Cradle of Forestry Field Trip
Date – Time
July 10, 2015
– 10:00 AM
Additional Information
Ages: all
Cost: $4 for each student and parent. When you arrive at the gate, they would normally expect you to pay. Just let them know you are with a group for a field trip and need to pay inside.
Bring exact cash with you.
Schedule:
arrive 10 AM
First class (including movie) 10:15 AM
Picnic Lunch 11:30 AM Bring your own. There are places to sit and picnic around the building.
Second class 12 PM
Forest Discovery trail 1 PM
Classes:
The Cradle of Forestry Story (18 minutes) – Set in the late 1800’s, this movie reveals the significance of the site while it introducing America’s forestry pioneers and their work.
K-2: Who Eats Who Where?
Students use their senses to explore and contrast two habitats (Zoom in on Nature), play a game about predator-and-prey relationships and energy flow in a food chain (Food For Who?), and participate in an interactive puppet show exploring a tree’s life cycle and niche in a forest (Sally Snag, The Animal Inn).
and Arthropod Hunt
Teams dig into stumps and peek into leaf piles to find arthropods and infer the roles these animals play in forest ecosystems.
3-6: Plant Discovery
Investigate a diverse forest while observing, identifying, comparing, and personalizing plants. Build an understanding of growth, adaptations, and interdependence with wildlife and people. The program includes a plant mapping activity.
and Getting to Know Trees
Students use observation and a simple key to learn tree identification skills (Keying Out Trees). By Reading the Rings they find out the story of a tree’s life and play a game to predict what growth ring patterns would look like under certain conditions (Every Tree for Itself). Goods from the Woods explores the everyday items that surprisingly come from trees. Trees truly are tremendous!
7+: Cruisin the Woods
Students learn about multiple use forestry and wood products while applying tree identification, measurement, and math skills to inventory a forest plot. They complete calculations and compile data in a post-visit activity provided. Sturdy shoes required. and Watershed Wanderings
Students imagine a raindrop’s path in this fair-weather field exercise, which focuses on a forested watershed. Following transects, teams inventory vegetation composition and density and record observations of light, moisture, and forest structure. From this data they draw conclusions and form research questions. You can easily repeat this activity to compare this headwaters area to a lower urban setting in your school’s community. Sturdy shoes required. Expect uneven, sloped ground.
Forest Discovery Trail
over 2 miles; beyond the Forest Festival Trail; follows a grassy road bed through the woods. A guided walk along this trail offers students in higher grades and adult groups a lengthy immersion into the forest. Not wheelchair accessible.
Extra: After the field trip at Cradle of Forestry, join us on the way back down the mountain but still in Pisgah for river wading/swimming! We will stop at one of the “pull offs” that has a bathroom where we can play in the water for a bit! It should be a great summer day in the mountains for our families!
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