For Budding Biologists

A book talk for future biologists ages 6 and up will be held Saturday at 11 a.m. at the Children’s Museum of the East End in Bridgehampton. Sarah B. Pomeroy, a professor of classics, will share her illustrated book about Meria Sibylla Merian, a natural historian and artist who found and painted the flora and fauna of Indonesia in the 17th century. A Spanish translation of the reading will also be included, as well as an exhibition of reproductions of Ms. Merian’s work, and a book signing. The event is co-sponsored by the South Fork Natural History Museum and will include coffee and refreshments.

Movies, Duct Tape, Seeds

A screening of Disney Pixar’s “Brave” is scheduled for tomorrow at 2 p.m. at the Amagansett Library. Free snacks and family togetherness are in store while children watch this exciting adventure of heroism and true bravery.

Children ages 9 to 12 can stop by on Saturday at 4 p.m. to make their own duct tape zipper pouch.

A special story time for 3 and 4-year-olds is planned for Wednesday from 3 to 4 p.m. Youngsters will get to plant seeds and sing songs after listening to a story.

Toes, Reptiles, Butterflies, Oh My!

Tomorrow from 2 to 3 p.m. at the East Hampton Library, kids ages 4 and up will have the chance to learn about being environmentally conscious and make their own reusable tote bag decorated with recycled items such as beads, buttons, and bottle caps.

Kindergartners through sixth graders can stop by Tuesday at 4 p.m. to meet some of the East End’s native reptiles and amphibians. Kids will learn about their habitats and how the creatures find food to survive the winter.

High schoolers can earn community service hours on Tuesday between 4 and 5 p.m. by designing a do-it-yourself project for the library’s young adult room.

A butterfly-theme story time and craft activity will be held Wednesday from 4 to 5 p.m. for kids 4 to 6.

Sixth through eighth graders can design colorful braided bracelets made from old T-shirts next Thursday from 4 to 5 p.m. Materials will be provided.

Compiling the ideal college list will be the subject of a discussion for high school students and their parents or guardians next Thursday at 6 p.m. Julie Raynor Gross, a college admissions expert, will lead the presentation and a question-and-answer session will follow on topics such as college visits, identifying which colleges are realistic and those which might be a stretch, and how to make a decision on choosing which college to attend. Registration is required.

Tomorrow from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m., kids ages 7 and up can construct circuits that will light up, sound off, and power an accessory. This program incorporates science, technology, engineering, and math, making the science behind electronics easy and fun to learn.

Advance registration is requested for all programs. 

Makers in Sag 

A middle school makers club will kick off Saturday at 2 p.m. at the John Jermain Memorial Library in Sag Harbor. Every Saturday in April, students in sixth through eighth grades can engage in hands-on creative art and technology projects. This month, the library says, kids will use Makey Makey invention kits to “build a keyboard out of bananas and connect other everyday objects to computer programs.” 

Advance registration is required.

Still Life in Montauk

Children in kindergarten and up can stop by the Montauk Library on Saturday at 2 p.m. to learn about a time when women were not supposed to be artists. Participants will celebrate the bold women who broke that barrier and became some of the most famous artists today. Then, they can create their own colorful still-life painting to take home. Registration is required as space is limited.

SoFo’s Shark Story

Children ages 6 and up will get an introduction to South Fork Natural History Museum’s shark research and education program on Saturday at 1 p.m. 

Greg Metzger, the chief field coordinator of the program, and Tobey Curtis, the lead scientist and fisheries manager at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, will educate children and adults about SoFo’s new shark science endeavor, launched in January, a collaboration of scientists, educators, and fishermen for the conservation and sustainability of several shark species that inhabit nearby waters.

Kids Community Peace Chorus

Third to sixth graders who would like to get together, sing, talk, write songs, and eat pizza are invited to join a new kids community peace chorus beginning Thursday, April 19, from 5:30 to 7 p.m.

The peace chorus will be led by Nancy Remkus, a retired teacher from the Sag Harbor Elementary School and a registered music therapist, in an effort to help kids express their feelings through music and for them to spread peaceful messages through song.

Parents of children interested in participating have been asked to contact Ms. Remkus at 631-725-3938 or by email at [email protected]. The first meeting will be held at the Unitarian Universalist Meetinghouse of the South Fork, 977 Bridgehampton-Sag Harbor Turnpike. The event is nondenominational.

