Throughout April, the Poughkeepsie City School District’s second grade classes took field trips to The Preserve at Vassar to enjoy the outdoors, observe nature and continue their instruction for the second part of the Exploring Science program.
The idea of the annual program through Vassar College’s Environmental Cooperative is to encourage the young students to “think like a scientist.” During the first part, Vassar teaching students visited each classroom to conduct a pair of lessons focused on observational skills and the practice of making and testing predictions.
During the field trip, the students put those skills to use through a variety of activities that included a hike with a “nature bingo” hunt, observing by the side of a pond, exploring the preserve’s “Learning Forest,” and a trip inside the barn to look at items through microscopes and touch small creatures. The students also enjoyed a snack and story time in an outdoor classroom space, had the option to relax in hammocks, and thrilled in a sprint across Vassar’s rugby field.
“They’re exploring our 500-acre nature preserve,” said Lindsay Dalton, Vassar’s program manager for Exploring Science, “They’re finding animals and they’re making measurements of water temperature and air temperature – really putting those practical skills to use.”
Vassar provided each student with boots to keep shoes and socks away from mud, and they took turns with sets of binoculars for looking across the pond and high into trees.
Each second grade class in Truth and Krieger elementary schools had a turn to take a trip, with the last one held April 24, a sun-splashed Friday in which groups from Krieger delighted in the sun, splashed in a stream and chased after a frog. The hope is the students leave having a greater appreciation for the outdoors, having spent time away from screens and concrete.
The Vassar students, during snack and story time, read the students a book called “Hiking Day,” by Anne and Lizzy Rockwell. Using the narrative of a family hiking trip, the story teaches how to read a map, what trail blazes are and what animals can be observed in the forest. Around half of the students said they had never been on a hike before.
Dalton said the program aims to help students build “a foundation for science” at an early age. Exploring Science is funded in part by a state Office of Children and Family Services grant. Its current iteration at Poughkeepsie began in 2022, though Dalton noted it’s existed in different forms for roughly 40 years.
“They are just being kids outside,” Dalton said of the field trips, “which is our goal.”