Education Programs - Field Trips - Wetlands Cruise

School Field Trips

Become A Spy @ The Brewster House, c. 1665

Why was New York the birthplace of General George Washington’s Culper Spy Ring?  Bring your students to the historic Brewster House to find out!

This living history experience is set in 1776, after the Battle of Long Island.  Students will meet Rebecca Brewster, who unbeknownst to her has neighbors who turned to espionage to assist General Washington.  During their conversation with Rebecca, students will learn about life under British occupation, hunt for a coded message, and venture to ask Rebecca the question: is she willing to become a spy?  Students explore the motivations for the American Revolution and explore multiple perspectives- Patriots, Loyalists, women, the enslaved, and Native Americans – to reflect upon how freedom and revolution sometimes meant different things to different groups of people.

 

Duration: 1.5 hr
Levels: Customized
Minimum Program Fee: $150.00
Per Student Fee: 10.00
Teacher Fee: FREE

Location: Brewster House
Address: 16 Runs Rd, Setauket- East Setauket, NY 11733

Contact: 631-751-2244

Stony Brook Grist Mill, c. 1751

Built in 1665, this grist mill included some of the newest innovations of its time. The mill’s owners would continue to update the mill over the next three centuries,including the use of elevators, moving belts, and screw conveyors to make a milling operation more efficient and profitable.

Take your students see applied mechanical engineering at its best!  Students perceive how America’s early millers understood math and science and what today’s engineers could learn from their historical predecessors in the field.

For this program fee, please contact 631-751-2244 for more information. Boces Reimbursable

Duration: 1.5
Levels: Customized

Location: Stony Brook Grist Mill, c. 1751
Address: 100 Harbor Rd, Stony Brook, NY 11790

Contact: 631-751-2244

The Coastal Ecology Explorers @ The Ernst Marine Conservation Center

What are salt marshes? Why are they important?  What role do people play in keeping them healthy? These are the questions Coastal Ecology Explorers set out to answer in this interactive that introduces young students to the wonder, beauty and science of coastal ecology.   Set in West Meadow Creek, an 88-acre wetland habitat and embayment of the Long Island Sound, students explore west meadow creek’s shoreline to collect and identify marine specimen including crabs, birds and plants. Students learn to perceive the salt marsh as home to many important and delicate relationships between living organisms, land and water.

Boces Arts-in-Ed Reimbursable.  Recommended for grades K-3 (see Coastal Ecology Detectives for grades 4 and up!)

WMHO supports Common Core Standard learning by creating rich virtual environment where students study and observe artifacts, primary sources, and participate in an exchange of ideas

Next Generation Science Standards: LS2.A: Interdependent Relationships in EcosystemsLS2.C: Ecosystem Dynamics, Functioning and Resilience

Testimonial:  I had an amazing time at the field trip! I loved the puppet show and seeing all the mollusks and crabs! (Olivia, Harbor Country Day School, 1st grade).

 

Duration: 1.5
Levels: Elementary
Minimum Program Fee: $150.00
Per Student Fee: 10.00
Teacher Fee: FREE
Chaperone Fee: FREE

Location: The Ernst Marine Conservation Center
Address: West Meadow Creek, Setauket

Contact: 631-751-2244

Running Scared, Running Free: Escape to the Promised Land

What would you do for your freedom?   Imagine a life in which leaving everything you have ever known was your only chance to truly live. Set during the era of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, when free states complied with the laws mandating returning escaped slaves to their owners down South, students meet Carolina.  Formerly enslaved and now living in Stony Brook, Long Island, Carolina is a conductor on the Underground Railroad ushering escaped slaves to the Promised Land located in Canada. Carolina illuminates the abolitionist movement, the risks facing the enslaved on a daily  basis, and the courage of those that fought to help them such as Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass. Using quilt codes and constellations, students imagine being Railroad conductors and design escape routes northward from South Carolina. Together with Carolina, they explore the enduring symbol of freedom for all Americans.

Boces Arts in Education Reimbursable.

Common Core Standards: WMHO supports NY State and Common Core Standard learning by creating rich virtual environment where students study and observe artifacts, primary sources, and participate in an exchange of ideas.

