For Grades: 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
Forest Ecology Ramble
This program can be adapted for older audiences
It is also an optional add-on for our pond programs
Location: Outdoor Discovery Campus
Description: Join a museum educator on a one-mile hike through the open meadow and into an Oak, Hickory, and Maple forest! Students will stop to investigate the habitats of the forest floor and identify the creatures that make a rotting log their home. In each habitat we encounter on our hike, remarkable plants and animals will be observed in their wild state.
Learning Objectives: Students will learn about identifying macro-invertebrates on the forest floor using field guides, what you will find in each ecosystem we encounter, basic tree identification, decomposers and saprophytes, nutrient cycles, and invasive species. Students will comprehend these concepts through a guided hike and through provided tools, such as field guides and magnifying specimen containers.
NYS Core Curriculum Standards:
2nd- Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems, & Earth’s Systems: Processes that Shape the Earth: 2-LS2-1, 2-LS2-2, 2-LS4-1, 2-ESS2-2, & 2-ESS2-3
3rd- Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems, & Inheritance and Variation of Traits: Life Cycles and Traits: 3-LS2-1, 3-LS4-3, 3-LS4-4, 3-LS1-1, & 3-LS3-2
4th- Structure, Function, and Information Processing, & Earth’s Systems: Process that Shape the Earth: 4-LS1-1, 4-LS1-2, 4-ESS1-1, & 4-ESS2-1
5th- Matter and Energy in Organisms and Ecosystems & Earth’s Systems: 5-PS3-1, 5-LS1-1, 5-LS2-1, 5-ESS2-1, & 5-ESS3-1
Program Cost:
$250 for up to 25 students
Staff is free
Grasshopper Grove add-on: $50 per class
Location: Outdoor Discovery Campus (120 Muser Dr. Cornwall, NY 12518)
as a field trip
(no in-school option)
Program Length: 90 minutes
10 minute introduction
70 minute hike, including site investigations
10 minute conclusion
Grasshopper Grove add-on upon request ($)
Picnic area available upon request