Join us for our fifth year of offering an in-depth natural history course for naturalists and citizen scientists. Each month, in our series of nature explorations with different local naturalists, we explore a focused, seasonal, natural history topic. We’ll look at nature in new ways, from broad habitat perspectives to close details of individual species. […]

Join naturalist and photographer John Green to explore one or all three of these themes of nature photography. Bring tripods and extra lenses if you have them, but they are not necessary. with John Green, naturalist and photographer ROCK: Sunday, April 29, 9-11:30am at Sunderland Falls - Cancelled for April 29 only FLOWER & TREE: Sunday, May […]

Learn about the importance and ease of creating native gardens which are long-lasting, lovely and bolster biodiversity by supporting native insects, including pollinators and other wildlife such as nesting or migrating birds and mammals including us. Dan’s discussion will include underutilized native shrubs for rural, suburban and urban gardens and why plants are better than […]

Do you love science and nature? Do you want to see what the Hitchcock Homeschool program is all about? Sign up for our Discovery Days, our one-time programs about science and nature. In a mixed-age setting, we explore cool topics at the Hitchcock Center, meet science experts, and sometimes go on field trips. Our Discovery […]

Spring fever is in the air, and it is time to get the kids outside to let out some of their energy! Have them join Hitchcock’s Nature Play Afterschool Program, which is designed to let kids be kids. Together we will run, jump, climb, invent, imagine, play and be a free-range kids all while developing self-confidence […]

Sometimes you just need to run, explore and play! That’s what we do at Girls into the Wild, and lots more. Now in its fourth year, Girls into the Wild is designed to get girls outside, playing and engaging with nature in their own way. Instructor Katie Koerten strives to offer games and activities that […]

Spineless Wonders - Animals without Backbones Pretend to shrink down real small to explore the spineless wonders of our natural world! This Spring, Colleen will introduce children to the crawling, sliding, hopping, flying world of worms, spiders, snails, pill bugs and insects. All those spineless wonders are animals without backbones. Through live observations, puppets, stories, model […]

Spineless Wonders - Animals without Backbones Pretend to shrink down real small to explore the spineless wonders of our natural world! This Spring, Colleen will introduce children to the crawling, sliding, hopping, flying world of worms, spiders, snails, pill bugs and insects. All those spineless wonders are animals without backbones. Through live observations, puppets, stories, model […]

Come meet our newest educator – our building! It is designed to model systems in nature, it is net zero energy, net zero water, has composting toilets, and has been made with responsibly sourced non-toxic materials, come check it out at one of our bi-monthly tours. Tours typically last from 1-1.5 hours. Spring tour schedule: […]

Warbler migration is a May treat not to missed. John has a great ear and will teach you the calls of birds even if you can’t get your binoculars on them. All birding levels welcome. Bring binoculars if you have them. Saturday, May 5, 7-10am $15 members/$20/Non-members Registration required  

The Hitchcock Center is expanding its nature play area. Join this community effort and come help us dig, weed, plant, mulch, haul, etc. Bring tools and gloves if you have them. Saturday, March 31, 12-3pm Sunday, April 22, 12-3pm Saturday, May 5, 12-3pm Sunday, June 3, 12-3pm Registration appreciated

Kingfishers, painted turtles, great blue herons, bullfrogs, water snakes… we’ll be searching for them! We’ll paddle slowly around the lake, looking for birds and plants and any other nature we can find. Bring binoculars, snacks and water, sun and bug protection. We will provide canoes, paddles, life jackets, and canoe instruction. Not recommended for paddlers […]

Feathers to Flight It’s spring! What better time of year is there to discover the birds all around us? At Homeschool I we will explore the wonderful adaptations that makes a bird a bird, and how specialized beaks, feet and feathers make them suited for their habitats. We’ll learn tools for identifying a bird by […]

Rocks and Water: The Shaping of Our Valley Discover the stories in the stones around us!  We live in a geologically unique area, and the landscape provides intriguing clues to the past. At Homeschool II we will find evidence of shifting plate tectonics, earthquakes, volcanoes, glaciers, and the power of water. We will hike up […]

Spring fever is in the air, and it is time to get the kids outside to let out some of their energy! Have them join Hitchcock’s Nature Play Afterschool Program, which is designed to let kids be kids. Together we will run, jump, climb, invent, imagine, play and be a free-range kids all while developing self-confidence […]

