directed our Center’s library…
Fridays in the Field: A Wagner Free Institute of Science Yard Adventure
July 6, 2015By Guest Contributor Annie Zhang
Throughout the year, the Wagner Free Institute of Science hosts groups for interactive, science focused field trips. Though the winter chill confines groups to our Victorian-era natural history museum and lecture hall during most of the school year, summer allows us to expand our teaching landscape to our large and beautiful yard.
Our yard is a grassy, serene, tree-filled oasis that wraps around our building and is a rare sight in our mostly-concrete North Philadelphia neighborhood. It contains many “living teaching tools.” One is a bee-friendly flower garden that allows children to view our most…
Natural Dyeing: from plant to fabric
June 30, 2015By Guest Contributors Elissa Meyers and Mira Adornetto
After pulling out green cotton fabric from a naturally fermenting indigo vat, our workshop group watches excitedly as the green transitions into a dark indigo blue. This incredible process, which occurs as the indigo dye oxidizes has been used for thousands of years in numerous places and cultures. Throughout human history, color has been applied to fibers on every continent, starting as far back as 2,600 BCE. Plants, shellfish, and insects: wildflowers, trees, mollusks and bugs, have been used to dye fibers.
Since the industrial revolution dyeing went from natural colorants like…
Making nature relevant: finding common ground
June 18, 2015By Gail Farmer, Director of Education
This April marked the 45th anniversary of Earth Day, and we have come a long way since that huge 1970 event. But clearly, we have a long way to go: a recent study by the National Environmental Education Foundation found that two-thirds of the public fails even a basic environmental quiz and a whopping 88% cannot pass a basic energy quiz. This same study found that 45 million Americans think the ocean is a source of fresh water and 130 million believe that hydropower is America’s top energy source.
Alarmingly, this environmental literacy gap…
What’s blooming at the Schuylkill Center?
June 11, 2015By Melissa Nase, Manager of Land Stewardship
Welcome to our new mobile Field Guides! We'll regularly post guides about what's blooming, what animals you can see, and other interesting things to observe in the woods, meadows, and streams. These posts are designed to be easy to read on a phone, meaning you can take this mobile field guide out with you as you walk, hike, and play. See other Field Guide posts here.
Tulip poplar (Liriodendron tulipfera)
The most common tree you will see on the Schuylkill Center’s property, this tree has distinct yellow and orange flowers and leaves that look like…
Interview with Deenah Loeb: Art in the Open
June 8, 2015By Christina Catanese, Director of Environmental Art
Editor’s note: Deenah Loeb is a Schuylkill Center trustee who also serves as the Executive Director of the City Parks Association and was on the founding creative team for Art in the Open, a citywide event in which artists create their work outdoors on the Schuylkill Banks for three days in May. This summer, nine artists from Art in the Open 2014 will present their work in the Schuylkill Center gallery and on the trails this summer in the show Open Spaces. Director of Environmental Art Christina Catanese recently sat down with Loeb…
Bird is the word at the wildlife clinic
June 4, 2015By Anna Lehr Mueser, Public Relations Manager
When we say the baby birds have been pouring into our clinic, we mean it. Earlier in May we were receiving as many as 40 patients a day at the clinic. So, we wanted to share a few of the baby birds we’ve been caring for:
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PLAY Manayunk: The Way-Way-Back Story
May 7, 2015By Guest Contributor Melissa Andrews, Destination Schuylkill River
PLAY Manayunk is happening on Saturday, May 16 in Manayunk and celebrates outdoor recreation, fitness, and healthy living in our area. Did you know that this event is inspired by major changes to the neighborhood over multiple decades, and that Manayunk’s own canal towpath is a major character in that story?
A walk on the towpath on a beautiful day feeds the senses. All along the path, there are views of the canal and adjacent Schuylkill River, but patience and repeat visits yield more unusual sights. Turn around the bend near the…
Nature Preschool loves Earth Day
April 30, 2015By Shannon Dryden, Nature Preschool Manager and Sweet Gum Classroom Lead Teacher
At Nature Preschool, our children are immersed in outdoor experiences daily, connecting them to their surroundings and the Schuylkill Center in a meaningful way. At events like Naturepalooza, the children show their expanding knowledge and the bonds created through open-ended exploration. Learning through play and touching, feeling, smelling, tasting, and hearing is what these children do best and it brings joy and happiness in many ways. Just look at the smiles! Below, some highlights from Earth Day and Naturepalooza with our preschool.
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Children Need Nature is…
Earth Day and the Green Tsunami
April 22, 2015By Mike Weilbacher, Executive Director
On Wednesday, April 22, 1970, 45 years ago today, more than 20 million Americans participated in the largest mass demonstration in American history, some 1 million in New York City alone. They marched wearing gas masks and buried cars in mock graves protesting polluted air, threw buckets of dead fish into the lobbies of corporate offices to protest polluted water, and carried signs with grim messages like “RIP: Earth.”
It was the first Earth Day. Reflecting back, it’s too easy to forget how angry people were about a polluted planet back in 1970.
In Philadelphia,…
