The Wrack

The pandemic pushes a tour program to adjust, and it's a good thing. 

The Wells Reserve's education program is one of 29 within the National Estuarine Research Reserve System, collectively connecting hundreds of thousands of people to estuaries each year.

A workshop about how to teach taught me about art. Block printing gave this naturalist a new way to see nature. 

An exciting—and odoriferous—discovery was made during a recent education program.

The Reserve was recognized at The Wildlife Society's 25th annual conference, held in Cleveland last October.

Amanda and Cassie are eager for camps to begin!

Terms like "watershed" and "estuary" are part of our daily lexicon, but have had no equivalents in American Sign Language. To encourage STEM learning in New England’s deaf community, we and our partners are introducing new terms and teaching tools.

The summer camp season was a huge success, with glowing evaluations from participating families.

Teachers on the Estuary Returns in 2016

The four New England research reserves are putting teachers on the estuary again this summer by offering free workshops that will give educators data-driven climate change activities to bring back to their classes. Each of the four TOTE (Teachers on the Estuary) workshops, one 3- or 4-day session per reserve, will train a dozen educators in reserve-style environmental monitoring, "coastal blue carbon" concepts, and ways to understand and address climate change.

Please note: The workshop at Wells Reserve will be held Monday, July 11 through Thursday, July 14, 2016. Review of applications will begin May 31, 2016.

Wells Reserve TOTE Application

Wells Reserve TOTE Draft Agenda

Wells Reserve TOTE Promotional Flyer

To learn more about TOTE workshops, see the articles at wellsreserve.org/tote.

Why TOTE?

Teachers often don't get much exposure to estuarine and watershed concepts during their own education, so it can be daunting for them to develop a curriculum (and locate suitable data sets) around these topics. TOTE workshops show teachers how to access and employ custom curricula and data that already meet Next Generation Science Standards or state education frameworks.

Early this summer our 12-year-old granddaughter from Ohio visited us here in Wells. We had heard about the reserve’s kayaking program and hoped she might be interested in trying it. We could sense a bit of trepidation on her part as she had never been in a kayak and would not know anyone in the group.

We met the others on a sunny morning in front of the barn and were greeted by the smiling and enthusiastic leaders, Suzanne and Kate. They would watch over Allie as neither of her grandparents could manage a kayak. We could sense our granddaughter begin to relax, especially upon being introduced to several who were also from Ohio.