Curriculum

Curriculum

The following briefly outlines the educational activities available at the Sanctuary.

Youth Groups

Boys & Girls Club of Lower Merrimack Valley
Students viewed and studied how yard wastes are composted and utilized in soil building at the facility. They also viewed and studies how waste is converted to energy and added to the power grid.

Project YES
Students see and study how plants, rodents, predatory animals, and birds interact at the site. They also studied how ticks, white-footed deer mice, and deer interact.

 

Schools

Waybright Elementary School

• Students examined various habitats at the site and looked at the way plants and animals interact within the habitats.
• Students plant trees and shrubs to contribute to the development of various habitats at the site. Presentation by site’s beekeeper is made to the students to show them active beehives and how to make one.
• Students examine various habitats created at the site. Using GPS techniques, students established several transects thorugh selected habitats. Students ideintfy and count tha plants along the transects. Students sample the soils along the transects.
   

Colleges / Universities

North Shore Community College

• Dendrology Course: A 4-credit course is taught on-site on the study of trees. Students study how woody plants grow and learn to identify over 250 species of woody plants by the winter characteristics.
• Entomology Course: Students capture and identify insects and build a collection. Students examine site’s apriary project and learn how to build a beehive.
• Plant Science Course: Students study site’s methods of bare-root planting and container-grown trees and shrubs.
• Directed Study: 8-credit one-on-one course about the development of a sanctuary management plan. Students interview, study, and write observations.
• Gerontology Course: Students walk the sites wheelchair accessible trails and roped walking trails for the visually impaired.
   

Outreach Actives

Community Events
The facility hosts a public open house every few years. The last open house was attended by an estimated several thousand local residents who toured the waste-to-energy plant, ash landfill, and Sanctuary. The landfill and Sanctuary tours were conducted by horse-drawn hay wagon rides or coach busses. A tent at the formal garden included a presentation of the Sanctuary development and a live “birds of prey” performance given by a local wildlife specialist.

 Another open house is tentatively being scheduled for 2010.