New York State Social Studies Standards:  7.7b Enslaved African Americans resisted slavery in various ways in the 19th century. The abolitionist movement also worked to raise awareness of and generate resistance to the institution of slavery

Virtual Format: WMHO digital platform include (and are not limited to) Zoom, Google Classroom and MS Teams. Please let us know your digital preferences and we will work with you.

Testimonial   “It was so beautiful and educational – I loved it! My students were so engaged!” – Jennifer Amaral, 4th and 5th grade Teacher, Crestview Elementary School

 

 

Duration: 1 hr
Levels: Customized
Minimum Program Fee: $175

Location: From our classroom to yours!
Address:

Contact: 631-751-2244

The “Dusty” Program at The Stony Brook Grist Mill c. 1751

Long Island’s most completely equipped working Grist Mill, the Stony Brook Grist Mill is a unique historic site for your student’s field trip experience. Students join the miller in their day’s work, discovering the principles of how water powers the mill’s mechanisms. Students apply their knowledge as Assistant Millers by shelling corn and bagging ground grain.

“When I ask my students their favorite memories from the school year, they say it is our trip to the Stony Brook Grist Mill.” – 5th grade teacher, Middle Country School District

For this program fee, please contact 631-751-2244 for more information. Boces Reimbursable

Duration: 1.5
Levels: Customized

Location: Stony Brook Grist Mill
Address: Harbor Road Stony Brook NY 11790

Contact: 6317512244

Medicine: Past, Present and Future @ The Thompson House, c. 1709

Go back in time to the year 1790 just after the American Revolution, to meet Patriot, farmer, and physician, Doctor Samuel Thompson. As Doctor Samuel Thompson’s medical apprentices, students cure yellow fever, mend a broken leg, and prevent smallpox through inoculation. Students discover Doctor Thompson’s tools for treatment such as leeches, inoculation, and herbs, and how diverse people and technologies from across Africa, indigenous America and Europe contributed to the foundations of America’s rich medical culture.  To conclude, students meet a 21st century medical student and assist them in a role-play diagnosing a modern day patient.

Boces Arts in Ed Reimbursable.  We support NY State and Common Core Standard learning.  Students use artifacts, primary sources and secondary documents, as well as participate in an exchange of ideas, critical thinking and peer collaboration.

Common Core Standards: WMHO supports NY State and Common Core Standard learning by creating rich virtual environment where students study and observe artifacts, primary sources, and participate in an exchange of ideas

New York State Learning Standards: 4.3d  Students will examine New York’s geographic location relative to the other colonies, locate centers of Loyalist support, and examine the extent of the British occupation.

For book this program, please contact 631-751-2244 for more information or email eddirector@wmho.org

 

Duration: 1.5
Levels: Elementary , Middle, Customized
Minimum Program Fee: $150.00
Per Student Fee: 10.00
Teacher Fee: Free
Chaperone Fee: FREE

Location: The Thompson House, c. 1709
Address: 91 North Country Road

Contact: 631-751-2244

Coastal Ecology Detectives @ The Ernst Marine Conservation Center

How do earth’s land and water interact to produce a salt marsh ecosystem?  How does energy move through the biosphere to produce the salt marsh food web? What happens if these relationships are thrown out of balance?

These are the questions Coastal Ecology Detectives explore in this interactive program set at West Meadow Creek, an 88-acre wetland habitat, and embayment of the Long Island Sound. Students explore West Meadow Creek’s shoreline to collect and identify marine specimen including crabs, birds and plants, create shoreline erosion models, and compare and contrast fresh, salt and brackish water for salinity, turbidity and oxygen.

Boces Arts-in-Education Reimbursable. Recommended for grades 4th -7th.

Common Core Standards: WMHO supports NY State and Common Core Standard learning by creating rich virtual environment where students study and observe artifacts, primary sources, and participate in an exchange of ideas

Next Generation Science Standards:

S2.A: Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems;  ESS2.C: The Roles of Water in Earth’s Surface Processes

 

 

Duration: 1.5 hr
Levels: Elementary , Middle
Minimum Program Fee: $150.00
Per Student Fee: 10.00
Teacher Fee: FREE
Chaperone Fee: FREE

Location: The Ernst Marine Conservation Center
Address: Trustee’s Road, East Setauket, NY

Contact: 631-751-2244