Educational fun, Hitchcock Center for the Environment, Amherst
By Carol Lollis Photos by Kevin Gutting, Dan Little, Jerry Roberts Daily Hampshire Gazette
Every year, nearly 9,000 folks take advantage of programs at the Hitchcock Center for the Environment at 525 South Pleasant St. in Amherst. The nonprofit center, founded in 1962, offers 370 outdoor educational programs to participants who come mainly from western Massachusetts.
It’s a place, says the center’s education director, Colleen Kelley, that offers programs for children and families that allow them to connect with and learn about their local environment.
Hampshire Life photographers caught up with children and their parents as they explored the outdoors last week during an after-school program that encourages kids to climb trees, play in the mud and run in the fields, and during a home-school program, in which participants this week learned about the life cycles of insects.
“It gets kids outside, running around and getting mucky. I think its good for them,” said Laura Quilter of Amherst, whose daughter Ada, 7, attends the after-school program.
“It’s pretty fun,” said Patrick O’Roark, an environmental educator at the center. “I have to make sure everything is going according to plan and the kids are happy and safe. But half the time, I’m just thinking, ‘I wish there were no kids here so I could just play with all this awesome stuff.’ ”
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JERREY ROBERTS Gazette
Ian Burns
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JERREY ROBERTS Gazette
Maddie Ogden, Katie Koerten, Lola Grant-Giraud, Haleyana Ringkauf, Ian Burns, Josia DeChiara, Joseph Hazlip
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JERREY ROBERTS Gazette
Joseph Hazlip, Ada Quilter, Caleb Morse
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JERREY ROBERTS Gazette
Lola Grant-Giraud, Maddie Ogden, Ellie Ogden, Joseph Hazlip
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JERREY ROBERTS Gazette
Ellie Ogden
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JERREY ROBERTS Gazette
Ada Quilter
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JERREY ROBERTS Gazette
Ian Burns, Ellie Ogden, Lola Grant-Giraud, Joseph Hazlip, Josia DeChiara, Maddie Ogden
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JERREY ROBERTS Gazette
Josia DeChiara, Ian Burns, Ellie Ogden, Maddie Ogden, Lola Grant-Giraud, Katie Koerten
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DAN LITTLE Gazette
Ellie Manire-Gatti, left, and Shelly Kahan.
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DAN LITTLE Gazette
Ellie Manire-Gatti.
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DAN LITTLE Gazette
Patrick O’Roark.
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DAN LITTLE Gazette
Patrick O’Roark and Cornelius the corn snake.
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DAN LITTLE Gazette
Patrick O’Roark and Cornelius the corn snake.
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KEVIN GUTTING Gazette
Emily Bagley, left, goes over her diagram of a bee with educator Katie Koerten.
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KEVIN GUTTING Gazette
From far left, Sylvan Cocco-Romano, Peter Nedeau, Roan Boeri and Ava Powell take turns smelling a gall from a goldenrod.
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KEVIN GUTTING Gazette
Hitchcock Center for the Environment educator Katie Koerten, top, leads a Tuesday Homeschool I class, “Incredible Insects (and other Arthropods!)”, for kids ages 6 to 8. Clockwise from Koerten are Sawyer Perreault, Roan Boeri, Emily Bagley, assistant Kyle Boyd, Sylvan Cocco-Romano, Melina Staples, Lucy Lynch, Lily Hart, observer Kalynda Pearce and Ava Powell.
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KEVIN GUTTING Gazette
Hitchcock educator Katie Koerten holds a diagram by Sylvan Cocco-Romano, a student in her Homeschool I class, “Incredible Insects (and other Arthropods!)”
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KEVIN GUTTING Gazette
Peter Nedeau carries a pair of cattails during a hike at Bramble Farm.
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KEVIN GUTTING Gazette
Hitchcock Center for the Environment educator Katie Koerten, top, points out a small gall for students Emily Bagley, far left, Ava Powell and Sylvan Cocco-Romano during the Tuesday Homeschool I class, “Incredible Insects (and other Arthropods!)”, for kids ages 6 to 8.
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KEVIN GUTTING Gazette
Hitchcock educator Katie Koerten plays a game of “Park Ranger” with Homeschool I students, from left, Sylvan Cocco-Romano, Ava Powell, Sawyer Perreault and Emily Bagley.
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KEVIN GUTTING Gazette
Peter Nedeau, left, Roan Boeri, Sylvan Cocco-Romano and Kalynda Pearce play “rock, paper, scissors” to metamorphose into the next stage in a game about the life cycle of an insect.
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KEVIN GUTTING Gazette
Ava Powell, left, Roan Boeri, Sylvan Cocco-Romano
Original article link: http://www.gazettenet.com/artsentertainment/hampshirelife/19291517-95/your-time-educational-fun-hitchcock-center-for-the-environment-amherst
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