Holiday Break Programming
Holiday Break Online Programming Schedule
Museum of the Earth and Cayuga Nature Center will be providing a week long series of virtual events during holiday break this year in an effort to provide fun, alternative programming for families who are staying home for the holidays.
This week long programming will be from December 26–31. Each day, a variety of live and pre-recorded events will be available to anyone through our social media and website platforms. Events take place between the hours of 9 am and 8 pm.
While our programs are online this week, the Museum of the Earth will be open extra days to accommodate visitors who are on break from school. Our updated hours are from December 26-30. We encourage all to check out our virtual programs and then head to the Museum to check out our exhibits in person. Purchase your ticket here.
See our schedule of events below and make sure to follow us on Facebook & Instagram to get reminders for events!
Saturday, December 26
9 am: Hiking at CNC & Smith Woods | Pre-recorded
No matter what the weather is like, it’s never a bad day to go for a hike! Join our educator Katie as she prepares for a hike on CNC’s trails. She’ll review hiking preparedness, make some hiking suggestions for your family, and share how she keeps hikes interesting for younger hikers.
12 pm: Dancing with Dinos! | Pre-recorded
Learn how to move with the dinosaurs in these short videos! Each video will feature a different dinosaur. Ages 2-10.
1 pm: 3D Fossil Tile: Day 1 | Pre-recorded
Download the pdf instructions here or pick them up at the Museum. To visit the “Sands of Time” exhibit from the comfort of your couch, download the izi.travel app. This activity will be in three episodes. If you miss one you can find it in our Youtube channel. Episode 1 will walk you through the planning and design of your tile using paper clay.
4 pm: In the Greenhouse: Seeing (Infra)Red | Pre-recorded
Everything emits energy! Hot objects like the Sun emit visible light, while cool objects like the Earth emit long-wavelength infrared energy. Energy of different wavelengths interacts differently objects in the environment: Gases in the atmosphere can absorb or transmit energy, depending on its wavelength. Absorbed energy warms the atmosphere.
7 pm: Bedtime Stories | Pre-recorded
Grab your stuffy, a blanket and get comfy as we read a story about an animal that you can come and visit at the Nature Center.
Sunday, December 27
11 am: Dancing with Dinos! | Pre-recorded
Learn how to move with the dinosaurs in these short videos! Each video will feature a different dinosaur. Ages 2-10.
12 pm: The Animal Lunch Dance | Pre-recorded
Come dance along with Nutmeg the chipmunk and all our animals at the Cayuga Nature Center to a Casper Babypants song called "The Animal Lunch". Be sure to share with us your dance moves too!
1 pm: Story Time—Dinosaur Lady: The Daring Discoveries of Mary Anning, the First Paleontologist | Live Event
Come listen to the story about the discoveries of Mary Anning! A daring young woman who loved to explore and is credited with the first discovery of marine reptile fossils. Ages 4-10
4 pm: In the Greenhouse: The Long & Short of Absorption & Transmission | Pre-recorded
Different forms of light – or radiant energy – are characterized by their wavelength. To use a familiar example, think about the colors of the rainbow: When visible light is broken into the color components that make up the rainbow, each color represents a different wavelength.
8 pm: Ice Age Story Time | Pre-recorded
Snuggle in and join Educator Emily for Ice Age Storytime, appropriate for ages three and up. As the days grow shorter and the nights colder, hunker down like a caveperson and listen to a couple of stories while learning about animals that lived thousands of years ago, when glaciers covered New York. We'll be reading "How to Wash a Woolly Mammoth" and "This Orq. He Cave Boy" and looking at real ice age specimens. Download our Ice and Snowflake Activity book to learn more!
Monday, December 28
9 am: Bird Watching with Katie | Pre-recorded
Join educator Katie in CNC’s bird nook to learn about winter bird watching, what birds you might see at your feeders, and where to share your observations!
1 pm: 3D Fossil Tile: Day 2 | Pre-recorded
Download the pdf instructions here or pick them up at the Museum. To visit the “Sands of Time” exhibit from the comfort of your couch, download the izi.travel app. This activity will be in three episodes. If you miss one you can find it in our Youtube channel. Episode 2 will involve using paper clay make your tile 3D by molding the clay in different areas on your tile.
