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This program happens in the classroom and in the field at Long Pasture. In their classroom, students will learn about Diamondback terrapins & horseshoe crabs. In the field, students observe the complex salt marsh with transept lines & quadrats.

Students will study the amazing tidal flat creatures at Long Pasture Wildlife Sanctuary! They will be able to hold and examine the amazing creatues will learning how they use their bodies to get what they need to survive.  In a tray, they will also be able to examine wind and water effects on coastal shorelines and figure out possible solutions.  

Students will explore the tidal flats, first in their classroom as research scientists, handling real shells and artifacts that are found in the tidal flat ecosystem.  Learning the ABCs of the tidal flats, they will classify these creatures, as "Attachers" "Burrowers" "Crawlers" and "Swimmers". 

During the lab, students will be able to examine and hold the living creatures that they will encounter on the tidal flats of Barnstable Harbor - including hermit crabs, mud snails, moon snails and more!  

At the Long Pasture vernal pool, students will become field biologists as they sift through bottom muck, collect real living creatures, and carry the specimens back to the outdoor lab at the Visitor Center.  There they will study the creatures they found (and others that have already been collected) to determine how these creatures move their bodies to get what they need to survive.  From the clever camouflaged caddisfly larvae to the fast paddling water boatman, students will see with their own eyes the amazing adaptations of the vernal pool creatures! 

Students will become research scientists as they work together in teams to answer questions about the water cycle and what makes the four seasons different as they are related to the vernal pool.  They will discover the amazing adaptations of amphibians and aquatic invertebrates which allow them to survive before acting out some of these adaptations.

Students will become lab scientists as they work in small groups and study pictures of real vernal pool creatures to determine how they move their bodies to get what they need to survive.  Next, students are challenged to assemble the life cycle of the spotted salamander, wood frog, fairy shrimp and mosquito.  They will get a closer look at some of these living creatures that are in different parts of their life cycle.  They will also get the chance to create their own vernal pool creatures that incorporate some of the amazing adaptations they learned about or a brand new adaptation that will help their creature survive in the vernal pool.