Join this Hitchcock tradition, Scott has been leading since 1979. Space is limited and in high demand. Class and fieldtrip schedule. Classes: 4 Wednesdays, January 31 – May 9, 6:30pm-8pm Weekend Field Trips: February 10-June 10 see online for all dates Register here. Online registration opens on January 9 at 9am. Members $295/Non-members $325

Sometimes you just need to run, explore and play! That’s what we do at Girls into the Wild, and lots more. Now in its fourth year, Girls into the Wild is designed to get girls outside, playing and engaging with nature in their own way. Instructor Katie Koerten strives to offer games and activities that […]

Spineless Wonders - Animals without Backbones Pretend to shrink down real small to explore the spineless wonders of our natural world! This Spring, Colleen will introduce children to the crawling, sliding, hopping, flying world of worms, spiders, snails, pill bugs and insects. All those spineless wonders are animals without backbones. Through live observations, puppets, stories, model […]

Spineless Wonders - Animals without Backbones Pretend to shrink down real small to explore the spineless wonders of our natural world! This Spring, Colleen will introduce children to the crawling, sliding, hopping, flying world of worms, spiders, snails, pill bugs and insects. All those spineless wonders are animals without backbones. Through live observations, puppets, stories, model […]

Spring migration is the most exciting time of year to get out and see birds! Come learn the new species returning from the south wearing their spring colors. Be the next generation of birders! with Dan Ziomek, Local Birder and WRSI’s Bird Songs Radio Program For young people ages 8-13 and their families Saturday, April […]

Second Saturdays: December 9, January 13, February 10, March 10, April 14, May 12, June 9 The Hitchcock Center is open to families and the community second Saturdays of the month, December thru June from 9am-1pm. Stop by to explore our building, talk with an educator, read a book with your kids or grandkids in our […]

Second Saturdays: December 9, January 13, February 10, March 10, April 14, May 12, June 9 The Hitchcock Center is open to families and the community second Saturdays of the month, December thru June from 9am-1pm. Stop by to explore our building, talk with an educator, read a book with your kids or grandkids in our […]

Come explore this very special, rich, mesic forest preserve of the Trustees of Reservations. We should find abundant spring ephemerals including Dutchman’s Breeches, Spring-beauty, Bishops Cap, and Trilliums and more. We will check out the awakening of the trees and other signs of spring. This hike is primarily moderate with some steeper spots. Wear water resistant boots […]

Join Corinne and Artemis as they share their new book with us. Explore the fun and fascinating world of insects through this lively question and answer book. Do dragonflies breathe fire? Do stink bugs take baths? Do bedbugs wear pajamas? These silly questions—the kind kids often ask—are followed by informative answers, sure to make every reader eager to […]

Join us for our fifth year of offering an in-depth natural history course for naturalists and citizen scientists. Each month, in our series of nature explorations with different local naturalists, we explore a focused, seasonal, natural history topic. We’ll look at nature in new ways, from broad habitat perspectives to close details of individual species. […]

Feathers to Flight It’s spring! What better time of year is there to discover the birds all around us? At Homeschool I we will explore the wonderful adaptations that makes a bird a bird, and how specialized beaks, feet and feathers make them suited for their habitats. We’ll learn tools for identifying a bird by […]

Rocks and Water: The Shaping of Our Valley Discover the stories in the stones around us!  We live in a geologically unique area, and the landscape provides intriguing clues to the past. At Homeschool II we will find evidence of shifting plate tectonics, earthquakes, volcanoes, glaciers, and the power of water. We will hike up […]

Come meet our newest educator – our building! It is designed to model systems in nature, it is net zero energy, net zero water, has composting toilets, and has been made with responsibly sourced non-toxic materials, come check it out at one of our bi-monthly tours. Tours typically last from 1-1.5 hours. Spring tour schedule: […]

Spring fever is in the air, and it is time to get the kids outside to let out some of their energy! Have them join Hitchcock’s Nature Play Afterschool Program, which is designed to let kids be kids. Together we will run, jump, climb, invent, imagine, play and be a free-range kids all while developing self-confidence […]

Sometimes you just need to run, explore and play! That’s what we do at Girls into the Wild, and lots more. Now in its fourth year, Girls into the Wild is designed to get girls outside, playing and engaging with nature in their own way. Instructor Katie Koerten strives to offer games and activities that […]

