6th grade school field trip!!

[mrnorthshore]

Hi everyone, I have my kids 6th grade class coming out to our house for a tour of our sugarbush(1300 tap on vac). There is 26 kids total. They will be coming out during the maple season and want to see the start to end process of maple syrup.Has anyone ever done this before? Any pointers would be great!! This is our second year sugaring. Thanks Paul

[TerryEspo]

I have never done that before,BUT....

Seems like a great oppourtunity to pick up 25 new clients who will buy your syrup, lol !! Not the kids, but the parents. Go grab some small sample bottles for the darlings to take home, have a sticker with your name and phone number,,,,it will sell itself.:cool:

Maybe this post could go into the Business Side Of Things !! Just kidding.

I think the kids will have a real good time and learn lots. Very nice what your doing for them.

Good Luck.

[wildlifewarrior]

Hi Mr. Northshore
I am a high school teacher, just remember kids like to be hands on/help. If you could save some taps to drill and let them gently tap them in they would love it. If they can carry stuff or something like that it would be a big help. May some visuals like a gallon of water and then a small bottle of syrup to show the ratio, saying 40-1 won't mean too much to 6th graders.
I hope that helps, and most importantly HAVE FUN!

[jmayerl]

And be ready for a lot of questions and stories.

[DonMcJr]

Thats cool! If you can I would at least have a Tap with a Bucket going too and show them the Old School Way too!

[Big_Eddy]

Done it a number of times. I'm on buckets so slightly different, but should give you some ideas.

First - keep them active and keep them entertained. If you can break them into 3-4 groups with a knowledgeable teacher or parent it can go better.

I start with a quick talk about trees and sap and buckets, show them a tap and a brace (remember those) and then we go a walk to the woods. If we have a small group, I take some taps and the brace and we tap a few trees. Kids love to drill the hole, insert the tap, hang the bucket, put on the lid, and then watch the first drops form. Give each kid a turn at something - usually takes 2 for the hole, 1 for the tap and 1 each for the bucket and lid, so with 20 kids we'll tap 4-5 trees.

Then I send them out to collect. 5 gal pail between 3 or 4 and let them go. They'll all run to the closest trees and then further and further and eventually each group will come back lugging a full pail from the furthest tree. Dump into a collection tank in the woods, then walk back to the shack.

Outside the shack we talk about sap and ratios and evaporation. We play the Steam game. I get all the kids to stand still in a group and I tell them they are all sap except for one I pick to be the fire (Who has the reddest coat?) The "fire" walks around and touches any "sap" turning them into "steam" after which they have to dance and run around in circles and leave the group. Keep going until you have one child left and declare them to be "Syrup". May sound silly, but it's a hoot and you'll get giggles galore and all the "steam" kids will be running in circles for ages. Plus they now understand 25-30:1

Then it's into the shack for a look at the evaporator. We show the head tank and the float box and I have a picture on the wall showing the flow of sap through the evaporator from inlet to outlet. I scoop sap from the inlet and show the colour, then syrup from the outlet and show the colour. Everyone get's a dixie cup on the way in and I have a bucket of fresh sap for dipping. When they get to the front of the line, I refill their cup with syrup from the front pan and send them out the door.

On pipeline, the challenge will be how to make it hands on. Kid's won't ooh and aah over shiny stainless and a vacuum pump is less than interesting. If there's a way to show the sap flowing out of the trees, that's what you want.Even if you have to disconnect some trees and let the sap drip out into a pail, it'll show where the sap is coming from and demonstrate the process. I know a lot of bushes that tap 5-10 buckets close to the shack specifically for demonstrations.

At the evaporator - lift the hood if you can and let the steam roll out so they can see the evaporation going on.

Get them involved, get their hands on, they'll have a great time. I won't sell syrup on school tour day, but we will let the kids take a card if they want and get lots of calls from the parents later.

[spencer11]

well im in 10th grade, so its not a huge difference from 6th. but if i didnt know anything about the process i would want to see how to take the first step(tapping) and then you could skip collecting maybe, probably show them the vac setup, and then the R/O and evaporator, then send home some samples with them. candy would be great to send back with them

[mrnorthshore]

Thanks everyone, I like the idea of breaking them up in groups(5-6) and letting them tap some trees. We have 20 more acres left to tap in the next few years and we have some trees right next to the sugar house. We have some of the small maple leaf nips we were going to send home with the kids. Thanks for the great ideas!!

[TerryEspo]

What a great answer BIG EDDY !!

[Four D Acre Farms]

We do the same type of thing with the fifth graders at the local school, It takes a lot of prep but you will have as much fun as the kids. The smaller groups is important to make them all feel apart of it. We work with the teachers and incorperate math lesson into it Sap ratios hours of boiling, taps required to make syrup etc. we use primarily tubing but have buckets for them to see. We will try the collection idea this year thanks for that idea, like BIG Eddy the kids try sap as well as finished syrup and at the end we share maple candy with them so they can have an understanding that maple products are not just for pancakes. We were bummed last year because of a slow flow day but it worked very well, Father ran the evaporator, wife worked with one group, i worked with other group, mother did the prep work with the confections. Wifey took the group to the woods and i worked with them at the sugarhouse. Have drinks and restroom avalible for them. We have kids that show up whos family usually made some they are great for helping you and involving them. again you will have a good time relax and be prepared for questions and sometimesthe off the wall question.

[Big_Eddy]

mrnorthshore. So how did the school visit go? Interested to hear how it went and what you'd suggest to others after doing it.

[mrnorthshore]

We have not started our season here yet, but I will let you know how it went after they are done with there class trip. Some time second week of march.

[Bruce L]

We have done school trips before,as mentioned round up extra knowledgeable help for the day so the kids can go from station to station.We had kids in the sugarhouse watching the sap boil,syrup coming off,kids outside at the holding tanks where the sap was pumped up to the sugarhouse,kids at the receiver station watching the sap coming in,and kids out in the bush watching the sap drip into the buckets.Have sample cups ready for the kids to taste the sap from the buckets,as well as sample cups to taste fresh syrup.Have a little "care" package ready to go home with each child of a small bottle of syrup,maybe some maple candy if you make it.Our biggest hit also was we had snow when they came,so my wife filled pans with snow and we poured jackwax on the snow.Keep the kids thrilled,entertained,you won't have them getting into trouble in the bush and you may get customers from their parents that taste your syrup or want to see the operation for themselves

[mrnorthshore]

Just a quick follow up here. The class had there field trip today, every thing went very good. We started out by letting the kids all drill and tap some maple trees that were not tapped this year. Then we went to the pump house and they all loved seeing the sap come in the releaser. After that, they took a quick look at the vac pump. They were bored by that. Then we showed them the evaporator, and each one of them got a chance to look in and see the sap boiling and tast some of the sap. Then to the bottling room, they got a quick look at the RO and then they got to tast the maple syrup, maple almonds, and maple fudge, Almost forgot each one of them also got a glass of hot chocolate on there way out. This was there favorite part of the tour!! We sent them all home with a 50m maple leaf nip with a hang tag on it and web info. Thanks to every one for all the great advice!! It looks like we are set up for next year for another tour with the soon to be 6th graders.