By Ted Watt
Just imagine … its pitch dark, 41 degrees, pouring rain, and you’re out there. Sound like fun? Pretty tough conditions for us warm-blooded mammals, but amphibians love it; especially spotted salamanders. They choose these conditions for their annual breeding migration. Even if we still have some snow, the animals know when it is time to move.
By Patrick O’Roark
Sam Cordero has always loved salamanders. In fact, since she was young she’s been drawn to animals of all types – as a child she desperately wanted a giant African millipede as a pet!
By Jessica Schultz
While the vapor barrier was installed over the sheathing on the exterior of our building, our focus turned to the inside.
By Jessica Schultz
January saw the arrival of our Alpen windows! With the delivery came and exciting riddle for the project team and our staff. What were these balloons attached to each window?
By Patrick O’Roark
How can a nature center educate about engineering? With a little help from a friend and a little inspiration from one of nature’s most amazing engineers, the beaver.
By Katie Koerten
What is a Rube Goldberg Machine, you ask? It’s a contraption that attempts to complete a simple task in the most complicated way possible. Named for Reuben Goldberg, a cartoonist and inventor in the early 20th century, these devices are usually highly complex, involving a series of chain reactions set off by one initial human motion. Rube Goldberg machines can be built to accomplish simple everyday tasks, such as turning on a light, zipping a zipper, or even pulling a tooth!
By Dan Ziomek
It’s 2 AM somewhere in Hadley. The thermometer reads a balmy fourteen degrees as two souls step from the warmth of their vehicle and enter the darkness of cloudless night. A few moments later the winnowing call of the eastern screech owl can be heard coming from the speaker one of them has set up. They proceed without speaking to their positions 50 yards on either side of the speaker and wait silently. What are they waiting for you ask?
By Patty O’Donnell
The Hitchcock Center is pleased to announce we have been awarded a grant from the Northampton Education Foundation (NEF) Endowment Fund for the 2015-16 academic year to continue our Energy Literacy education program. The program, entitled Energize Northampton! will be offered to all 4th grade classrooms in the four Elementary Schools in the Northampton School District – Jackson Street School, RK Finn Ryan Road School, Leeds Elementary School, and Bridge Street School.
By Dan Zoimek
When you are young, every bird you see is a life bird (one you’ve never seen before). Learning bird songs is like learning a foreign language, but hearing them repeatedly allows you to remember them for the rest of your life.
by Elizabeth Farnsworth
We mostly think of plants as well-behaved, passive creatures, rooted in one place and hoping quietly that sun and soil will provide them what they need in life. But we’d be wrong! Plants actively shape their habitats, communicate with each other, conspire against predators, and sometimes become predators themselves.
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Hitchcock Center for the Environment
at Hampshire College
845 West Street | Amherst MA 01002 | 413.256.6006 | 413.253.2809 fax