PENFIELD – Parker Dam State Park has scheduled two Act 48-approved educator workshops to be facilitated at the park in April and May.
The first workshop, Project WILD, will be on Saturday, April 9, from 8:30 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. The second workshop will feature the Growing Up WILD curriculum for early childhood students and will be on Saturday, May 7, from 9 a.m. until 2:30 p.m.
Both workshops are state Department of Education-approved for participants to receive Act 48 professional development credit hours (six hours for Project WILD; five hours for Growing Up WILD); and both workshops do require pre-registration and pre-payment ($10 registration fee) with the park.
In these hands-on workshops, participants will be introduced to the curricula, guided in their use, and shown the resources available through Project WILD and the Bureau of State Parks to help implement them in their classrooms.
Both curricula feature hands-on, phenomena-based and cross-cutting activities, helping students foster responsible actions toward wildlife and related natural resources.
There will be indoor and outdoor activities featured throughout both of these workshops.
Project WILD is a wildlife-focused conservation education program and is one of the most widely used conservation and environmental education curriculum among educators of students in kindergarten through high school.
The activities found in Project WILD 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.
The activities can easily be adapted to meet the learning requirements for academic disciplines ranging from science and environmental education to social studies, math and language arts.
Growing Up WILD is an early childhood education activity guide that builds on children’s sense of wonder about nature and invites them to explore wildlife and the world around them.
Through a wide range of activities and experiences, it provides a foundation for developing positive impressions about nature while also building lifelong social and cognitive skills.
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 Project WILD is April 4.
The deadline for the Growing Up WILD workshop registration is May 2. Please be prepared to pay the registration fee ($10) for each workshop when you register.
Payment can be made in person at the Park Office (cash, check, credit card, or PA State Parks gift card), by mail at Parker Dam State Park, 28 Fairview Rd., Penfield, PA 15849 (check), or by phone at 814-765-0630 (credit card or PA State Parks gift card).
You can keep up on what is happening at the park by liking “Parker Dam State Park” on Facebook; and, you can find more information about state park programs and special events by logging on to the Bureau of State Parks website at www.VisitPAParks.com, and clicking on “Events”.