Natural History Day Program
*The event has already taken place on this date: Fri, 07/27/2018
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The Natural History Day Program provides the opportunity for middle school and junior high school students to explore the Preserve's natural treasures and ecological concepts in an immersive, hands-on format. Students spend time hiking the Preserve's trails and frequently end the day swimming at the lake.
The week-long program will introduce students to field investigations in such topics as forest, community, invasive, and aquatic ecology. Students will have opportunities to observe wildlife while learning techniques in field research. Previous programs have included these lessons:
- Kicknetting in the creek to investigate water quality using macroinvertebrate populations as indicators
- Dip netting in the creek to catch and count invasive crayfish and learn capture-mark-release techniques
- Use of trap cameras to monitor mammals at the Preserve
The week includes a short research project done in teams in which students will pick a topic to study, collect data, analyze their data, then present their results in a poster to their classmates. Previous year's student projects have included:
- Invasive crayfish population study using capture-mark-release techniques
- Pollinator study which looked at what kinds of insects pollinate what color flowers
- Investigating invertebrate diversity and abundance in different habitats and comparing it to the canopy cover over head
*Times, dates, and prices of any activity posted to our calendars are subject to change. Please be sure to click through directly to the organization’s website to verify.