The Accokeek Foundation, including National Colonial Farm and the Ecosystem Farm, offers educational tours that supplement social studies and environmental education in the classroom. Through interactive experience-based tours, students examine the differences between past and present time, and learn how decisions about our daily lives can impact the environment. These programs help to show the effects of human interaction with the land while encouraging physical activity in an outdoor living classroom.
School tours are scheduled during the Spring (March-June) and Fall (September-December) semesters, Monday through Friday between 10 am and 1 pm. To schedule your school adventure contact the Education department at 301-283-2113 ext. 12
The Accokeek Foundation offers group tour packages designed to fit a variety of interests and group dynamics, including:
Farm Animal Adventures
If you have animal lovers in your family, they’ll be in hog-heaven when they meet our heritage breed sheep, cattle, chickens, turkeys, and yes, hogs. We work hard to preserve breeds of livestock that are in danger of extinction. During this program you’ll learn the ins and outs of how we save the breeds as well as the planet. You’ll also make butter on a colonial homestead, take on the role of a cow in a rotational grazing game, see animals up close and personal, and top off your day with a fun-filled hayride.
Garden Tales & Tea
The gardens at Piscataway Park tell stories. Explore the botanical roots of Maryland’s foundational cultures (Native American, African American, and English) and see how our relationship with heirloom plants has changed, along with our values, through the centuries. Garden experts will guide you through three historic gardens on the National Colonial Farm, telling the tales of our horticultural past and offering tips on organic gardening to preserve the land for the future. Conclude your stroll with a glass of iced tea and homemade baked goods beneath a charming garden canopy.
From Screen to Green: Team Building
Share a day on the farm with your co-workers, harvesting, planting, and enjoying the great outdoors. Your guide will help your group to make meaningful connections to the land, as well as each other, as they lead you through team-building exercises, educational games, and agricultural work. In an environment that couldn’t be more different from the office, we offer your group the opportunity to leave their laptops and dig in the dirt! It’s an invigorating experience that ends with a chance to enjoy the fruits of your labor.
Homesteading: Past to Present
Reconnecting with skills our ancestors used to survive and thrive is not just interesting history; it’s a way to save the planet. Travel back in time to the 18th-century as costumed interpreters teach you gardening, food preservation and cheese-making.