I-Tri, a nonprofit program that promotes leadership and life skills for girls through encouragement and athletics, will host its fourth annual empowering and mentoring day on April 14, a Saturday.

Theresa Roden, the founder and executive director of I-Tri, is looking for women who have achieved success in their adult lives, and overcome challenges along the way, to participate in the event by serving as speakers and mentors to the approximately 100 middle school girls enrolled in the program.

The mentoring day will be held at the East Hampton Middle School from 10 a.m. to 2:45 p.m., and a keynote address will be given by Toni Ross, an artist, entrepreneur, and business leader here.

Following the keynote, mentors and girls will be directed to classrooms where small groups will participate in question-and-answer dialogues about career paths and life choices. Following two rounds of these discussion panels, mentors and I-Tri girls will then meet in the cafeteria for lunch and an opportunity to network.

Last year, 45 women served as mentors, according to Ms. Roden, including doctors, artists, academics, farmers, entrepreneurs, and yoga instructors. 

Those interested in mentoring on April 14 have been asked to call Ms. Roden at 631-902-3731 or visit itrigirls.org.

Tenzin Yignyen, a Tibetan Buddhist monk, head shaven and crimson robe-clad, was telling a story last week at the Ross School’s lower school in Bridgehampton: “I read the other day on Snapchat. . . .”

Wait, what? Snapchat?

“Oh yes,” he said in a lilting Indian accent. “Why not? Just because we’re Buddhist monks doesn’t mean we have to shun technology.”

Science and Buddhism are not opposed or contradictory, and can be combined and mutually compatible, explained the monk, between classes of fifth and sixth graders filing in and out of the school’s art room. Just like the sand mandala of compassion he was busy constructing, it’s simply a matter of balance.

Mr. Yignyen, or Lama Tenzin as he is known, signifying the honorific title bestowed upon him as a teacher of Tibetan Buddhism, has been visiting the Ross School for the last 14 years, alternating between the lower campus and the upper campus in East Hampton. He spends a week talking to students and constructing the intricate sand patterns within a mandala, the Sanskrit word for circle. Millions of grains of colored sand are sprinkled carefully on a flat surface over the course of five days, following precise and ancient instructions passed down over thousands of years. The creation of this mandala is intended to help the viewer generate boundless compassion for all beings.

“It’s beautiful because there’s a meaning behind it,” said Alex Froehlich, a fifth grader at Ross. “It’s not just art.” 

Sienna Galesi-Grant, a sixth grader, said she has been taught by Mr. Tenzin since the age of 2. “I find it very inspiring, and it definitely gives me a new outlook each year.”

When Mr. Yignyen was 2 — he does not know the year he was born, as he said Tibetans of his generation don’t consider a birth date important — the Chinese People’s Liberation Army began its invasion of Tibet, promising the mostly poor and unmodernized country social reforms and religious freedom, which it ultimately failed to deliver.

Sometime in the mid-1950s, fearing persecution as Buddhists, Mr. Yignyen’s family fled to Dharamshala, in northern India, where the venerable Dalai Lama also relocated and positioned himself as the head of state and spiritual leader of the Tibetan government in exile.

At age 11, Mr. Yignyen joined the Namgyal Namgyal Monastery, the Dalai Lama’s personal monastery in Dharamshala, where, as part of his education, he learned the art of creating mandalas. In 1995, he was selected to teach at the monastery’s North American seat in Ithaca, N.Y., and he’s now a professor of Tibetan Buddhist studies at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, N.Y. He has never returned to Tibet, he said, because, despite trying twice, the Chinese government denied him a visa.

He visits approximately 10 to 12 schools a year, and has been to about 150 of them over the years, as well as various organizations — “The only place I haven’t taught is the White House!” — constructing mandalas, giving talks to parents and children, meditating with students, and generally sharing his belief that the American education system has it all wrong, placing far too much importance on producing smarter human beings.

“But what about good human beings?” he asked. “We have no subjects to teach us how to be better people, so mentally we are all disturbed.”