4 pm: In the Greenhouse: Feel the Heat Capacity | Pre-recorded
The heat capacity of a substance is the amount of heat required to raise the temperature by one degree. The heat capacity of water determines the behavior of all sorts of phenomena in water bodies as large as the ocean and as small as a water balloon.
7 pm: Bedtime Stories | Pre-recorded
Grab your stuffy, a blanket and get comfy as we read a story about an animal that you can come and visit at the Nature Center.
Tuesday, December 29
11 am: Dancing with Dinos! | Pre-recorded
Learn how to move with the dinosaurs in these short videos! Each video will feature a different dinosaur. Ages 2-10.
12 pm: The Animal Lunch Dance | Pre-recorded
Come dance along with Nutmeg the chipmunk and all our animals at the Cayuga Nature Center to a Casper Babypants song called "The Animal Lunch". Be sure to share with us your dance moves too!
1 pm: Weird Winter Weather | Live on Zoom (register here or below)
How is Central New York's weather changing, and what is projected to happen in the future? How are the plants and animals around us affected? And what does this have to do with gingerbread? Learn about all this and how you can participate in a citizen science project to help monitor and fill in gaps in weather observations
4 pm: In the Greenhouse: Sunlight Stored in Soil | Pre-recorded
Energy from the Sun greatly exceeds every other energy source available to Earth: Incoming solar energy diffuses from the surface downward, creating a temperature gradient that we can measure. An easily accessible place to measure & examine the subsurface temperature gradient is in soil! Measuring these data helps us to understand the flux of energy through the subsurface, and to explore how natural and human communities can take advantage of this energy source.
8 pm: Ice Age Story Time | Pre-recorded
Snuggle in and join Educator Emily for Ice Age Storytime, appropriate for ages three and up. As the days grow shorter and the nights colder, hunker down like a caveperson and listen to a couple of stories while learning about animals that lived thousands of years ago, when glaciers covered New York. We'll be reading "How to Wash a Woolly Mammoth" and "This Orq. He Cave Boy" and looking at real ice age specimens. Download our Ice and Snowflake Activity book to learn more!
Wednesday, December 30
9 am: Winter Tree ID Tips | Pre-recorded
Educator Katie will share her favorite winter tree ID tips for beginners, focusing on tree bark.
11 am: Dancing with Dinos! | Pre-recorded
Learn how to move with the dinosaurs in these short videos! Each video will feature a different dinosaur. Ages 2-10.
1 pm: 3D Fossil Tile: Day 3 | Pre-recorded
Download the pdf instructions hereor pick them up at the Museum. To visit the “Sands of Time” exhibit from the comfort of your couch, download the izi.travel app. This activity will be in three episodes. If you miss one you can find it in our Youtube channel. Episode 3 discusses how to paint and finish your tile.
4 pm: In the Greenhouse: Trees from Thin Air | Pre-recorded
Trees remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere – they are quite literally created from thin air! Through photosynthesis, trees combine carbon dioxide and water to create the glucose and other organic molecules that form the mass of a tree. The tree’s mass is related to its height and diameter, so we can make a very simple measurement to find the mass of a tree. Join climate educator Alex and learn how to measure the diameter of a tree and to calculate both its mass, and the mass of carbon dioxide that a tree removes from the atmosphere and stores as biomass.
7 pm: Bedtime Stories | Pre-recorded
Grab your stuffy, a blanket and get comfy as we read a story about an animal that you can come and visit at the Nature Center.
Thursday, December 31
11 am: Dancing with Dinos! | Pre-recorded
Learn how to move with the dinosaurs in these short videos! Each video will feature a different dinosaur. Ages 2-10.
12 pm: The Animal Lunch Dance | Pre-recorded
Come dance along with Nutmeg the chipmunk and all our animals at the Cayuga Nature Center to a Casper Babypants song called "The Animal Lunch". Be sure to share with us your dance moves too!
4 pm: In the Greenhouse: Respiration: Reuse, Recycle | Pre-recorded
Natural systems recycle everything! In the global carbon cycle, photosynthesis removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and turns it into biomass, while respiration and decay break down biomass and return the CO2 to the atmosphere. Natural systems also run in balance – or steady state – where inputs and outputs are equal. In this video we explore the flip side of photosynthesis; we will use a CO2 probe to quantify the rate of respiration in a small patch of soil and gain hands-on experience with quantifying carbon fluxes.