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The Spring school programs focus on the natural history of the Great Bay, and are offered in May and June. The field trips are led by trained volunteer educators and Great Bay Discovery Center staff. The programs target 3rd to 5th grade students, but can also accommodate older or younger students. Up to 72 students with chaperones can attend each session. The sessions are 2 1/2 hours long, and most are held outdoors at the Discovery Center, rain or shine.
Reservations for the Elementary School Programs are required several months in advance, and the programs fill quickly. Please call 603-778-0015 for program specifics or for reservation requirements.
Estuary Exploration programs incorporate science-based concepts that meet New Hampshire K-12 Science Curriculum Frameworks in the following area: Curriculum Standards 3a, 3b, 3c, 4c, 6a, and 6b.
The spring field trips include the following activities:
Habitat Discovery Walk
What furry predators hunt in Great Bay salt marshes? How is an estuary like a restaurant? What is a wetland and how do you find one? This guided hands-on and senses tuned-in investigative activity using the Great Bay Discovery Center trail will help your students discover the answers to these questions and more! Get ready to become a "nature sleuth" as you and your students explore the trail, discovering the major upland and wetland habitats along the way.
Discovery Tank
Students gather around the discovery tank for an opportunity to hold live estuarine animals such as horseshoe crabs, green crabs and lobsters.
Horseshoe Crabbing Around
Have you ever seen a horseshoe crab with an elementary school student inside of it? Well you will at the Great Bay Discovery Center! Student volunteers will have the chance to dress in costume as a horseshoe crab. Together with the rest of the class they will help to discover how horseshoe crabs survive in the estuary. Your students will get to know this incredible "living fossil" by observing what this animal looks like, where it lives, what it eats, how it interacts with humans, and more!
Waterfront Exploration
Can animals live in all of those 2000 feet of mud flats that we see at low tide around the Great Bay Discovery Center? Is Salt Marsh Peat a person? What plants and animals can you find in the deeper waters of Great Bay? Let's poke around in some bay bottom mud, and take a look at some fascinating Great Bay creatures in this hands-on activity. We will uncover the hidden plants and animals found in and around Great Bay and explore their adaptations for survival in the estuarine environment. |
