Students Visit Stratford Ecological Center

On March 3, TRECA Digital Academy Students visited the Stratford Ecological Center in Delaware, OH. 

Families put on their rain gear and joined us for a very rainy maple sugar tour! Stratford Ecological Center is a 236-acre certified organic working farm. Students were split into groups for our visit and were given these instructions during their tour: Take care of something living, try something new, and have fun! Students toured the barns where they saw cows, sheep, goats, llamas, rabbits, and pigs before taking a half-mile hike out to the sugar shack. On the tour through the sugar bush, students learned how to find and tap maple trees. In the sugar shack, they learned about the evaporation process used to turn maple sap into maple syrup. Sap is made up of mostly water and sugar. By slowly evaporating the water, the sap becomes thicker from the higher concentration of sugar. Students were able to taste fresh sap and fresh maple syrup - it was delicious! Despite the rainy weather, this was a great tour and the students were very engaged!