West Campus Was Ideal Setting for Peabody Summer Camps

Published: September 4, 2009

Youngsters in the camps got a hands-on introduction to nature.

New Haven, Conn. — There were water striders and turtles, deer and mice, bats and bugs. Throughout the week-long "Critters Camp" that took place at the West Campus Aug. 17-21, a group of 16 local schoolchildren learned about all these creatures and more, taking advantage of the nature trails and Oyster River that stretch across the 136-acre campus straddling West Haven and Orange.

The camp was the first of two week-long day camps at the West Campus this summer. Both the Critters Camp, designed for children entering the first through third grades, and Wetlands Safari, for fourth- to sixth-graders, were part of the Yale Peabody Museum's summer offerings to get kids interested in nature.

According to Tom Parlapiano, the museum's recently hired West Campus education coordinator, there couldn't have been a better setting to teach kids about the natural world.

"They get really excited," he says. "I don't think there's a better combination than kids and animals. They're so eager to learn, and it's a great opportunity to get them outside."

The different groups of campers went on nature hikes along the river, where they discovered critters in their natural habitat, took field trips to places like the Norwalk Aquarium, West Rock Nature Center and Beardsley Zoo, and learned about animals from guest speakers.

For Nolan, age 8, the most exciting part of Critters Camp was getting up close and personal with a brown bat named Theo, brought in by an animal rehabilitator from Litchfield County. "I learned that some bats are almost extinct, and that you shouldn't touch them with your hands because they can have bad bacteria," he says.

Even seeing the bat feeding on mealworms was part of the fun. "That's the great thing about this age," Parlapiano says. "They're not scared of anything."

This was the first year the Peabody, which has hosted summer camps at the museum for years, expanded out to the West Campus. "It's been very successful for a first-year program," Parlapiano says.

The camps operated out of a building the museum shares with the Bright Horizons child care center that Parlapiano plans on using for additional educational programs. He's currently working with the West Haven Board of Education on a joint program for the school year, and hopes to bring in other neighboring towns in the future.

"We have such great resources here, and I want as many children as possible to be able to take advantage of them," Parlapiano says, adding that he's heard from many parents who enjoy listening to their children recount what they learned during the day over dinner each night.

"It's important to teach them this stuff when they're young" he says. "If you can do that, they really remember what they learn."

— By Suzanne Taylor Muzzin

PRESS CONTACT: Suzanne Taylor Muzzin 203-432-8555