BY DEBORAH G. SCANLON
MARTHA SCANLON FISH
During a Children’s School of Science field trip, Claire Fish holds an Atlantic mole crab, Emerita talpoida.
It is a quick walk to the small-town dock next to the Coast Guard station, and the young students from the Children’s School of Science (CSS) are excited. What will they find? They walk along the dock with their collecting nets and before long, they see pipefish and little eels.
A favorite collecting place for the seashore life and marine biology classes, it’s a safe spot with many different organisms, according to Rebecca Lash, CSS curriculum chairwoman. Before they leave they might also find juvenile toadfish, sea robins, flounder, puffers, silversides and Gulf Stream orphans like juvenile gray snappers and short bigeyes, and various invertebrates like tunicates and worms living on the floating dock.
Their teachers and assistants help them identify the invertebrate phyla communities, and when they return to their classrooms at the Woods Hole School they will add some carefully collected organisms to the classroom aquarium. At the end of the program all specimens are released into their original environments.
For more than 100 years the Children’s School of Science has offered young people ages 7 to 16 the opportunity “to observe nature, collect data and organisms in daily field work, while developing respect for organisms and diverse habitats.”
Founded in 1913 as the Summer School Club by a group of Woods Hole women led by Frances C. Lillie and Dr. Lillian V. Morgan, its curriculum initially focused on “dancing, singing and science.” In the book that chronicles the school’s history, aptly named “Wet Sneakers and Nets” and edited by Charlotte Emans Moore, the late Bettina Dudley, who taught at CSS, notes that the program was “intended for all—the children of the community, the children of summer vacationers and the children of scientists.” By 1923 the school’s focus had changed to science, and the school was renamed Children’s School of Science.
MARTHA SCANLON FISH
Students in Seashore Life explore Nobska Beach with parents and teachers during a field trip.
Children’s School of Science director Kate Schafer took her first course at CSS as a teenager, Advanced Marine Biology with Bettina Dudley. She recalled that it was “an amazing and life-changing experience.” She now teaches high school science at the Sequoyah School in Pasadena, California. Ms. Lash started at CSS in summer 1963 as a student and began teaching there in 1977. As a 7-year-old in the Seashore Life class, she said, she loved going down to the town landing with a net and bucket to collect organisms and then learning their scientific genus and species names.
Other CSS alums say the joy and excitement of studying nature made learning fun, and stayed with them as they pursued their academic careers. CSS offers two three-week sessions and 27 different courses, some of them available in both sessions. Children ages 7 and 8 start with Seashore Life, and new this year for this age group is the class Patterns in Nature. Classes for older children range from Advanced Marine Biology, Entomology (the study of insects) and Ichthyology (the study of fishes) to Biological Illustration, Introduction to Film Photography, Robotics and ROVs, and a new class, Astronomy, for students ages 13 to 16.
Courses are organized into two three-week sessions. Session A runs from June 30 to July 18 and Session B from July 21 to August 7. Classes meet daily, Monday through Friday, for an hour and 45 minutes. Short walking field trips are often taken daily, with weekly drives to more-distant sites.
COURTESY CSS ARCHIVES/WOODS HOLE HISTORICAL MUSEUM
1918 brochure for the club that was later renamed
Children’s School of Science.
The collaboration with the YMCA camp based at MBL Club, formerly the MBL Satellite Club, makes it possible for the children of working Marine Biological Laboratory and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution families to attend CSS’s classes. The children are walked to the school and offered full-day care the rest of the day at the MBL Club. “Our collaboration has been really successful. This year, we have 22 students who are taking advantage of both programs,” Dr. Schafer said.
The school also offers need-based scholarships for families for whom the tuition would be a financial burden. Openings remain for this season in the following Session A classes: Seaweeds (ages 10 and 11) at 8:30 AM; Marine Biology (ages 9 and 10) at 12:30 PM; Marine Ecology (ages 9 and 10) at 2:30 PM; Biological Illustration (ages 14 to 16) at 2:30 PM; and Oceanography (ages 12 and 13) at 2:30 PM.
Session B classes with open spots are Meteorology (ages 11 and 12) at 8:30 AM; Entomology (ages 11 and 12) at 12:30 PM; Habits and Habitats (ages 8 and 9) at 2:30 PM and Astronomy (ages 13 to 16) at 2:30 PM.
For more courses and information, check childrensschoolofscience.org.