Indeed, the state of the country’s mental health, especially among its youth, is a timely topic. Educators across America struggle to understand the recent spate of school shootings, all too often at the hands of young people. In Springs, Debra Winter, the school district’s superintendent, is pushing for increased funding from the state to expand mental health programs at the school, for students and teachers. In East Hampton, the high school has instituted a number of classes, from meditation to yoga, in an attempt to get teenagers to connect to their inner selves rather than simply their smartphones.

At Ross, Mr. Yignyen takes every opportunity to demonstrate the relationship of all living things within the environment. Children are encouraged to consider the consequences of their actions and to be aware of the moment. With the construction of the mandala, they are also taught the central tenet of Buddhism, that everything is impermanent. 

“Are you sad when you dismantle the mandala?” asked a fifth grader. 

“At first I was,” Mr. Yignyen replied. “But then I learned the importance of letting go, because nothing lasts forever. So, we have to enjoy the moment.” He gave an example of going to a great restaurant. “You can’t stay there forever because it was so good. But you can go back and enjoy another time.”

The monk shares these basic principles, which he calls “secular ethics,” in simplistic, almost childlike terms. To portray him out of context might make him appear naive and unworldly. But after watching him interact with children and adults, one can recognize that his way of being could be an antidote to our overpoliticized and intellectualized world by offering adults and children the space to investigate happiness, empathy, altruism, and compassion.

“Compassion isn’t like a history subject. You can’t just read about it and become compassionate. You have to practice it over and over again,” he told parents and children during a community talk last Thursday.

“Don’t ask for more than you deserve,” he advised a group of sixth graders. “It will ruin your life.” A lesson that seems worthy, if not a touch incongruous, in the Hamptons.

“You mean like if you win the lottery,” a young boy asked, “you should give away a lot of it to charity?”

Things are less simplistic on the upper campus, where classes are attended by 7th through 12th graders, the vast majority of them Chinese boarding students.

“I should be the one who is angry,” Mr. Yignyen said when asked if he detects resentment from the Chinese students, raised with certain prejudices toward Tibetans. “I was the one who had to leave my country.” And yet, he acknowledged, some students seem less receptive to his presence, though in time they come to embrace him. 

Mostly, though, he is loved. “Having Lama Tenzin come to Ross is a very special thing for me,” said Izzy, an eighth grader who has heard him speak there over the course of the last 12 years. “We all sometimes get so caught up in our petty problems that we forget to enjoy the little things. By having him speak to everyone it really helps us appreciate things more.”

At the mandala-dismantling ceremony on Long Beach in Noyac on Friday, sixth graders sat on the sand as Mr. Yignyen performed a ritual of prayers punctuated occasionally by a soft ringing of bells. The students seemed unusually still and contemplative, pondering, one hopes, those questions about life that aren’t Googleable.

On Friday, approximately 20 first graders at the John M. Marshall Elementary School bundled up and filed outside during their lunch break, packed lunches in hand, to greet Annie, the pony. 

While the children munched on their food, Joanna Jimenez, a parent of two girls at the school, spoke to them about her life as an owner of Jimenez Jumpers, the stable she runs with her husband in Bridgehampton. Annie stood patiently by her side, and even more patiently when the kids took turns petting her.

The event, which was optional, was part of the school’s Brown Bag enrichment series, designed, according to Beth Doyle, the principal, to offer kids an alternative to the 40-minute lunch and recess period, which in the winter months often means sitting in classrooms for more sedentary free-time activities.

“It’s been really successful so far,” said Ms. Doyle, explaining that they limit each guest speaker’s audience to 25 kids from a specific grade. So far, they have had visits from an owner of a virtual reality school, who spoke to fifth graders, and a yoga practitioner, who discussed breathing techniques utilized by stage performers and public speakers.

At the end of each presentation, the children are asked to fill out a survey, which Ms. Doyle said has resulted in positive feedback.

The idea of offering students bite-sized enrichment options during lunchtime occurred to Ms. Doyle and Russell Morgan, the assistant principal, when they participated in a shadow day last year, following students from morning through the afternoon to get firsthand knowledge of how they really spend their time and to identify areas that need improvement.

“One of the things we found,” said Ms. Doyle, “was that kids were spending way too much time just sitting in classrooms, especially in the winter.” She learned about a similar Brown Bag enrichment program at another Long Island school, and decided to implement a variation in East Hampton.

Currently, the school brings in guest speakers on intermittent Fridays, but the hope is that it will catch on and more parents will offer to come and speak with the children.

