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Clare Cunningham
Senior Education Manager
This spring, Manomet Headquarters welcomed 1,500 students from 17 schools for an exciting season of hands-on learning, scientific discovery, and exploration as Manomet’s property was once again transformed into a living laboratory!
During their visits, students used the more than 60 years of banding data from the Trevor Lloyd-Evans Banding Lab to investigate local songbird population trends and hypothesize why some birds, like Cardinals, seem to be doing well, while others, like the Eastern Towhee, may have experienced dramatic local declines. Hint: it has to do with people…
Students also explored the Kathleen (Betty) Anderson Nature Trails during the stewardship portion of their trips, where they monitored biodiversity and assessed the ecological health of Manomet’s farm property. New this year, students got a glimpse of life hidden beneath the surface of our restored wetlands as they collected and observed aquatic macroinvertebrates to assess water quality. Students found a range of critters, including Predacious Diving Beetle larvae and the ever-impressive aquatic larvae of the Spotted Salamander. Noting the presence of pollutant-intolerant indicator species like Caddisfly Larvae, students determined Manomet’s bogs to be healthy with little to no signs of pollution!
This spring’s visiting groups included fifth graders from Taunton Public Schools, whose teachers joined us at Manomet for a WADE OpenSciEd training last summer. Learning was brought full circle as students experienced the same hands-on science their teachers had been exploring during their professional development, which focused on nurse logs and decomposers.
Beyond Manomet HQ, the education team has been busy bringing outdoor learning to schools, breaking ground on four new outdoor learning spaces in Brockton, MA. After a year of gathering feedback, designing their spaces, and participating in stewardship projects across their communities, five Brockton elementary school teachers are seeing their ideas come to life this summer. Alongside community members and volunteers, teachers have organized workdays to turn their visions for outdoor learning into vibrant spaces where students can explore, learn, and connect with nature on school grounds. New spaces include sensory gardens, rain gardens, “Nature Nooks,” stump seating areas, and more! In partnership with Wildlands Trust and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Bay Watershed Education and Training (NOAA B-WET) funding, more than 2,000 students will be going back to school this fall with new outdoor learning spaces.
Manomet and Wildlands Trust were also able to recruit support from Green Team, our service-learning summer internship for Brockton-area teens interested in conservation, stewardship, and community. With our highest application rate to date, we debuted the Green Team Alumni Program of six experienced crew members who focused their work on trail building and garden installation at Brockton Elementary School outdoor learning spaces. Our new crew members spent their time building benches to create outdoor seating areas for students in these spaces.
These efforts are helping to bring science and stewardship to life, allowing thousands of students and their teachers to learn through hands-on exploration of the natural world and see themselves as scientists, stewards, and changemakers. From Manomet’s wetlands to Brockton’s schoolyards, we are reminded that learning doesn’t stop in the classroom and can quickly become a catalyst for inspiring action, stewardship, and meaningful change across a community.
