Eddy School at the BCT’s Hay Center

The tradition continues, as the Brewster Conservation Trust once again, welcomed the Eddy School 4^th graders to the Hay Conservation Center.

Did you know you can identify the difference between a Pitch Pine and a White Pine just by counting the number of needles? Or that digging a few inches down in the dirt can reveal four different layers of soil? The students from the Eddy School 4th Grade science class can tell you how!

“We want to encourage children and their parents to enjoy Brewster’s woodlands and also learn about the many reasons we protect land in Brewster” said Hal Minis, President of the Brewster Conservation Trust. Toward that end eighty 4^th grade students from the Eddy School science program explored BCT’s Hay Conservation Center. On October 31st and November 6^th eighty young naturalists played detective using their eyes and ears, measuring tools and reference materials and recorded what they found on data sheets and iPad cameras.

One fourth grader said, “I didn’t realize how many sounds could be heard in the quiet of the forest”.  What did they learn? “We identified different trees by studying their bark, looking at the shape of the leaves or counting the number of pine needle bundles” said one young scientist, and “We discovered a red-backed salamander living under a rotted log and a baby Milk Snake basking in the sun” said another.   Charlie McKendree, an Eddy School Science Lab instructor, marveled at the absence of brush under a stand of American Beech foliage and added, “I feel more comfortable in the woods than in civilization.”

The children will take their iPad photos and detailed field notes back to the classroom where they will continue studying their discoveries of the Cape Cod forest that lies just a few miles away from their school.

The Eddy School Science field trip to the Brewster Conservation Trust Hay Center, is a collaboration between BCT, Eddy Elementary School and the Massachusetts Audubon.