Wild Center: Inspiration for the Learning Room

So this is where I admit that I am a geek.  Because I'm going to start off this post not by talking about the thousands of acres curated by the Wild Center in Tupper Lake -- which are by far the most important part of the museum.  Instead I have to tell you first about their discovery room (which I think they call "The Naturalist's Cabinet").

When Andy and I walked into this room, we both turned to each other and said, "This is what a homeschool room should be like!"  So I took lots of pictures, in the event that we eventually become independently wealthy and can design a house with a room like this one... well, scaled down ever so slightly, as I don't think we will need quite that many microscopes.

It was a dark, rainy day, so unfortunately the pictures don't really do the room justice.  But maybe you can fill in the details.

Here's Pip, playing with their puppet collection.  The windows in this room were huge.  And the view right outside the window...

The museum is built on the site of an old sand pit.  The building is sunk below the level of the pond behind it so that the water comes up to the windowsills.  I've decided that what I really want is my own nature preserve.

Here's a long view of the room.  The lighted shelves in the back are full of collections, many of which can be pulled off the shelves to observe by anyone (including little people).  There were a couple of computers along this wall with nifty software.

This piece of furniture had shelves on two sides and drawers on two sides.

A big project table in the middle of the room... (Farmerboy is building with tree blocks.)

Glass-faced cabinets with more collections... A little too tall for me, but in a house the ceiling probably wouldn't be so high!

More low shelves with activity boxes...

The contents of one box (I took photos of some of the boxes I thought I might reproduce at home)...

And oh, yeah -- there were also some exhibits!  This is the glacier wall, showing the history of the Adirondack region.

The fungi exhibit (a hit with Gareth)...

And fish! (Trout, to be exact.)  All the boys seem to be interested in fish lately.  I think I see some fish studies in our future...

Katydid took all the outside photos. (We didn't get many because the break in the rain was quite short, limiting us to the trail immediately behind the building.)  This is a view of the back of the museum. 

The bridge across the pond...

One of the many waterlilies, dotted with rain...

A hawthorne tree, covered in berries... (This trail was also a bird trail.  The hawthorne berries are an important food for birds.)

Cardinal flower, food source for bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds...

Katydid had to take a picture of this poster.  For months she has been telling us about a story she read in one of her birdwatching magazines written by a woman in the Adirondacks, who said she couldn't put out her bird feeders in the summer because of bears.  This, incidentally, forms the entire reason why Katydid says she would never want to live in the Adirondacks.

 

Solar panels on the back of the museum...

Gareth and Farmerboy looking at one of the "green walls".  (You can't see it in the previous picture, but the entire front roof of that building is "green" -- covered in earth and plants.)  The green wall is an interesting concept.  Depending on how wide the wall is, imagine how much food you could grow in such a small space.  A narrower wall would be perfect for greens, with their shallow root systems.  You could build one of your own -- basically a raised bed tipped on its side.

Going to the museum in September was interesting for another reason, and that was people watching.  90% of the people in that museum the day we went (a Friday) were age 60 and older.  Most of them were women.  This mirrored everywhere else we went, too.  It was kind of bizarre, actually, because even when kids are in school, you do expect to see some families with little kids out and about, or younger adults.  As we were leaving the museum, we saw a mom and two kids, ages around 5-8.  And so we knew -- they were homeschoolers!  And what a great resource the Wild Center would be if you were in driving distance.

Comments

[Mrs darling]

What a cool place to foster learning! Who wouldnt love a place like that! sigh

[Amy]

Wow - now I have to go to confession, LOL, that room has me all green with envy! :) Seriously, that room, that "look" is my DREAM house.

We noticed the same thing about people on our vacation - mostly older people (I think the place we went is that state's place to retire!) a few families with very young children, and the random family or two that I almost ran up to and bowled over screaming, "are you homeschoolers too!!!" (but of course really just sat there wishing I was brave enough to even go up to them and say hello, LOL)

[Kathy]

An amazing place! Thanks so much for sharing it with us.

[Erin]

Angela
Love the pics, wow! wonder how I could reproduce their learning center, mmm.

[Kerry]

We live 20 minutes from the Wild Center and are memebers! Love it and they are very friendly to homeschoolers. I was pretty excited to see it on someone's blog!

[Theresa]

Hey, that looks like my house... In my dreams!LOL! Man, wouldn't it be awesome?

[janene]

We were in the Adirondacks the week schools were back in too! Wish we ran into you at some of these places. The other favorite day trip from the park was of course, Almonzo Wilder's home.

[Meredith]

Incredible, what a treat!! Great photos too, so much food for thought indeed :)

[Eileen]

Wow, what beautiful pictures! Even in the rain it's awesome. What a great resource!

[Jennifer]

I'm drooling...no wonder you took tons of pics - now to duplicate that space in a 12 x 16 space...think that's possible???

[Kathy]

Wow! I home school too, and I sure wish my learning space looked like that!