Fernbrook charges $8 for each student for each program. Field trips can be scheduled for any time between 8:30am and 3:00pm, Monday through Friday. Groups are welcome to stay for lunch. There are lots of picnic areas. You must provide your own food and beverages. Please contact us by phone, mail, or email to make reservations for your class or with any questions you may have about our programs.
The programs listed are just a sampling of programs that have been presented. If you have something specific in mind, but don't see it listed, please call us to discuss your idea.
Fernbrook Farms Education Center features classes for students in grades pre-K-6, entitled “Investigations.” Classes may be supplemented with pre-visit materials and school visits by Fernbrook Instructors.
Fernbrook Investigations
Investigations may lead students to our two ponds or intersecting creeks. Students may visit our animals barns where they'll find sheep, pigs, chickens, ducks, and cattle. They may also explore our two-acre discovery garden picking vegetables and berries that are in season or walk through our greenhouses, flower gardens or butterfly house.
Forest Ecology and Management
Students take a guided walk in the forest to observe the natural forest community: living and non-living, and the relationships within it.
Wetlands Study: Aquatic Plants and Animals
Pond dipping and exploration reveal the organisms that thrive in a wetland. Students discuss the importance of a wetland in the world and in their own lives.
Food Comes from the Farm, not the Supermarket
This class brings students to food producing areas on the farm to investigate growing practices and plant anatomy. A taste of what's in season is always a good ending to a class.
Winter Ecology
Animals and plants in New Jersey cope with the cold weather in peculiar ways. Together we look at how they do it.
Butterflies and Bull Frongs: A Study of Metamorphosis
Our ponds, streams, forests, and fields all carry organizisms in various stages of metamorphosis. Students collect, identify, and discuss metamorphosis in insects and amphibians.
Fresh Threads: The Origins of Fibers
The sources and processing of wool and cotton are explored in this investigation. Students work to turn raw wool and cotton into usable fibers.
Orienteering
After extensive map and compass instruction, students follow an orienteering course that takes them through the farm.
Soil Cycle: Fungus, Bacteria and Inverebrates (Earth Worms!)
The world beneath our feet is closely examined in this investigation, exposing the decomposers that keep our soil clean and healthly.
Farming and Land Uses
Students in this investigation will study land uses in New Jersey from vegetable production to forestry practices and the right to farm.