FREE places to visit with your teenager - organized by location
This year, your students will be exploring earth science and astronomy which will include fossils, erosion, glaciers, earthquakes and our planet’s neighborhood in the sky. Why not visit some free places with your middle-schooler so they can share what they are learning about?
Your Own Backyard
Current Night Sky
Go outside on a clear night and look into the sky. For a list of current celestial events visit http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/pao/skyreport/
North Shore, Massachusetts
SEISMOGRAPH, Ipswich Public Library, 2nd Floor, Ipswich, MA
Installed in the summer of 2012, the Ipswich Library is the second library in New England to be part of Boston College Educational Seismology Project, check out this link to see the data being recorded on the Ipswich Public Library seismograph, http://bcespseisdisplays.wordpress.com/4-2/
Agassiz Rock, School Street, Manchester-by-the-Sea, MA
Visit a local erratic, a boulder that was moved miles by last glacier. More information at http://www.thetrustees.org/
Hours: Year-round, daily, sunrise to sunset
Admission Fee: Free
Greater Boston, Massachusetts
BLUE HILL OBSERVATORY, Milton, MA
The Blue Hill Observatory is home of the oldest continuous climate record in the nation. Updated
information can be found at http://bluehill.org/observatory/join-bho/
Hours: Year-round, weekends 10 am – 4 pm
Admission Fee: $4 per person
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics events for the Public, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge sponsors a variety of free programs for the public. Updated information at http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/events/public_events.html or call (617) 495-7461 to register
Harvard Museum of Natural History, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Hours: Free on Sundays 9 am-noon and Wednesday evenings 3- 5 pm
Admission Fee: Free at times listed above, open during other hours but admission fee is charged
WESTON OBSERVATORY, Boston College, Weston, MA
Staff guided or self-guided tours of the Weston Observatory, research laboratory that installed seismograph in Ipswich Public Library. This observatory is part of the Department of Earth& Environmental Sciences at Boston College.
Hours: M-F, 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m., during summer they close at 3:00 on Fridays
Admission Fee: Free
Pioneer Valley, central Massachusetts
Dinosaur Footprints, Route 5, Holyoke, MA
Just over 100 miles from Cape Ann, herds of dinosaurs journeyed down the Connecticut River Valley; see the trace fossils of the footprints they left behind. For more information please visit http://www.thetrustees.org/
Hours: April 1 thru November 30, daily, sunrise to sunset
Admission Fee: Free
Amherst College Museum of Natural History, Amherst College Campus, Amherst, MA
Visit large collection of dinosaur fossils from Connecticut River Valley, for more information visit https://www.amherst.edu/museums/naturalhistory
Hours: Open Tuesday-Sunday 11-4 pm and Thursdays 6-10 pm
Admission Fee: Free
