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Welcome to another webisode of Insider’s Look at Grand Canyon. I’m Ranger Patrick
and you know, there are many types of rangers in the Park Service. As stewards of your National
Parks, sometimes we are here for protection, sometimes we are here to help if people are
injured, but we are also in charge of educating folks, sharing with the public all the wonders
of the park. And we have different type of ranger that does that and joining me today
is Environmental Education Ranger Andy Peirce. Andy, welcome to the show.
Thank you Pat. It is a pleasure to be here and I look forward to speaking with you and
letting people know what it is we offer, especially for teachers and for kids.
Can you give the folks out there an overview of the Environmental Education Programs that
you offer? Absolutely, we have a variety of programs
available throughout the year. We have our curriculum based education programs that involve;
field trip programs, where students actually come from schools mostly around Arizona. However,
we get schools from Florida, Louisiana, California, that come here to do one of our in park programs.
We have programs related to geology, ecology, and human history. We also offer “in-class”
programs where we travel to schools and do programs in classrooms. Again, mostly throughout
Arizona, but also in neighboring states of Utah and Nevada. And then we have our “distance
learning” programs that we can do for schools throughout the entire country. Where, via
the internet, we connect with schools and do two-way broadcast. We can talk to the students,
they can talk and see us, and we see them as well. So these distance learning programs,
a fantastic opportunity for anybody anywhere in the country.
So, everything you offer is curriculum based. Can you tell the folks out there a little
more about the field trip programs? Yes. We do make all of our programs curriculum
based. Mostly on the Arizona state standards, but we also look at the national standards
too, so that we are addressing schools that are from outside Arizona. Yes! So, all of
our programs are curriculum based, we base them on the Arizona state standards and the
national standards, therefore even if a school is from outside Arizona it address’s the
national teaching standards as well. The field trip programs we offer, they are anywhere
from 2-5 hours in length, cover a variety of topics as I mentioned earlier. We have
programs on the geology of Grand Canyon, programs on ecology, so looking at plants and animals.
Learning something about the interrelationships between them and the non-living things in
the environment. And also we have programs on human history, both more recent pioneer
history as well as the history of Native Americans that have lived throughout this Grand Canyon
region and northern Arizona. So Andy, you mentioned; “distance learning”,
that sounds pretty neat, but how does that work?
Well, via the internet, we are able to connect with schools that have video conferencing
equipment. So long as a school has video conferencing equipment, which teachers can check with their
technology specialist in their district. Because many districts have this ability and as long
as they have video conferencing equipment we can do two-way broadcast. Live broadcast
with schools throughout the entire country. And we do programs on both geology and ecology.
And again, because of this two-way interaction the students can see us and ask questions,
we can do activities with the students. We sometimes do interactive activities as best
we can via the internet. And there is a pre-visit/ pre-program lesson plan that we ask the teachers
to complete with their students, so that when we do the program they are prepared, they
are ready to learn something more about geology or ecology using Grand Canyon as the classroom,
so to speak, to learn these really neat science topics.
You also said that you visit schools in Arizona and surrounding states. When do you do this
and what type of programs do you offer? We generally do most of these programs in
January and February, mostly because here at Grand Canyon on the south rim we tend to
have a lot of snow and cold weather at that time of the year. So, schools don’t tend
to want to come here so we go out and visit the schools. We provide a variety of programs.
Again, somewhat related to the field trip programs that we offer. So we have a geology
program, we have an ecology program, we have several history programs that we can offer
and we come right to the classroom. Do these live for the students in the classroom. We
bring lots of fun props, so we might have skulls, or maybe rock samples, fossils, historic
artifacts. Things like that that we bring to the students in the classroom. So if a
teacher cannot afford to bring their class to the canyon, we bring the canyon right to
their classroom. And we offer those, again, mostly in January and February.
So Andy, the stuff you have sharing is really great! I think any child that came here as
part of a school group would have a wonderful experience, but how do teachers find out more
and if they are going to contact us, who would they actually talk to in the Environmental
Education Office? Yes, the way teachers can find out more is
through several different avenues, 1) teachers are welcome to go to the national park website,
which is; www.nps.gov/grca/forteachers . And at that “forteachers” site we have
information on all the programs I have been talking about and through this teachers can
find out more. 2) Another way they can find out more is actually to attend one of the
teacher workshops that we offer every fall. Generally October and November we offer teach
workshops. And again, that information is at our website. 3) Or if they prefer to talk
to somebody, on they phone, they can also contact us by calling; (928)638-7931, and
find out some information from one of us right in the office. Every program does require
pre-registration. So they do need to register ahead of time and our programs can definitely
be very popular so we recommend teachers get on it as quickly as they can at the beginning
of the school year. Well Andy, this is a big call out, not just
for teachers but if there is any parents or students listening share this with your teachers
and maybe you can end up learning a lot about Grand Canyon. So, Andy thanks for joining
us on the show today. You’re welcome and you make a good point.
Any students that are listening to this, if you are interested in Grand Canyon and what
to learn more about this amazing place, this amazing resource let your teachers know that
we have these programs available to you whether or not you are in the state of Arizona or
anywhere throughout the entire country. So these programs are out there, we love to work
with students, Grand Canyon is an incredible outdoor classroom, fantastic way to learn
something about the sciences, and we hope to work with as many students and teachers
that are out there. Well, that was great! Folks, we’ll catch
you next time on Insider’s Look at Grand Canyon.