Park Ave students tap for sap as part of district-wide syrup project

March is tree tapping season here in Warwick, and students across Warwick Valley Central School District are joining in. Today at Park Avenue Elementary, fourth grade classes are taking part in the Maple Syrup Project under the guidance of Warwick Valley’s agricultural consultant, retired WV agriculture teacher Nancy Colgan.

For the last two weeks, the students have been harvesting sap every Tuesday and Friday, carefully measuring each batch to test their hypotheses about which tree outside the school would produce the most sap. Now, as they measure every batch they gather, they get closer to discovering if their predictions were correct.

During today’s harvest, students collected their biggest yield yet, with some trees producing over seven quarts. Their buckets were so full, they needed two students to carry it! According to Ms. Colgan, it takes 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup.

In this district-wide effort, Warwick Valley high school students from Ms. Michelle Ehlers’ class will handle the boiling process, evaporating the water to produce a sweet syrup for several classes to sample later this spring. During this taste test, students will be comparing the fresh,
homemade syrup to both commercial maple syrups and corn syrup to note differences in taste, color and consistency.

With buckets filling up and excitement flowing, students are discovering just how sweet hands-on learning can be.