Eight National Parks Across the Country to Partner With Local Teachers Over Summer to Develop Curriculum For Upcoming School Year

WASHINGTON, April 12, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today, the National Park Foundation, the official charity of America's national parks, announced the eight grant recipients participating in the 2012 Parks Climate Challenge program.  Since 2009, the Parks Climate Challenge program has encouraged the use of national parks as classrooms to educate students about climate change through funding and facilitation.  The ability to learn about this important issue through hands-on, science-based field curriculum, has proven an positive model through which to reach students.       

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"Climate change is a profound problem and the youth of America need to be at the forefront of the solution," said Neil Mulholland, President and CEO of the National Park Foundation. "The Parks Climate Challenge is just one of our programs that empowers our youth and strengthens our parks."

Now in its third year, the program first connects with teachers, giving them the tools to create engaging curriculum to teach to their student on the subject of climate change.  The program provides the educators both in-person trainings and a wealth of online resources to draw from.  Providing teachers the platform, information and tools to develop hands-on service projects, they in turn create dynamic lessons for their students incorporating national park experiences either within or outside the boundaries of a national park. Teachers will also lead their students on field trips to the parks they are studying to deepen their understanding of climate change and their connection to the national parks.

The parks participating in the 2012 Parks Climate Challenge program include:

• Glacier National Park, Montana
• Cape Cod National Seashore, Massachusetts
• Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, Wisconsin
• Capulin Volcano National Monument, New Mexico
• Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Nevada
• Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming
• Crater Lake National Park, Oregon
• National Mall and Memorial Parks, Washington, D.C.

Though these grant recipients will participate directly in the National Park Foundation program, teachers everywhere can utilize the unique and versatile program model to replicate the value learnings and strategies nationally through the online site www.parksclimatechallenge.org.

This project was made possible through the generous support of Inner Spark Foundation and individual donors, and is done in partnership with the National Park Service and the National Park Foundation.

For more information, visit www.parksclimatechallenge.org. 

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Media contact: Marjorie Hall, 202.354.6480, mhall@nationalparks.org

SOURCE National Park Foundation