Many of Shaver’s Creek’s public programs and festivals are designed to offer Penn State students a hands-on, for-credit experience interpreting natural and/or cultural history topics to families. Our two festival courses dovetail with the two major festivals that Shaver’s Creek hosts every year — the Maple Harvest Festival and the Fall Harvest Festival featuring the Children’s Halloween trail — and allow students to apply their course learning directly to a real-world event that reaches literally thousands of adults and children.
Interpreting Festivals to the Public
RPTM 297B — Interpreting Halloween to Children
2 credits
Learn to interpret the natural origins of Halloween to visitors attending the annual Shaver’s Creek Fall Harvest Festival featuring the Children’s Halloween Trail — an interactive family event (in late October). Download the fall 2012 course syllabus HERE.
RPTM 297G — Interpreting Maple Sugaring to Families
2 credits
Learn the process of maple sugaring and how to interpret this natural history process to the general public through an interactive, community-based festival — the Maple Harvest Festival (in late March).
This experiential course will explore:
- how to identify and tap sugar maple trees
- historical and modern methods of boiling sap into maple syrup
- interpretive methods for teaching the general public the art of maple sugaring at the Maple Harvest Festival in late March
- outdoor, experiential, and team teaching techniques
