PENFIELD – Parker Dam State Park has scheduled two Act 48-approved teacher workshops to be facilitated at the park in May.
The first workshop, Pennsylvania Biodiversity Basics, will be on Saturday, May 4, from 9 a.m. until 3:30 p.m.
The second workshop, featuring the Bureau of State Parks’ Pennsylvania Songbirds curriculum, will be on Saturday, May 11, from 8:30 a.m. until 3:30 p.m.
Both workshops are Pennsylvania Department of Education-approved for participants to receive Act 48 professional development credit hours; and, both workshops do require pre-registration and pre-payment ($10 registration fee) with the park. There will be indoor and outdoor activities featured throughout both of these workshops.
PA Biodiversity Basics is a resource for educators to present the basics of biodiversity to their students. While biodiversity can be a challenging concept to teach, the activities in this curriculum present the information in ways that are hands-on, interesting, and understandable.
The activities found in PA Biodiversity Basics instructional materials are intended for use in both classroom and informal settings and are designed to support state and national academic standards appropriate for grades K-12.
Through the use of thoughtfully-planned curriculum materials and professionally-trained facilitators, PA Biodiversity Basics provides a framework of developing awareness, knowledge, skills and commitment in participants.
This results in the making of informed decisions, responsible behavior and constructive action concerning native wildlife and the local (and global) environment.
In this hands-on workshop, participants will be introduced to the curriculum, guided in its use and shown the resources available to help implement it in their classrooms.
Educators will receive the Pennsylvania Supplement to Windows on the Wild – Biodiversity Basics Activity Guide.
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.
Each participant will receive a copy of the activity guide/curriculum, which was developed to support state academic standards.
The workshop’s focus will be to demonstrate selected activities, direct participants in the use of the guide and discuss resources for educators to teach about songbirds and other natural resources.
The curriculum is divided into seven chapters or areas, including, bird biology, habitat, observing and identifying songbirds, migration, songbird research techniques, birds and people and finally, activities that focus on student action. The majority of information and examples used throughout the activities are specific to Pennsylvania songbird species.
To register for either of these workshops, or to get more information, please contact the Park Office at 814-765-0630, or parkerdamsp@pa.gov.
Space for each workshop is limited and the deadline for registering for PA Biodiversity Basics is Friday, April 26, 2019.
The deadline for the Pennsylvania Songbirds workshop registration is Friday, May 3, 2019.
Please be prepared to pay the registration fee ($10) for each workshop when you register. 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).