Maine Audubon educators fanned out across the state to take part in events with schoolchildren, from kindergarten students in Portland to high school students in Unity.
In Portland, Maple Thanksgiving has become an annual springtime celebration for kindergarten students at Portland Public Schools (PPS)! For the third year in a row, students culminated their study of the Sugar Maple tree and maple sugaring as an indigenous practice with a visit to the maple sugar house at Portland Arts & Technology High School (PATHS).
Part of PPS Wabanaki Studies & Life Science, kindergarten fieldwork is a true community effort in order to provide an engaging and dynamic outdoor learning experience for more than 500 students. Over the course of a week every March, Maine Audubon partners with PPS Environmental Literacy Teachers; Passamaquoddy member Minquansis Sapiel; Justin Nichols, PATHS horticulture instructor; and students from the PATHS horticultural program.
On the PATHS campus in Portland, the kindergarten students move through four stations during the course of their visit. Though tasting maple syrup atop ice cream undoubtedly ranks as a favorite, games with Maine Audubon to learn about wildlife friends of the maple tree are certainly beloved by students and teachers alike. Chickadee, Chickadee, are you in the Sugar Maple Tree?!?
Maine Audubon is thrilled to continue to support outdoor learning and Wabanaki Studies at Portland Public Schools!
In Unity, on March 26, Maine Audubon’s Director of Northern Programs & Operations, David Lamon, participated in the Ecology Learning Center’s (ELC) 5th annual “Maple Run” fundraising event. ELC is a publicly funded charter high school. Held for the first time this year at Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association’s (MOFGA) Common Ground Education Center, also in Unity, the event featured several stations for visiting ELC high schoolers to learn more about what goes into bird friendly maple products. Students participated in bird walks where they learned how managing a forest for diversity is beneficial to both birds and sugar production. Although the birding was somewhat sparse on this early spring day, highlights for the students included seeing bluebirds around the various MOFGA nesting boxes and the loud calls from an early season killdeer.
