Kestrel Educational Adventures

09/29/2026

Check out our new offering: Afterschool multi age nature club meeting in Beverly on Tuesday afternoons:

09/29/2026

News from the Wild -

Dates and Times: Tuesdays 3:30-4:30pm October 6th to November 24th Meeting Place: We will be meeting at a designated site in Beverly Farms. We hope to meet at Glen Urquhart School and we are waiting for final approval from school admin.

09/29/2026

Conservation Club begins this week on Wednesday. There are still some spots left for middle and early high schoolers, and it's grant funded so costs only $50 for the whole semester. We explore woods and wetlands, track and camera trap wildlife, identify trees, make cool stuff, and help conserve the places we love. This club is based on nature, friendship, and kids leading the way. Sign up today!

09/15/2026

Kestrel Educational Adventures is a human-powered organization.

Kestrel is a human-powered organization. We believe that the use of generative AI is overly resource intensive. It risks finding and spreading misinformation and leaking our own information and methods to those who could misuse them. It also erodes skill, sensory awareness, imagination, human connec...

09/15/2026

Our Conservation Club for teens and tween starts next week, and there is still time to sign up. Explore the woodlands, track and study wildlife and plants, and create a project that will help protect them. Previous years' clubs have raised rare salamanders and turtles, mapped out mammal species, certified vernal pools, and even gone to City Hall to advocate successfully for wetlands protection. This club is grant funded so we charge only a small fee to participate. Beware, though, of all our programs, this one is statistically most likely to result in kids growing up to work for Kestrel or be recruited to our Board of Directors!

09/08/2026

Conservation Club Registration is open for fall 2026! This grant funded club gets kids out exploring nature and helping wildlife every Wednesday afternoon. Link to registration in the comments.

08/26/2026

TOMORROW! A free talk by the author who inspired much of Kestrel's teaching approach; David Sobel, with our Founder/ Director serving on the discussion panel. Kestrel has an entire section on our shelves for Sobel's books, and they are required reading during staff trainings. He teaches that instead of teaching climate disaster to students indoors through books and simulations, we should take students outdoors and have them conducting project work that engages them directly in their community and their local environment. He has worked throughout his career to train educators to value students' connection to the wild, their own ideas, and to nurture a sense of care. His books discuss the value of fort building, map making, and moving things, holding things, and playing in the wild.

This event is free, but please pre-register, and we will see you there!

08/20/2026

Kestrel Founder Jessica Kagle will be on the panel for this event featuring a talk by Kestrel's leading inspiration for our teaching methods, occasional mentor, and all around nature-connected PBL superhero, David Sobel.

The talk and discussion are free, but you need to pre-register.

Please come and join us!

08/19/2026

News from the Wild -

08/15/2026

On Deer Day, our final camp day for the summer, we had to spend part of the morning finishing our otter activities. Transitioning to deer, we did our transformation spell and our fawn song. Then we traveled back to Otter Island, where we checked our camera and found the otters had come to call. Along the way, we found there were many deer prints and deer s**t. We followed a deer trail all the way to a possible coyote den. The "fawn in the forest" game was immensely popular- It involves dressing up a little fawn and having its family hide it in the forest. Then, when the finders come to the area, the deer family spreads out, eating leaves and bark and leading the humans away from the fawn. They have to try to find it anyway. We ended the week with making some animal track guides to take home!