Parks as Classrooms
Even before the official establishment of the National Park Service
in 1916, there was an interest in developing educational resources
and programs to help teach visitors about the natural and cultural
features of the national parks. Today, with the realization that
our National Park System offers some of the richest educational
opportunities imaginable, almost all units of NPS offer some form
of educational or interpretative program, such as ranger-led walks,
video presentations, and in some cases, more formal curriculum-based
activities.
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Students and teachers at Cuyahoga Valley National Recreation Area
courtesy of National Park Service
One of the best examples of connecting communities with their
environment is the
Park as Classrooms
program. Officially launched in 1992 by the National Park Service
and the
National Park Foundation,
its objective is to introduce national park resources to students
and teachers nationwide. Today, the program encompasses 225-250
parks, with new parks being added all the time.
According to the National Park Foundation, the major goals of
the program are: 1) to promote the parks as learning laboratories
to develop greater awareness, understanding, appreciation, and
commitment to the preservation and/or restoration of the National
Park System and larger environment on which it depends; 2) to
promote an improved education system in this country by assisting
teachers in the development of more interactive lessons that incorporate
park resources; 3) integrate research and interpretive programs
of the Park Service into the broader educational goals of communities
and schools through partnerships.
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Each year 10,000 school children participate in Everglades NP's Education Program.
courtesy of National Park Service
The Parks as Classrooms program is curriculum based and decentralized.
National parks contact local school districts and see how their
resources can fit into the educational curriculum. Bob Huggins,
the NPS Servicewide Education Coordinator points out how the Parks
as Classrooms program has become innovative in some very unexpected
ways. As he explains it, you might have a Civil War park that
ends up teaching mathematics, for example, by having students
learn about weapon trajectories. Some of the best examples of
the program in action include:
Everglades National Park,
which offers educational resources that cover classroom activities,
teacher resources, planning a school visit to a national park,
recommended reading for students and teachers, and information
on school visits with a ranger;
Cuyahoga Valley National
Park,
which features an Environmental Education Center with programs
for students and educators;
Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore,
which operates the Paul H. Douglas Center for Environmental Education,
offering an opportunity to educate students in the disciplines
of ecology and environmental science; and
Yosemite National Park,
which offers several programs including Parks as Classrooms, The
Environmental Living Program, teacher workshops, and ongoing educational
program and activities.
Future plans call for the expansion of the program through use
of non-federal funds. There is also an interest in developing
interactive teaching programs. For further information on Parks
as Classrooms program contact your local national park site or
the National Park Service Parks as Classrooms Coordinator.
Other useful resources:
Educational Resources
- includes numerous links to educational programs offered
at individual national parks.
Teaching with Historic Places
- features a series of 55 classroom-ready lesson plans that examine
events throughout American history. A lesson plan index categorizes
them by period, by topic, by time, and location.
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