“It’s just a nice way to use that time in the school day for something fun and to bring the community into the school,” said the principal.

On Friday, one student received a surprise bonus: Ben Krupinski, the owner of the Krupinksi building company in East Hampton, donated a scholarship to Ms. Jimenez’s summer riding camp, valued at $500.

Spring Into Art 

For the April school break, there’s something to do almost every day at the East Hampton Library. Tomorrow at 2 p.m., children ages 4 and up can draw inspiration from springtime colors to create an outdoor scene using tissue paper collage.

“The Incredibles,” Pixar’s animated story about a family of superheroes who are forced to hide their powers and live a quiet suburban life, will be screened on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. On Monday at 1 p.m., kids can watch “Coco,” which follows the story of a 12-year-old boy accidentally transported to the land of the dead; his deceased musician great-great-grandfather helps him return to his family among the living. Both movies are suitable for all ages.

On Tuesday from 2 to 3 p.m., kids ages 4 and up can make their own buffed copper relief sculpture as well as a frame in which to display their finished work. The craft on Wednesday at the same time is a soft-sculpture felt flower pillow. 

“Ferdinand,” the movie, will be screened next Thursday at 2 p.m. All ages can enjoy this story of a peace-loving bull who would rather smell flowers than fight in bullfights.

Kids 4 and up can help the environment on Friday, April 6, from 2 to 3 p.m. by decorating tote bags with recycled items such as beads, buttons, and bottle caps and then reusing them again and again. 

April Break Fun

The East Hampton Town Parks and Recreation Department will offer a free April break recreation program for students in kindergarten through sixth grade in Montauk and East Hampton.

Kids can burn off some energy, draw, or do crafts Monday through Wednesday from 9 a.m. to noon at the John M. Marshall Elementary School and Monday through next Thursday during the same hours at the Montauk School. Participants can register at the schools each morning.

At the Y.M.C.A.-East Hampton RECenter an April break camp will run from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, April 6. The cost is $32 per day with an extended day option, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., for $42. Children must register in advance, as space is limited. 

On the Loose at BookHampton

Peter Hermann, an actor and the author of the children’s book “If the S in Moose Comes Loose,” will be at BookHampton in East Hampton on Saturday at 10:30 a.m. for a reading and signing of his entertaining story that has fun with the alphabet.

The event is free, but advance registration at bookhampton.com has been requested.

Spring Break at SoFo

On Monday at 10:30 a.m. a family walk in the fields behind the South Fork Natural History Museum in Bridgehampton will turn into a fun scavenger hunt for kids who can look for early signs of spring.

Family programs at the museum continue each day of the week at the same time. On Tuesday at 10:30 a.m., Xylia Serafy, an environmental educator at the museum, will lead a fun and active game to help children learn about the hazards and helpers that migratory birds encounter on their long-distance journeys. Sneakers are suggested for this energetic activity.

On Wednesday, kids can learn about the osprey’s annual journey from South America to Long Island, and back south in the fall. Ashley Federici and Eleni Nikolopoulos, environmental educators, will demonstrate this migratory journey with the help of an interactive game.

It’s all about snapping turtles on Thursday when the challenges that young snapping turtles face on a daily basis will be demonstrated with a life-size obstacle course where kids pretend to be a baby snapping turtle emerging from its nest and facing its many obstacles.

On Friday, April 6, Taylor Ruhle, an environmental educator, will host a wild rascal relay to help children learn about predators, prey, and their importance in the wild.

Art at the Parrish

Children of all ages can celebrate spring break at the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill with creative workshops all next week. Sessions run from 10 a.m. to noon for 5 and 6-year-olds, and from 1 to 3 p.m. for kids 7 and up. 

Children may register for a single day or all five sessions at a cost of $40 per session, $30 for members. 

Monday’s theme is landscape painting, Tuesday is sculpture, Wednesday is family portraits, Thursday is printmaking, and next Friday will explore the world of abstract mixed media. Each class will begin with a gallery tour.

A two-day stop-motion animation workshop for children 7 and older will be held next Thursday and Friday, April 6, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Laura Bellmont from the Little Animation Studio will deliver a crash course on stop-motion animation, which includes storyboarding, character creation, and set design and fabrication.

The cost is $250, $200 for members. Advance registration is required.

