PENFIELD – Parker Dam State Park has scheduled two Act 48-approved teacher workshops at the park in 2016.
The first workshop, featuring the Pennsylvania Songbirds curriculum, will be April 29, from 8 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. The second workshop, GO Teach – GPS, will be June 11, from 8:30 a.m. until 3:30 p.m.
Both workshops are approved by the Pennsylvania Department of Education for participants to receive Act 48 professional development credit hours; and, both workshops require pre-registration and pre-payment ($10 registration fee) with the park.
Pennsylvania Songbirds is a hands-on, interdisciplinary, K-12 teachers’ resource and activity guide about Pennsylvania specific songbirds with topics ranging from “what makes a bird a bird” to interactions of people and songbirds.
Action projects complete the educational process in the guide. DCNR’s Bureau of State Parks, Audubon Pennsylvania, and the Pennsylvania Game Commission developed Pennsylvania Songbirds. Ornithologists, educators, and professors from Pennsylvania and national organizations, and the Pennsylvania Department of Education reviewed and support the guide.
The Pennsylvania Songbirds guide is divided into seven chapters. Each chapter begins with several pages of in-depth background information, followed by a series of activities for use in the classroom. The majority of information and examples used throughout the activities are specific to Pennsylvania songbird species.
GO (Get Outdoors) Teach is a series of teacher workshops that focus on cross-curricular connections linked by common outdoor recreation. This GO Teach – GPS workshop presents a set of standards-based lessons that enable middle and high school students to learn about global positioning system (GPS) technology and how to use it for healthy lifelong recreation.
As a part of the workshop, teachers will receive lesson plans, ACT 48 hours, and access to loaner equipment to help facilitate the lessons on their school grounds. DCNR’s Bureau of State Parks developed the GO Teach curriculums (also currently GO Teach – Snowshoeing and GO Teach – Hiking) to align with the PA Department of Education’s Standards in Science, Technology & Engineering, Geography, Mathematics, Environment & Ecology, Health, Safety & Physical Education, and others.
One of the goals of GO Teach – GPS is to introduce and encourage students to participate in outdoor recreations such as the sport of geocaching.
To register for these workshops, or to get more information, please contact the Park Office at 814-765-0630 or parkerdamsp@pa.gov. The deadline for registering for PA Songbirds is April 22. The deadline for the GO Teach – GPS workshop registration is June 3.
Please register before making payment of the registration fee ($10). Payment can be made by cash (in person at the Park Office), by check (in person or by mail: Parker Dam State Park, 28 Fairview Rd., Penfield, PA 15849), or by credit card or PA State Parks gift card (in person or by phone: 814-765-0630).