Join naturalist and photographer John Green to explore one or all three of these themes of nature photography. Bring tripods and extra lenses if you have them, but they are not necessary. with John Green, naturalist and photographer ROCK: Sunday, April 29, 9-11:30am at Sunderland Falls FLOWER & TREE: Sunday, May 20, 9-11:30am at Holyoke Range WATER: Sunday, […]

This new collection, Season of Dreams: Two Weeks Alone in the Peaked Hill Dunes, from poet Jonathan A. Wright combines poetry with four folios of striking photographs from a two-week solo residency in a shack on the dunes of Outer Cape Cod. The program will also feature a short video and improvisational music by Dr. […]

Feathers to Flight It’s spring! What better time of year is there to discover the birds all around us? At Homeschool I we will explore the wonderful adaptations that makes a bird a bird, and how specialized beaks, feet and feathers make them suited for their habitats. We’ll learn tools for identifying a bird by […]

Rocks and Water: The Shaping of Our Valley Discover the stories in the stones around us!  We live in a geologically unique area, and the landscape provides intriguing clues to the past. At Homeschool II we will find evidence of shifting plate tectonics, earthquakes, volcanoes, glaciers, and the power of water. We will hike up […]

Spring fever is in the air, and it is time to get the kids outside to let out some of their energy! Have them join Hitchcock’s Nature Play Afterschool Program, which is designed to let kids be kids. Together we will run, jump, climb, invent, imagine, play and be a free-range kids all while developing self-confidence […]

As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces the notion that plants and animals are our oldest teachers. Drawing on her life as an indigenous scientist, a mother, and a woman, Kimmerer shows how […]

Join John Green a lifelong naturalist as he ambles through a habitat looking and listening. This is prime warbler migration so you are bound to see and hear great birds. with John Green, naturalist Thursday, May 24, 9-11am FREE, registration required 

Sometimes you just need to run, explore and play! That’s what we do at Girls into the Wild, and lots more. Now in its fourth year, Girls into the Wild is designed to get girls outside, playing and engaging with nature in their own way. Instructor Katie Koerten strives to offer games and activities that […]

Spineless Wonders - Animals without Backbones Pretend to shrink down real small to explore the spineless wonders of our natural world! This Spring, Colleen will introduce children to the crawling, sliding, hopping, flying world of worms, spiders, snails, pill bugs and insects. All those spineless wonders are animals without backbones. Through live observations, puppets, stories, model […]

Spineless Wonders - Animals without Backbones Pretend to shrink down real small to explore the spineless wonders of our natural world! This Spring, Colleen will introduce children to the crawling, sliding, hopping, flying world of worms, spiders, snails, pill bugs and insects. All those spineless wonders are animals without backbones. Through live observations, puppets, stories, model […]

The Hitchcock Center has been invited to be part of the Peabody Essex Museum’s (PEM) exciting new Wild Designs exhibit that will profile the works of architects, artists, institutions and other creatives who are looking to nature and living systems for new ideas and creative solutions to human problems. Opening May 26, 2018, Wild Designs […]

Feathers to Flight It’s spring! What better time of year is there to discover the birds all around us? At Homeschool I we will explore the wonderful adaptations that makes a bird a bird, and how specialized beaks, feet and feathers make them suited for their habitats. We’ll learn tools for identifying a bird by […]

Rocks and Water: The Shaping of Our Valley Discover the stories in the stones around us!  We live in a geologically unique area, and the landscape provides intriguing clues to the past. At Homeschool II we will find evidence of shifting plate tectonics, earthquakes, volcanoes, glaciers, and the power of water. We will hike up […]

Spring fever is in the air, and it is time to get the kids outside to let out some of their energy! Have them join Hitchcock’s Nature Play Afterschool Program, which is designed to let kids be kids. Together we will run, jump, climb, invent, imagine, play and be a free-range kids all while developing self-confidence […]

Sometimes you just need to run, explore and play! That’s what we do at Girls into the Wild, and lots more. Now in its fourth year, Girls into the Wild is designed to get girls outside, playing and engaging with nature in their own way. Instructor Katie Koerten strives to offer games and activities that […]

You’re invited to an evening with Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) at the Hitchcock Center in Amherst. CLF, a New England-wide environmental advocacy organization, forges lasting solutions for the region’s most critical environmental challenges. CLF President, Brad Campbell, will share the urgent work CLF is doing on the ground across Massachusetts and New England. CLF was […]