BROOKSVALE PARK NATURE PROGRAMS
The Brooksvale Park staff is excited to offer a new series of nature programs to area schools &
organizations. Programs are 1 to 1½ hours in length and include indoor and outdoor components.
Programs marked with an asterisk are best suited to older children (grade 3 and up). Teachers can
request a program at brooksvale@hamden.com
Please indicate name of school/organization, grade, desired dates & times, and # of students.
Park staff will then contact you to schedule your visit.
Programs are free to Hamden Public Schools. All other groups are $5.00 per student. Teachers
and chaperones are free. The Brooksvale Park office can also be reached at 203-287-2669
SPRING
It’s Finally Spring
Now that spring is finally here, nature is bursting with activity and busy preparing for the next
generation of plants and animals. It’s noisy out there with birds singing loudly and amphibians
on the move to breeding pools calling out to let us know it really is spring. In this program,
children explore the changes around them that signal the coming of spring.
Pond Life
Children discover the hidden life within a pond by sampling different aquatic habitats with nets
and carefully observing pond creatures in a touch tank to better understand their special
adaptations to a watery existence. Children learn that some animals start their lives out in water
even though they may not live there as adults and that many go through a series of life changes
called metamorphosis.
You Are What You Eat
Children explore the dietary needs of animals by taking a close look at skulls and learn how an
animal is adapted or designed to eat the food that it eats. Children are introduced to the terms,
herbivore, carnivore, omnivore and insectivore. Follow up role-playing activities provide fun,
hands-on experiences with the program topic by taking the children to a special grocery store just
for mammals, and a banquet for birds.
Adapted For Survival
Children appreciate animal adaptations for survival by competing against the best of the animal
world in a series of contests. They go on to discover that one of the biggest survival challenges
facing wildlife today is adapting to an environment that has been changed greatly by humans.
Children learn that wild animals have adapted to the built environment by substituting humanrelated items for their habitat needs and search Brooksvale Park for examples of creative ways
that animals have learned to coexist with humans.
Stop, Look And Listen for Birds
Children learn to appreciate birds through different sensory exercises. As bird models fly across
the room, children become accomplished bird watchers using field characteristics as clues for
identifying birds. They also explore bird communication by learning to identify birds by sound.
At the end of the program, children follow a scent trail to discover how a keen sense of smell
helps turkey vultures be such successful scavengers.
Beavers – Nature’s Canal Builders
Children discover that beavers are the only other living creatures that come close to reshaping the
landscape as much as humans. Children gain an in-depth understanding of beavers as they follow
them from pre-settlement times to the present and explore their special adaptations for feeding on
plants, living in water and creating new habitats. A dam building exercise encourages children to
work cooperatively on a group project and to experience first-hand the construction challenges
that beavers must overcome.
Wildlife Detectives
Children follow a trail of animal clues as they are challenged to identify mystery animals in the
woods. They discover that tracks and wildlife signs are evidence that reveal the presence of
animals even when the creatures have not been spotted. The program offers an introduction to
tracking and gives the children an opportunity to examine different nature artifacts that help
identify wild animals and provide information about an animal’s interactions with its
environment.
The Water Planet *
Children develop an understanding of the distribution of water and learn that water cycling
throughout Earth’s systems is a finite resource. They study the effects of erosion and pollution on
freshwater systems and conduct a series of water experiments that help them appreciate how the
characteristics and properties of water affect aquatic life.
SUMMER
Summer Camp Programs
FALL
Focus On Fall
Children study the reasons for seasons and learn about the changes that take place during fall as
plants and animals prepare for tough times ahead. Children discover that seeds play a critical role
in winter survival. Children have a lot of fun exploring seed dispersal by examining a variety of
seeds and matching them to models that illustrate how seeds are packaged in different ways for
transport by wind, water and animals.
Farmington Canal Then And Now *
Brooksvale Park is adjacent to an amazing greenway, The Farmington Canal connects
communities along its path much as it did in the 1800’s when it served as a transportation channel
linking Long Island Sound to inland areas. Children trace the Farmington Canal back in time to
explore landscape development and its impact on people and nature. By mapping the history of
the Farmington Canal, children appreciate its importance through time and how it evolved into
today’s linear park- a recreational, educational, social and environmental resource for all to enjoy.
Reading The Landscape
By learning to read the landscape, children see how topography, natural processes and human
factors influence landscape composition. Children become nature detectives as they look for
hidden signs in the forest that reveal its secret past. They recognize that scars on tall trees,
decaying stumps and dilapidated stonewalls are all clues to a forest’s history. Children explore
forest dynamics by following the developmental stages of old-field succession and gain an
appreciation for the interdependence of abiotic and biotic components of forest ecosystems by
looking closely at forest layers.
