This past weekend we had a field trip to the Environmental Interpretive Center (EIC) on U of M-Dearborn's main campus! We invited our families to meet us on Saturday morning so that they could share the experience with their children, and other siblings.
We began our morning with a look around the building of the EIC - they have a bug room, an observatory space, and lots of neat information about our local environment. The children had fun exploring the building and it was great to see them begin to form a connection with campus!
We then began our walk to the pond. We walked through the woods, listening to the sounds in the woods and looking at the incredible views of nature. We had two guides from the EIC who shared a lot of information with us about different trees, plants, and animals. Once we got to the pond, we spoke about how to be safe while exploring, and then were able to watch for different wildlife. After a little while, we came together and learned how to take samples from the pond. The children were then offered the opportunity to scoop samples with a net, collect the sample into a bin, and then observe all of the insects and fish they caught. We were given sheets to help us identify the samples from the pond.
We spoke about the samples we collected as a group, and the guides shared neat bits of information about each type of insect. We walked back to the EIC, had a picnic lunch, and then went for a short nature walk to the lake!
Even though it was a hot and humid day, all of the children did really well and learned a lot - and so did the adults! We are very fortunate to have a place like the EIC to teach us about our local environment and since they are open to the community we hope our families will continue to visit!
