Education

Immerse your students in the history of Penn’s Woods with a visit to the Pennsylvania Lumber Museum!

Woodhick Day School ProgramMay 10, 2024 from 9:30am-1:30pm

Join us to explore the courageous yet reckless spirit of Pennsylvania’s lumbering pass at our Woodhick Day Education Program. Learning stations across the museum will give students the opportunity to watch demonstrations, try hands-on activities and talk with knowledgeable staff to discover what it was like to work in the woods.

Learning Stations Include:

  • Demonstrations by our Blacksmith
  • Try your hand using woodhick tools like a cross-cut saw and auger
  • Watch the Shingle Mill in action
  • Talk to the Camp Cook to discover what it took to feed a logging camp
  • And so much more!

Admissions: K-12th grade: $3 per student. Teachers, chaperones & bus driver are free (so long as they don’t outnumber the students).

Space is limited and reservations are required. Contact Museum Educator Jennifer Haines at (814) 435-2652 or email jenhaines@pa.gov for more information.


Guided Tours

Book a guided tour and have our knowledgeable staff lead your students through the museum. Students will tour the Challenges and Choices exhibit to explore the interactive elements, historic tools, and life-size photographs that tell the story of how people utilized and interacted with Pennsylvania’s forests over time. Tours will also visit the museum’s outdoor exhibits, including our recreated 20th century logging camp, Shay locomotive, and circular sawmill.

Our Museum Educator will work with you to create a tour that is right for your students. Depending on your group’s interests, size, and time constraints, guided tours could include:

  • Demonstrations of the site’s Shingle Mill, Blacksmith, and Mess Hall kitchen
  • Wood You Believe Game
  • Hands-On Activities and Crafts

At your request, the museum will also coordinate with PA DCNR Susquehannock State Forest to schedule an educational forester (subject to DCNR staff availability) to lead your group on a guided hike along our Sustainable Forestry Trail, exploring forest management practices in our local forests.

Admission:

  • K-12th grade: $3 per student. Teachers, chaperones & bus driver are free (so long as they don’t outnumber the students).
  • College & Graduate Students: $5 per student. Professors & chaperones are free (so long as they don’t outnumber the students).
  • Boyscouts/Girlscouts/etc: $5 per scout. Leaders & chaperones are free (so long as they don’t outnumber the scouts).
Group of students going on guided walk through forest
The trailhead for our Sustainable Forestry Trail

Outreach Programs

Can’t visit the museum? Let us come to you! Our hands-on lessons are great for school, library, and community groups. Select from three different programs. Please contact museum for current pricing and availability.

  • What Trees Do for Me (grades Pre-K to 4th)–The important benefits trees provide both the environment and humans are explored with the reading of Why Would Anyone Cut a Tree Down.  A discussion of the book is enhanced by seeing and manipulating objects featured in the Wood You Believe Game to discover how many items in our daily lives involve wood.
  • So You Want to be a Woodhick? (grades 4th-12th)–The lives of the men who worked in the woods of Pennsylvania in the past were hard, rough, and dangerous.  A discussion of their work and living conditions is enhanced by students examining some of the tools used by the men and trying their hand at using a cross-cut saw. (An outdoor venue is needed for program to enable use of cross-cut saw)
  • Raftsmen & Log Drivers (grades 2nd-8th)–Explore the use of water transportation in the PA logging industry with a presentation of the historic tools used and methods employed by lumbermen to move logs.  Students will design their own log stamp and work collaboratively to build a model raft.

To Make Reservations

Contact Museum Educator Jennifer Haines at (814) 435-2652 or email jenhaines@pa.gov to register for Woodhick Day, book a guided tour or schedule an outreach program.