Environmental
Education
| Mission:
The National Park Service
is charged with conserving the scenery, wildlife, and natural and historic
objects
found in parks, and providing for their use in such manor and by such means as
to leave them unimpaired for future generations. The mission is interpreted
to
be the preservation of those values and resources, rather than the long term
use
of the resources.
The
environmental education program at Wind Cave addresses that broad mission by involving
school students in structured programs which describe and illuminate park resources
and relate them to the broad concepts in natural and physical science, history,
language arts, and mathematics. Through becoming familiar with the park's resources
and the relationships which exist between them, students are challenged to take
those lessons home and apply them to their personal situations. Lessons learned
in Wind Cave, and the application of those lessons to larger contexts, develops
citizens who can appreciate and attach value to park resources. In the end, these
same citizens would support the preservation of park values and resources. Goals:
- Develop an environmental
program which presents all park resources in an interrelated whole.
- Support
the park's community involvement efforts by making the park available to local
school systems, and by assisting to develop their staffs as outdoor educators.
- Establish
the importance of park resources and values in the local communities to increase
support for the preservation of the park.
- Contribute
to the development of an environmentally aware society by informing students and
staff about critical issues within a park setting, and extending those issues
to their home environments.
Program
Description:
"Connections"
is the theme of our grades one through eight environmental education program.
The program is designed to enhance learning in many curriculum areas and to illustrate
the connections between the classroom and the mixed grass prairie, the ponderosa
pine forest, Wind Cave, and the plants an animals that live in the Park, as well
as the connections between each of us and other organisms on our planet.
We offer the Connections
program during the months of May. After a teacher makes reservations for the program,
the will receive an information packet. This packet includes a description of
the grade specific concept that we will be focusing on, curriculum goals and objectives,
pre-visit classroom activities to introduce the concept, a vocabulary list, Park
background information, and post-visit activities to reinforce the ideas presented
at the Park Presenting
Wind Cave National Park's newest environmental education program: "Water
in the Environment" Resources:
- A visitor center with exhibits
on the cave and the prairie and forest resources and a book sales area.
- Wayside
exhibits along park roads which describe plant, wildlife, and geological resources
of the park.
- "Connections"
environmental education program.
- A
description of the education curriculum for each grade (1-8).
- Background
material on Park natural and human history, including geology, ponderosa pine
forest, mixed grass prairie, cave human history.
- An
adult environmental education program is in the developmental stages.
For
additional information please contact: Phyllis
Cremonini, Assistant Chief of Interpretation; Wind Cave National Park; RR 1 Box
190-WCNP; Hot Springs, SD 57747; (605) 745-4600 phyllis
cremonini@nps.gov For
more information about Parks as Classrooms visit the National Park Service's Web-site |
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