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January 9, 2020

Posted at 11:57h in Outdoor Education by

By Brennan Vaughan The Environmental Studies and Outdoor Education course went to Zebedee Wetlands in October of 2019. Zebedee is managed by The UpperValley Land Trust and is a popular bird watching area in Thetford, VT. At Zebedee there is a trail that surrounds a swamp. On the field trip, Scott Ellis (Thetford Outdoor Program Coordinator) pointed out invasive species like buckthorn and honeysuckle. Invasive species can be bad for wildlife and the environment because they were brought here from somewhere else and push out native species. The class went to Zebedee because we were working on a unit on how...


January 9, 2020

Posted at 10:32h in Outdoor Education, Student Life by

By Faith Crowe Students in the Environmental Studies and Outdoor Education course read a book called Reading the Forested Landscapes by Tom Wessels. This book is about the land we live in and what’s shaped the land. The book shows the reader how they can find clues in the forest that tell a story.  As  a final assessment students went to Union Village Dam to find examples of things we read about in the book including, basal scars, stone walls, beaver stumps,  coppice trees, weevil trees and other forest clues. Using the book as a guide we each found three examples,...


January 9, 2020

Posted at 10:01h in Outdoor Education by

By Kai Harris What is a seven minute free write? Seven minute free writes are a time where the whole Environmental Studies and Outdoor Education Program class sits down and writes for seven minutes without stopping. There is always a prompt but what follows that prompt is up to the writer. Free writes are also about reflecting. They can include additional elements like using vocabulary terms from a book we may be reading, or incorporating figurative language. Sometimes seven minute free writes are simply about something that you heard or noticed when you were out in the woods. Like the sound of...


January 8, 2020

Posted at 22:09h in Outdoor Education by

By, Madison Hatch This year, the Environmental Studies and Outdoor Education course did a unit on studying apples and apple cider. Each student participated in collecting a variety of apples from different locations, making cider and conducting a lab. My favorite part was getting to taste the freshly made cider. Surprisingly, the flavors of the different apple ciders varied a lot. Some were very sweet while others were very bitter.  When Making apple cider there were many different jobs that each student participated in. Some of the jobs included washing and pressing apples, measuring apple and cider density,  cider temperature, cider sugar...


January 8, 2020

Posted at 21:25h in Outdoor Education by

By, Liam Patterson What is Buckthorn? Buckthorn is an invasive species located in many parts of New England. Here, in Thetford Vermont, buckthorn is very prominent on the school property and in the State Forest. One of the classes here at TA called, Environmental Studies and Outdoor Education, plans to do something about it. In 2018, all the students in the class created test plots near the yurt in the State Forest. That class used 6 different methods to treat the buckthorn. They counted the amount of living buckthorn before treatment, treated them with the different methods, and then left the...


January 8, 2020

Posted at 19:47h in Outdoor Education by

By Charles Longshaw This reflection is from an overnight solo experience for Thetford Academy’s Environmental Studies and Outdoor Education Program. We were out in the wilderness, trying to see if we could make it through the whole night alone with limited materials. All I chose to bring with me were warm layers, hand warmers, a knife, whistle, matches, flashlight, water bottle, hat, and gloves. We weren’t allowed to bring electronics (including our phones), lighters, cotton clothing, or anything we couldn’t carry in our pockets. I was at my solo spot, a place in the Thetford State Forest that I have developed...

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