NEWS RELEASE
National Park Service
For Release: August 11, 2000 Contact: David Barna (202) 208-6843
Vickie Carson (270) 758-2254

NATIONAL PARKS ARE CLASSROOMS
Discovery 2000 Conference Explores The National Park Service's
Future In Education

A cross-section of National Park Service employees and partners from around the country and the world will gather in St. Louis this fall to explore the long-range future. Education is one of four broad topics they will explore at the Discovery 2000 conference, September 11-15, with the goal to develop vision of the National Park Service's role in the 21st century life of the nation.

The National Park Service manages public lands, set aside by Congress, which embrace the cultural and natural heritage of the American people. These public lands serve as classrooms where visitors may view historic artifacts and structures, and interact with the natural world. Whether it's with tour groups, vacationing families, or fifth grade students, every ranger presentation holds an educational component. Students of all ages learn who signed the Declaration of Independence at Independence Hall; how caves form inside Mammoth Cave; or the importance of mangroves and alligators in the Everglades ecosystem. And, now they can also enjoy a virtual visit to an Alaskan park, or a Civil War battlefield.

The Service also interacts with partners in federal, state, and local agencies; tribal governments, and the private sector on a wide range of "park-like" activities in tens of thousands of non-park venues. Many of these partners will participate in Discovery 2000.

Author and poet Maya Angelou, whose works inspire and challenge, is the keynote speaker for the Education track.

In the sessions that follow, participants will have the opportunity to engage in dialogue about fundamental needs and possibilities beyond the concepts of today. What connects the human spirit to the power of place? How do our personal and organizational values and perceptions influence our presentation of the stories? Could virtual park visits replace actual visits and with what results? Can we teach through controversial issues . . . is there a place for differing positions? How should Park Service educational activities interface with the work of other conservation, preservation and educational entities? How have past education programs influenced the public's willingness to support conservation and preservation? How can we adapt the new technologies to educate the students of the future without losing authenticity? What options do we have to sustain education programs when financial and human resources are limited? These and other questions will be part of the dialogue sessions.

In many ways the National Park Service is already leading the way. Exciting programs are planned or underway throughout the National Park System:

  • Gettysburg National Military Park, PA: By live satellite broadcast, students across the country participate in an interactive field trip. Prior to the broadcast, students "meet" a real-life soldier on the internet, follow him through the battle, and write their own Civil War journal, some of which are posted on the park website.
  • Channel Islands National Park, CA: Rangers transport the park to classrooms in a grant-funded van, which sports an attention-getting kelp forest on its side. The van carries an aquarium with live critters from tidal pools for the students to see and touch. Visitors to the park information center converse with a scuba-ranger-naturalist via an underwater video hook-up.
  • Teaching With Historic Places: A program of the National Park Service's National Register of Historic Places, works with state and local preservationists and the National Council for the Social Studies to help students learn from registered buildings and sites in their home towns as well as in the National Parks.
  • Golden Gate National Recreation Area, CA: Middle school students spend a day-in-the-life of a Buffalo Soldier at the Presidio, discovering African Americans fought alongside Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders in the Spanish American War.
  • Cuyahoga Valley National Recreation Area, OH: The non-profit Cuyahoga Valley Environmental Education Center immerses 4-6th graders in environmental ethics through a 5-day residential program within the park. Children learn to be good environmental stewards for their neighborhoods and the planet. Cuyahoga is teaching teachers, too; 15-16 university interns work at the Center each year participating in a 9-month residential program. They teach and learn at the same time.
  • Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, MO: Not one, but ten different traveling trunks are sent across the nation, ready for classroom use. Each focuses on people of the American West, such as Plains Indians, Mountain Men, and Lewis and Clark, and carries curriculum, videos, CDs, and replicas of artifacts and clothing. The Cowboy trunk features chaps and spurs; the Southwestern trunk, a vaquero outfit; the Overlander, a pioneer girl's skirt, top and apron. Traveling trunks are a proven method of taking parks into remote classrooms and previewing field trips.

The other Discovery 2000 topics are natural resource management, cultural resource management and leadership. Discovery 2000, the logistics, and the workshops are detailed at www.nps.gov/discovery2000. Most workshop events and all keynote speakers will be at the Conference hotel, Regal Riverfront, 200 S. 4th Street, St. Louis, Monday through Friday, September 11 - 15, 2000.

- NPS -