Drop in at Joppa Flats BEFORE the beach, AFTER the beach, or INSTEAD of the beach! What is that spiky thing I almost stepped on? How do starfish – or is it sea stars – eat? Are those baby fish, or is that as big as they get? You have the questions, Joppa Flats Education Center has the answers – and the animals – and the touch tanks! Themes will change weekly!
Parker River National Wildlife Refuge and Mass Audubon's Joppa Flats Education Center are collaborating to offer visitors an opportunity to discover the different animals that live on the beach. Visitors can stop by the tent adjacent to the first boardwalk to the beach. Through hands-on educational activities, visitors will discover different habitat zones and what animals use these habitats. Visitors will have an opportunity to explore and touch live tide pool animals such as crabs, hermit crabs and sea urchins provided by Mass Audubon's Joppa Flats Education Center.
What makes up the ground below what’s at our feet? This program at Halibut Point State Park serves as a gentle introduction to stratigraphy, the branch of geology about dealing with the position of strata and its meaning within the geological time scale. We’ll visit some of the park’s soil/bedrock contact points and explore the story they tell. Most appropriate for those twelve and over. Entails over a mile of walking. Rain cancels.
Join the park interpreter and special guest Russ Hopping on a walk to view and identify various butterfly species at Maudslay. Russ is an active member of the Massachusetts Butterfly Club and enjoys sharing his knowledge of butterflies with others. Russ is the Ecology Program Director for The Trustees of Reservations. He has worked for The Trustees since 1997, overseeing the stewardship of ecological resources at The Trustees’ more than 26,000 acres.
Meet at the Nature Center. Learn about what makes owls unique in the bird world. Activity Includes a short demonstration of owl adaptations and owl pellet dissection.
Explore the world of odonata, one of the oldest life forms on Earth. This is a great kids’ program and most appropriate for families. Best for kids 8 and up. Meet at the Parking Lot Kiosk
Drop in at Joppa Flats and meet live caterpillars, moths, and butterflies! You’ll learn smart practices to attract birds and wildlife to your own yard as well as how to safely identify insects. Enjoy a "Backyard Bug Hunt' with our naturalists, join in a "Monarch Migration Relay Race," and take home a fun craft or two.
These fun-filled morning programs are perfect for you and your active preschooler! Our structured activities include hands-on science, music and movement, a thematic snack, and an outdoor adventure if the weather complies. Keep learning with coloring pages and follow-up activities to continue the fun at home! This week we'll focus on coral reefs and the special creatures that live there!
Turtles like to live in ponds surrounded by cattails, reeds, and shrubs. We'll take a walk to a pond and observe the different types of turtles living there, and then create our own turtles out of clay.
During this fun, hands-on program we will learn all about whales. We will use different tools to help us understand how big adult whales get. Each participant will choose their own special whale. After coloring-in their whale, they will place it on the particular ocean it calls home. There will be a fun activity for each child to make and take home. “Friends of Whales” certificates will be given out at the end of the program. This program is appropriate for home-schooled and other children in grades K-3. Parent or adult chaperone must stay with their child during the program. Children and accompanying adults will find themselves joining in the fun activities.
