Upper Elementary students visited Howell Living Farm to learn about Maple Sugaring. They learned to identify and tap a sugar maple, and helped collect the sap. They visited the sugar shack where the sap is boiled down into syrup and made pancakes with Howell Farm whole wheat flour and topped off with Howell Farm maple syrup! The students also took turns splitting wood to fuel the transformation of sap to syrup.
Program Objectives:
- What is sap and why trees are only tapped in late winter/early spring
- How evaporation turns sap into maple syrup or maple sugar
- Why Sugar Maples make the best sap for syrup
- How people use natural resources to meet their needs
Essential Questions:
- How can you identify trees without looking at the leaves?
- What is sap made from and why is it in the tree?
- How does boiling turn maple sap into maple syrup?
- How does a wedge help you split firewood?
- Did farmers in 1900 produce everything they used in their kitchen or did they go to a store?
–More information on The Howell Living History Farm can be found here.
