Blog: eNewsletter

Be a Salamander Superhero with 24 Sustainable Activities

Sustainability is for everyone. You can make a difference! April is Earth Month, and we’re issuing a challenge to you and your family: can you be a Salamander Superhero by […]

Published on April 6, 2020.

Small Wonders: Using Science and Nature to Grow Young Minds Program Empowers Early Childhood Educators

Hitchcock Center’s Small Wonders: Using Science and Nature to Grow Young Minds project engaged over 200 early childhood educators during the 2018-19 school year, to increase the integration of science and nature into early childhood programs and schools throughout the Pioneer Valley.

Published on October 7, 2019.

Hitchcock Center Teaches in Master of Arts in Teaching Program at Mount Holyoke College

By Jessica Schultz

The Hitchcock Center has partnered with Mount Holyoke College to provide core science curriculum training for Masters of Arts in Teaching (MAT) pre-service teachers. The program, taught by Education Director Colleen Kelley, has run for 5 weeks at the Hitchcock Center this fall.

Published on October 7, 2019.

The New Living Hitchcock Center Building as a Teaching Tool – Yes!

By Ted Watt

Our Living Building has zero-net-energy and zero-net-water systems that keep us functioning. As part of our on-going process of settling into the building we have been developing curriculum using the building’s features in our teaching. Our goal is teaching young people about alternative technologies that use fewer resources from the planet. Engineering design standards, featured prominently in the new (2016) science and technology frameworks for grades K-12, provide a terrific vehicle for this.

Published on February 15, 2019.

Balanced and Barefoot Author Speaks to Strengthening Kids Body Systems

By Katie Koerten

On January 17 and 18, 2019 the Hitchcock Center hosted a talk called “Balanced and Barefoot” by Angela Hanscom, author of a recent book by the same name. Angela is a pediatric occupational therapist whose career has led her to creating an international outdoor play organization called Timbernook.

Published on February 12, 2019.

How Can We Store Water During a Drought? A sustainability engineering design problem for fourth graders

By Edward Watt & Gillian Andrews

Last summer our area, which has a strong agricultural economy, experienced a severe drought. We chose to explore this issue in-depth with our students, who understood firsthand the importance of water as a resource and of conserving water in their communities.

Published on September 4, 2018.

Western MA Youth Climate Summit Inspires

Forty local high school students engaged in the first Western Massachusetts Youth Climate Summit on November 17, 2017, bringing them closer to a range of local, state, and world-wide solutions and ideas to address climate change problems, to empower each of them to begin working at their own schools.

Published on December 15, 2017.

Hitchcock Educators Travel to Latin America as Professional Fellows

Colleen Kelley, our Education Director, and Jessica Schultz, our Sustainability & Living Building Coordinator, have both been accepted into the Environmental Sustainability for Latin American Professional Fellows Program.

Published on December 15, 2017.

The Mass Cultural Council Funds 10 Naturalist-in-Residence Programs

Hitchcock Center environmental educators will be partnering with ten area schools thanks to over $36,000 in grant funding support from the Mass Cultural Council’s STARS (Students and Teachers working with Artists, Scientists, and Scholars) program.

Published on December 14, 2017.

Apollo 13 Professional Development Challenge Rouses Educators

Hitchcock Center educators develop and lead engaging professional development programs for K-12 teachers using real-life events. The recent Apollo 13 Challenge Professional Development workshop held on December 8th was no exception. Inspired by the film depicting America’s third Moon landing mission, Hitchcock environmental educators provided 60 Pre-K through 6th grade teachers in the Union 38 School District with a memorable learning experience that combined inquiry based science with “tinkering and making” skills that enhanced STE education (Science, Technology and Engineering) in their classrooms.

Published on December 14, 2017.
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