Events

Join us for a bird hike on the trails around the Learning Center. Regardless of experience levels, we will all work together to discover birds who are spending their winter around Merry Lea. After the hike, we’ll warm up inside with continental breakfast items while we submit our observations to the Great Backyard Bird Count. Please dress to be outside for up to 1-1.5 hours on uneven trails. There will be some binoculars available to borrow if you don’t have your own. This event is designed for adults (18+).

Join us to participate in the Great Backyard Bird Count, a worldwide project to explore what birds are nearby! We will practice using binoculars and start learning how to recognize birds at our bird feeders. We will also spend time on trails near the Learning Center to find birds and clues that birds are around. Our observations will be contributed to the Great Backyard Bird Count. Come dressed to be outside on unpaved trails for at least an hour. Bring binoculars or borrow some of ours. All experience levels are welcome! This event is specifically for adults bringing children ages 6+.

Join Merry Lea for a two-day immersion into nature-based education. At the core of this professional development opportunity there will be multiple site visits to observe preschool and elementary students engaging with nature. Ask educators about their pedagogy, and experience a variety of educational styles through the eyes of many passionate educators integrating the outdoors into their curriculum.

We’re going to search for treasure! The treasures include tracks, nests, and signs of animals eating. We’ll make our own track stories after reading In the Snow: Who’s Been Here? By Lindsay Barrett George. What all will we discover together?

The IMN program features various nature topics for folks to discover Indiana's outdoor world through hands-on activities, outdoor investigations, volunteering and learning from local experts across different career paths, interests and organizations.

Interested in connecting with fellow educators? The Early Childhood Hoosiers Outdoors (ECHO) Network is designed to support education practitioners wanting to get students into outdoor learning settings. We meet on the second Monday of odd months at 4 pm by zoom.

Native shrubs are an integral part of our natural areas providing food, nesting space, and cover for wildlife. They can also add interesting structural diversity, texture and color to a native planting area. Learn about native alternatives that work well in any location and how you can propagate your own shrubs from cuttings. Take your native gardening to the next level by learning how to propagate your own native shrubs.

Come take a hike with the family to explore, and investigate different soils at the Merry Lea Farmstead. We will then use those soils to create a mud mixture to create a natural painting! Afterwards, we will be deciding which soil creates the best mud - bracket style!

Squish!  Let’s go on A Wetland Walk (By: Nancy Luenn)- will it be frozen, muddy, wet, or somewhere in between?  We will explore along the edge of the wetland to discover what is living and growing there in the early spring. Also be sure to wear clothing appropriate for the weather - we will be in damp conditions the whole program time and be sure to wear boots or other footwear that will get wet and muddy. 

Wade through the waters of a wetland to discover what organisms live in our wetlands! Investigate how wetlands are a special ecosystem for many different types of plants and animals by using our wetland lab to identify macroinvertebrates. Explore the ways wetlands provide a home for many organisms and how they benefit humans too.