3-D, Movies, Henna

The Disney Pixar movie “Coco” will be screened Saturday at 2 p.m. at the Amagansett Library. Next Thursday from 2 to 3 p.m., kids 10 and up can try out 3-D pens at the library. 

On Wednesday at the Montauk Library, kids of all ages can learn about the ancient art of henna. Kindergartners through third graders can stop by from 2 to 3:30 p.m., followed by fourth graders and up from 3:30 to 5 p.m. Kids can choose a henna tattoo pattern, which will be painted on by an expert. 

A mini Harry Potter movie marathon begins Tuesday from 2 to 4:30 p.m. at the John Jermain Memorial Library in Sag Harbor, with the screening of “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban,” rated PG. The next day at the same time, the library will show “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,” rated PG-13. Kids are encouraged to wear pajamas. Popcorn and drinks will be provided. The event is free but registration is required.

Earth Day at CMEE

Earth Day will be the theme of the next Pizza and Pajama Night, on Friday, April 6, at the Children’s Museum of the East End. The evening will kick off with a reading of “The Earth and I” by Frank Asch, followed by pizza, open play in the museum, and a chance to create an up-cycled plastic sculpture to bring attention to this year’s Earth Day pledge to end plastic pollution. There is a $5 cost for those who are not members. Members get in free. Advance registration is suggested for all.

A farmer, a fishmonger, a beekeeper, and a shellfish grower walked into an eighth-grade English class . . . and it was fun, agreed the children.

The East Hampton Middle School’s eighth-grade English language arts class was assigned the task of reading “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” by Michael Pollan, an investigative look at the politics and trends behind the food supply and consumption in today’s society.

It is not exactly scintillating material for most 14-year-olds but with a lesson in experiential learning instituted by Meredith Hasemann, an English teacher at the school, and the rest of the English department, the otherwise dry subject matter was lifted off the page.

Over the course of a month, several local food purveyors, farmers, and chefs visited the middle school to speak about the industry and, essentially, illustrate an overarching directive from the book’s author: Know thy farmer. The health-conscious theme also ties into a health and wellness thread that runs throughout the middle school.

On Tuesday, a combined class of about 50 students gathered in the school library to hear from Ian Calder-Piedmonte, a partner at the popular Balsam Farms in Amagansett and East Hampton. As an introduction, Ms. Hasemann reminded the students of the book’s focus. 

“The author undertakes an investigation into food and how it arrives in front of us,” said the teacher. “The book is broken into four food groups: industrial food, such as McDonald’s, industrial organic food, such as Whole Foods Market, industrial local and sustainable foods, like farm stand produce, and the hunter and gatherer D.I.Y. food chain, where the author goes out and shoots a boar for his dinner.”

Together with Ms. Hasemann, Matthew Ward and Judy Horan, the other eighth-grade English teachers, helped curate a list of guest speakers that would best illustrate each of these groups. Scott Chaskey, the director of the Peconic Land Trust’s Quail Hill Farm in Amagansett, represented the local and sustainable food group in the book. Peter Topping of the East Hampton Town Shellfish Hatchery spoke about the hunter and gatherer category and told students where to find oysters and clams for dinner. Mary Woltz, a beekeeper and manufacturer of the honey-based Bee’s Needs products, straddled the hunter-gatherer and local and sustainable groups. Charlotte Sasso, the owner of Stuart’s Seafood Shop in Amagansett, covered both the industrial organic group and the hunter-gatherer type. John Halsey, of the venerable South Fork farming family, spoke about his connection to local and sustainable agriculture.

And on Tuesday, it was Mr. Calder-Piedmonte’s turn. The students seemed genuinely engrossed by the farmer’s story of how Balsam Farms got started (he met his business partner, Alex Balsam, while studying philosophy at Cornell University). After a brief overview of their produce and practices, it was the students’ turn to ask questions. Several hands shot up.

“Do you spray vegetables with chemicals?” Only naturally-derived and organically-approved ones.

“Are you rivals of Quail Hill?” No, we’re friends, said the smiling farmer.

“Do you grow anything exotic?” The children learned that the farm will soon be offering kiwi berries, a semitropical fruit, and artichokes, mostly propagated in Mediterranean climates, two offerings made possible by the unique weather patterns of eastern Long Island.