Living On The Edge
Children explore the importance of ecotones- transition zones where different ecosystems meet,
and the resulting edge effect. They discover that the modern-day landscape with its mowed
lawns, manicured yards and paved roadways tends to offer much harsher edge to wildlife.
Children go on to gain direct experience with ecotones by becoming wildlife biologists
conducting a mark-recapture study that compares wildlife diversity and density in field, forest and
transitional ecotone areas where organisms overlap.
Watershed Connections *
Children explore their local watershed by creating a river model that speeds up time to show
thousands of years of change in seconds. They see how water shapes the landscape through
erosion and connects communities by watersheds. They identify river features and learn about
the far-reaching impact of non-point and point source pollution. Children examine the
characteristics of wetlands and their importance to humans and wildlife.
TREEmendous
Children recognize trees as an important natural resource and understand how a tree works by
learning about the structure and function of its parts. They discover that they can uncover the life
story of a tree by reading its growth rings. Children learn to appreciate differences in
morphology as they measure and identify trees and participate in a tactile challenge and a leaf
relay.
Turkey Time
Children learn about the importance of the wild turkey from pre-settlement times to today and
gain an overview of its classification, description, habitat, reproduction and threats. Children
explore turkey adaptations for survival and search for wild turkeys around Brooksvale Park using
a variety of turkey calls.
Beauty And The Minibeast
Children gain an appreciation for the smaller things in life by taking a close look at invertebrates.
They learn about the characteristics of insects, spiders and other minibeasts by manipulating
models and going on an outdoor search for live invertebrates. After designing pitfall traps for
capturing minibeasts, the children watch them compete on a creepy crawler racetrack.
WINTER
Coping With Winter
Children explore animal adaptations for winter survival. They learn that toughing it out,
dormancy, hibernation and migration are different winter survival strategies used by wildlife. An
animal’s physical and behavioral characteristics determine how it copes with winter. Children
understand that each survival strategy is a gamble with many animals struggling to survive to
spring. Children gain hands-on experience with winter adaptations by comparing the fur of
different animals and placing their hands in a blubber glove to test the importance of fat as an
insulator.
Resource Management *
Hundreds of years ago, Europeans arrived in America to a land rich in natural resources that were
seemingly inexhaustible. By the late 1800’s, years of overexploitation of wildlife and widespread
habitat destruction had taken their toll making it clear that these resources were finite and in need
of protection. This program helps children understand how people can make a difference
through environmental stewardship and natural resource management.
Keeping Track Of Wildlife
Children learn that tracks and animal signs provide evidence that wildlife has been around even
when animals have not been seen. These clues help identify wildlife and provide important
information about habits and behavior. The children discover that by studying track prints and
patterns, it is possible to recreate the story of what an animal was doing, what other animals were
around and how the animals were interacting with one another and the environment.
Everything Counts
The program teaches children about food chains and food webs, showing them that everything is
connected in natural communities and ecosystems. They learn about the transfer of energy
through food chains as it passes from the sun to producers, consumers and decomposers. They see
how materials are recycled and returned to the system to be reused by green plants as they grow
and produce food for other living things. An interactive activity illustrates how food chains
interconnect to form food webs, and helps the children understand that all things, big and small,
are important.
Dig Deep *
Children gain a geological overview of landscape change through a series of hands-on earth
science lessons. They learn about Earth’s structure and the relationship between its surface and
the planet’s inner layers. Children discover that the Earth’s crust, composed of rocks and
minerals, is reshaped slightly every day. Plate tectonics builds up the crust while weathering and
erosion break it down. Children examine the characteristics of rocks and minerals and search for
samples of their own.
Landscape Linkages
Over the years, human society has developed the landscape leaving it fragmented with patches of
natural areas interspersed with sections of built environment. Wildlife corridors provide a safe
way for wild animals to move from one area to another without having to cross streets or other
sections of the built environment. In this program, children take part in team building activities
that challenge them to work together to create landscape linkages.
Wonders Of Weasels
Children study the weasel family and discover that every aspect of a mustelid’s body and
behavior is adapted for hunting. They learn that at high speeds, members of the weasel family
move much like accordions as they bound across the landscape. Children continue their
exploration of mustelid movement by experimenting with Slinkys as models for bounding
weasels.
Nocturnal Animals
Children are introduced to nocturnal animals, creatures that are active at night. They learn about
the advantages of being nocturnal and explore the amazing senses that allow animals to live in the
dark. A series of role-playing activities that showcase nocturnal adaptations, give children a
glimpse into the lives of bats, owls and other nighttime creatures.