News Release

Grant for Fourth Grade Field Trips to Parks

Date: September 4, 2019
Contact: Jason Ginder, 409-951-6721

Big Thicket National Preserve is excited to announce the continuation of the Open OutDoors for Kids Focus City grant from the National Park Foundation, the official nonprofit partner of the National Park Service, into the 2019-2020 school year! The Open OutDoors for Kids project provides transportation reimbursements for field trips taken by 4th grade classes from Title I school to more than three dozen exciting Greater Houston Area and Southeast Texas outdoor spaces. In the continuation of this four year effort, teachers can easily book a field trip with one of many national, state, and local park partners who provide a variety of curriculum-based natural, cultural, and historical field trips correlated with Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS). 

Big Thicket National Preserve Superintendent Wayne Prokopetz said, “We hope that teachers throughout Southeast Texas will use this grant opportunity to bring their fourth grade students to the national preserve.The public lands throughout our region offer amazing opportunities to explore a variety of natural wonders.”

This grant is part of the National Park Foundation’s Open Outdoors for Kids program, which creates pathways for kids to explore and connect with park experiences. Beyond making field trips possible, the program raises local community awareness about the importance of connecting kids to the outdoors. By working together to introduce young people to the public lands around them, we can help create a happier and healthier community.

For more information on this program and its requirements, please visit https://www.hereinhouston.org/ekiphouston/. This is an opportunity fourth grade teachers won’t want to miss!

Big Thicket National Preserve is located in Southeast Texas, near the city of Beaumont and 75 miles northeast of Houston. The preserve consists of nine land units and six water corridors encompassing more than 113,000 acres. The Big Thicket, often referred to as a “biological crossroads,” is a transition zone between four distinct vegetation types – the moist eastern hardwood forest, the southwestern desert, the southeastern swamp, and the central prairies. Species from all of these different vegetation types come together in the thicket, exhibiting a variety of vegetation and wildlife that has received global interest. 

For general information about Big Thicket National Preserve, visit www.nps.gov/bith or call the preserve visitor center at 409-951-6700. Visit us on Facebook www.facebook.com/BigThicketNPS, Twitter www.twitter.com/BigThicketNPS, and Instagram www.instagram.com/BigThicketNPS.