Experiential, or hands-on, learning is a buzzword in educational circles today, the theory being that it helps students absorb information better and think more critically than they would by simply listening to a teacher speak in a classroom. It has, in fact, been around for a very long time, loosely based on Aristotle’s philosophy: “That which we learn, we only learn by doing.”

The East Hampton Middle School seems to be wholeheartedly encouraging teachers who want to take teaching outside of the classroom. “All middle school learning should be hands-on,” acknowledged Charles Soriano, the school’s principal. 

Earlier this year, seventh graders in Cara Nelson’s social studies class went on a far-flung learning experience when their teacher participated in the World Marathon Challenge and ran seven marathons on seven continents in seven days. With the aid of Google Classrooms technology, Ms. Nelson connected with her students from each destination, offering the youngsters firsthand lessons about the places and topics being covered in the classroom.

For Ms. Hasemann, the goal of bringing in the speakers was to help students “make informed choices about the foods they buy.” 

“If, indeed, they interview a farmer as they would a contractor or a doctor, they can make more informed choices,” she said. “I want them to know what is available here in East Hampton, that they can go clamming for their own food, or eat food grown in their neighborhood, and that they can support local food solutions.”

Having heard from local food sources, the next task for her charges is to complete a project, displaying a proficiency of the subject matter. After reading about the slaughterhouse in the book, some children, said Ms. Hasemann, will choose to be vegetarian or vegan for a week. Some will compare the food chain in Ecuador, or their grandparents’ home in Ireland, to the foods they eat in America. Some grow seeds. Others go fishing or clamming, and some prepare a healthy meal for their family.

“In some way, each student will investigate the food chain and write a seven-page paper on it,” said the teacher.

Two years ago, she said, this final project led one student to compare a McDonald’s sandwich with another from the East Hampton Middle School cafeteria, and an organic, breaded chicken sandwich from Harbor Market in Sag Harbor. The experiment found that the school’s sandwich withstood mold and decay the longest, leading the student to conclude that it contained the most additives of the three. As a result, the school has changed much of the food it serves its students.

The New York State Board of Education asks schools to ensure that students are “college and career ready,” said Christina DeSanti, the vice president of East Hampton’s school board, adding that the district “has done a fine job on the college ready side of the equation, and now we are beginning to focus on the career-ready part.”

The school board announced during its meeting last week that it will increase the budget for vocational education at the high school in an attempt to revamp the department by offering more relevant classes as well as modernizing existing ones. The goal is to help fill the growing demands of service industries with trained young professionals. 

Richard Burns, the district superintendent, informed those at the meeting that following discussions with the owners of Grant’s Heating and Cooling and Schenck Fuels, East Hampton companies, the high school will add $9,500 to the technology and manufacturing department to offer a first level safety course in heating, ventilation, and airconditioning, as well as a preliminary HVAC class. Upon completion of these semester-long courses, students will be able to take a certification exam on-site. The two local companies have agreed to offer certified students internships with possible offers of employment after graduation.

An additional $5,000 also will be budgeted for the family and consumer science department, which will offer 10th, 11th, and 12th graders the opportunity to obtain a food handler’s certificate for summer jobs in the restaurant and catering businesses. The school will also develop a baking club to be run in conjunction with the business department, with the idea of potentially selling what it bakes.

East Hampton High School, like almost any other around the country, has offered technical courses over the years — known traditionally as “shop” — designed to provide students with introductory skills in carpentry, automotive repair, and more recently coding, robotics, and drone technology. Students with a more serious desire to pursue careers in those trades have an option to enroll in two-year programs at the Suffolk County Board of Cooperative Educational Services centers in Riverhead, Mastic, and Bellport. 

“Those kids were spending up to an hour and a half each way traveling there and back,” Mr. Burns said, which often meant students not only missed out on school work but also the chance to take part in school life and activities. “They very often gave up on the courses because it was just too time-consuming.”

Vocational training in schools around the country has largely been overshadowed by a concerted push to send more kids to college. This nationwide trend took root after the deep recession in 2008 led to a downsizing of American manufacturing, which bulldozed plans for many young people for whom a career in trade jobs was preferred. Many of those youngsters were then forced to ontemplate a new path: college.

