We are delighted to announce our 2024 Art and Science in the Park events, with Melissa Guillet of 15 Minute Field Trips. Learn about nature and how to protect it while creating art! We’ll have activities and guided hikes for all ages, special community guests, science explorations, and animal encounters. Registration encouraged. Please let us know if you need special accommodations. Second Saturdays 2-3:30 at Blackstone Field or as noted.
January 13th Winter Animals The temperature is dropping and there might even be snow. What’s an animal to do? Learn how animals adapt by changing color, building shelters, burrowing, hibernating, or even migrating. See if you can spot squirrel dreys, tree hollows, and more as we look for tracks, scat, and food remains. Explore our growing collection of skulls, exoskeletons, and furs, including a snowshoe hare fur and coyote skull!
February 17th Likable Lichens Bundle up and join us for a lichen scavenger hunt! Learn about the amazing tardigrade!
March 9th March of Frogs: The Musical! Listen to the deep bass of the bullfrog and the high trill of the American toad while we make a clay frog or toad. Learn about RI’s 10 species and how to protect them. Find out how to be a FrogWatcher and more ways you can protect water and the ecosystem.
April 13th Looking Under Logs Follow Blind-Lemon Nightcrawler, the deep underground jazz worm, as we look for worms, pill bugs, and more and learn about compost and soil. Help design a menu for the “Compost Cafe” and play the life-size Candyland game for “worms”! Make slime!
May 11th “Bee Happy” Learn about honey, bumble, and mason bees through games and crafts. Make seed bombs to spread at the base of trees, along roads, or plant at home!
June 8th Baby Birds What does it take to raise young birds in the wild? Build a nest for your “eggs” and play a food relay game to feed your babies! Learn how to help birds get more caterpillars and give them space they need.
July 13th Terrific Turtles Do you know about “Plastic Free July”? Plastic harms many aquatic animals and only 5-6% gets recycled in the U.S. Learn how to reduce your plastic use and about wetland ecosystems while making turtles from repurposed paper products. Special guests Ambassador Bobo the Red-eared slider and the Providence Storm-water Innovation Center! If you’re lucky, you may spot one of the park’s giant snapping turtles or see painted turtles sunning on a log at York or Hockey pond.
August 10th Insect Orchestra What’s the buzz, click, and whir I hear? Often it’s insects! Create instruments based on insect sounds and engineering as we listen to field and tree crickets, katydids, cicadas, and more.
September 14th Monarch Migration Make origami butterflies while learning about native host and nectar plants and why you should leave the leaves! Play the Monarch Migration game!
October 12th Mysterious Mushrooms Learn how fun fungi are and their roles in the environment, even how they communicate. We will make mushrooms out of clay and take a short guided hike
November 9th Tree People and Leaf Creatures Take a magical journey collecting leaves and identifying broadleaf trees and their role in mitigating climate change. Make leaf rubbings, leaf creatures or a “tree-ople” puppet! We’ll also be collecting nonperishable food for the RI Food Bank
December 14th Winter Birds Get into the winter spirit with easy bird collages and pine cone feeders. Learn to identify seed-eating birds for Project FeederWatch. Look for seed-eaters, raptors, and ducks along the Seekonk River.