East Hampton High School is no exception. Since 2008, Karen Kuneth, the school’s college coordinator, said the rate of graduating seniors planning to attend four-year or two-year colleges has risen. Last year’s graduating class saw 85 percent commit to higher education, up from 74 percent from 2008.

“But college is not for everyone,” Mr. Burns said, adding that he regularly sees students go to college simply because it is the prescribed route and soon realize it’s not for them and drop out. “So, it is just as important to provide opportunities to all our students, whether they want to go to college or join the workforce.” 

Additionally, Ms. DeSanti said, “We live in a resort community where most of the full-time jobs are in the food and hospitality business, real estate, and service trades.” Local business owners in these industries, she said, all say they have jobs to offer but few skilled workers to fill them. “Many of these companies offer good salaries and benefits,” she continued, “but they simply cannot find skilled employees. So, we’re beginning to focus on bringing back vocational ed programs as our next academic initiative.”

A report in The New York Times last year stated that while employment among recent college graduates has shown signs of recovery, the more revealing number is that 43.5 percent of college graduates ages 22 to 27 were employed in “non-college,” or service-related jobs, compared with 41.8 percent in 2007.

Many colleges and universities have responded to the need to prepare students for skilled jobs. The State University at Farmingdale in Nassau County recently introduced a natural-gas technician certificate program in partnership with National Grid, an energy provider, with an alluring promise appearing under the course description on the school’s website: “How would you like to take a 12-week, 90-hour training program and be hired practically the minute after you’ve been handed your certificate?”

In East Hampton, the school board plans to look into offering certification for early childhood education with the hope that such training would result in job opportunities for high school students and keep them in the area, Ms. DeSanti said.

How far the school’s in-house vocational education will expand also depends on East Hampton’s voters. A bond referendum for the purchase of town-owned property on Springs-Fireplace Road, which is to become the school district bus depot and a vocational training center, will be on the ballot on May 15. 

“Should the voters approve the construction of the new bus barn facility, designed to include classrooms for student vocational program learning,” Ms. DeSanti said, “it will even allow us to offer programs such as boat and small engine repair, welding, and automotive repair, which are now only offered by BOCES in UpIsland locations. Of course, even if the bond is approved, these programs would not be in place until construction is completed, so they are longer range plans,” she said.

Vacation Theater Camp

The Bay Street Theater and the Sag Harbor Center for the Arts will offer a three-day theater camp for children ages 8 to 12 from April 4 to April 6, during the school break

The workshop-style musical theater camp will run from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day. Bethany Dellapolla, a teaching artist, will work with students on a scenes and musical numbers from the hit Broadway musical “Annie!” Students will work on acting, singing, and dancing skills, culminating in a presentation for family and friends at the conclusion of the camp.

The cost is $282 per child. Registration is online at baystreet.org or by phone at 631-725-0818.

Journals, Slime, Bingeing

Journaling will be the focus of a writing workshop for high school students on Sunday from 3 to 4 p.m. at the East Hampton Library. Students will receive prompts and tips for starting a journal. 

Monday is Netflix Night for high school students, who are invited to binge-watch their favorite television shows and movies from 5 to 7 p.m. 

Parents who find evidence of slime-making in all corners of the house may want to get their kids 5 and older to the library on Tuesday for a slime-making session at 4 p.m. 

Next Thursday from 4 to 5 p.m., middle schoolers can create a unique piece of art by “upcycling” scraps from old magazines. 

Looking Into H2O at SoFo

The South Fork Natural History Museum will hold a family-friendly exploration and scavenger hunt along the Sagg Swamp trail on Saturday at 10 a.m. Crystal Oakes, a SoFo nature educator, will lead families over land and on a boardwalk through the swamp, pointing out the hidden messages of the tiniest lichens and mosses to large oak and maple trees. Participants will also make leaf-rubbings. 

On Sunday at 10:30 a.m., children 10 and up can learn all about Long Island’s glacial history and a unique geology that created aquifers, or underground water reservoirs that provide much of the area’s drinking water. Melanie Meade, a SoFo nature educator, will lead this educational class where students will learn how human actions can harm the drinking water supply and what can be done to protect this resource.

Art for All Ages 

At a teen advisory group meeting tomorrow at 3:30 p.m. at the Amagansett Library, kids will brainstorm future activities, paint portraits of pets for the Animal Rescue Fund of the Hamptons, and eat pizza. All teens will be welcomed.

On Saturday at 2 p.m. children ages 5 through 9 can create their very own artwork with the Art Nanny instruction kits, which come with watercolor tricks and techniques and a frame ready to take home and hang.

Children ages 9 to 12 can stop by Tuesday at 4 p.m. to decorate a wooden frame, which they get to take home.

On Wednesday at 3 p.m., 3 and 4-year-olds can listen to the story “I’m the Biggest Thing in the Ocean,” followed by songs and a giant squid craft. Registration is required for all activities. 

Slimy Fun and Fun Facts 

It will be slime time for all ages on Saturday from 1 to 2 p.m. at the John Jermain Memorial Library in Sag Harbor. Kids should be dressed for a mess.

Middle school trivia night is Saturday from 6 to 7 p.m. Participants will compete in teams of three to five players and navigate through increasingly difficult trivia. There will be prizes for the winning team and pizza for all. 

On Sunday from 1 to 2 p.m., families can take their laptops, tablets, e-book readers, and smartphones to the library for advice about how to connect with the library’s various tech resources including free online tutoring and homework help. 

In celebration of National Women’s Month, the Montauk Library will hold an informative session about female artists for kids in kindergarten and up on Saturday at 2 p.m. Children can then create their own colorful still life painting to take home.

Guild Hall’s 15th annual student film competition awards ceremony and screening will be held next Thursday at 6 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

According to Jennifer Brondo, the theater’s general manager and associate for theater education, 54 films were submitted from students enrolled in local schools, as well as home-schooled students. Five judges watched all the films and chose the top three in each age group. Those students’s films will be shown during next Thursday’s ceremony.

In first through fourth grade, the top three films were “Ghost Haunting” by Ryder Patrowicz, “Dissolved Oxygen” by Andrew Farez, and “Estuary Energy” by Ella Menu. Fifth through eighth grade winners were “Dropped” by Phoenix Bliss, Dash Breen, and Leonardo Dougherty; “The Plastic Villains” by C.J. Baumrind, Salome Galindo, Tyler Hansen, Kevin Narvaez, and Aaron Segovia, and “Braille” by Charlie Troy and Owen Wood. The high school winners were “A Loss of Innocence” by Christian Miller, “A Race Against Time” by Abigail Loos, and “Dear Phone” by Augie Schultz.

As part of the Hamptons Arts Weekend Festival, a joint venture of South Fork cultural institutions, there will be programs for families on Saturday and Sunday at museums and art centers from Springs to Southampton.

On Saturday, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., families can take gallery tours at the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill and then head into its studio to create their own artwork inspired by the exhibitions. Sessions are limited to 30 minutes, and the last one will begin at 12:30 p.m. 

At the Southampton Historical Museum, after seeing some examples of scrimshaw, decorative whalebone carvings that whalemen did to pass the time at sea, children will make their own modern versions. The program runs from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and is free. The museum is on Meeting House Lane. 

At Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor, the Goat on a Boat puppet theater will celebrate World Puppetry Day on Saturday with a presentation of Nappy’s Puppets’ “Shadows Around the World” at 11 a.m. The show takes the audience on a journey through the history of shadow puppetry. Beforehand, families will have a chance to make shadow puppets to add to the performance. Tickets are $15.

On Sunday, Bay Street Theater and the Sag Harbor Center for the Arts will offer free family tours of the theater from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The documentary “I know a Man, Ashley Bryan,” presented at the theater at 2 p.m. by the Hamptons Take 2 Documentary Film Festival, could have appeal for kids as well. It is about an African-American puppet maker, poet, illustrator, and painter. 

A family day at the Watermill Center, on Sunday from 1 to 4 p.m., will have visitors work with the arts collective House of Trees to create banners meant to be hung in public places. As the center describes them, “House of Trees projects are interventions in unpredictable sites, curated for both specific audiences and the larger public.” The workshop will be ongoing, with visitors welcome at any time, but online reservations with the Watermill Center have been requested. 

The Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center in Springs will have an open house for families on Sunday from noon to 4 p.m. In addition to tours, families will be invited to take part in Jackson Pollock-inspired cookie decorating and Lee Krasner inspired collage projects. Admission is free.

A schedule of events can be viewed on the Hamptons Arts Network website.