The National Park Service (NPS) Teacher Ranger Teacher (TRT) program is an extended professional development program for K-12 educators. The purpose of the program is to provide teachers an opportunity to learn about NPS educational resources and themes while earning continuing education graduate credits through a partnership between the NPS and the University of Colorado Denver (CU Denver). Teachers will produce a major project of NPS-based educational materials or programs and complete three graduate credit hours of coursework in Experiential Learning online. The program offers teachers a unique opportunity to enhance their teaching skills in Science, Technology, Math, and Engineering (STEM) or history and civics fields through working directly with NPS scientific data and primary resources. Both the NPS major project and on-site experience as well as the CU Denver online course are required for the participants to successfully complete the program. The emphasis of the program is to engage teachers from schools with unexposed student populations, especially schools in rural and urban areas and from tribal schools. The intended impact of the program is to reach out to these students by providing a professional development opportunity to their teachers and to foster long-term stewardship and engagement with the National Park Service. Program Hourly Requirements Successful completion of the TRT program will equal approximately 240 hours of effort. Due to the impact of the coronavirus, the actual number of days or weeks that the teacher may spend at Little Rock Central High School NHS (CHSC) or a local NPS program office can be negotiated at the park or program office level as long as the program requirements can be met by the end of the teacher’s experience. TRTs are expected to spend approximately one to two hours each day in online course work. 240 hours of total effort in the TRT program
Program Administration The TRT program is administered through a Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (CESU) agreement with the University of Colorado Denver. While participating in the program, teachers are considered “student interns” of the university and not employees of NPS nor CU Denver. A $3,000 stipend provided to the TRT is administered through CU Denver upon successful completion of both the NPS and CU Denver program requirements. CU Denver will also provide participants IRS tax statements. Participants are responsible for any applicable taxes on the stipend as income. Teacher participants are not covered by worker’s compensation under NPS or CU Denver. Online Graduate Course All teachers participating in the TRT program are required to register and complete the online course in Experiential Learning with CU Denver. Tuition for all teachers in the program will be covered by the Washington office of Interpretation, Education and Volunteers with funding provided by the National Park Foundation. All graduate course readings, discussion forums and assignments must be fulfilled for the TRT to successfully complete the program and receive the full stipend offered at the end of the program. Following completion of the required course, TRTs may choose to continue their studies with CU Denver online and earn up to six additional graduate credit hours at their own expense resulting in a nine-credit hour graduate certificate in place-based education with CU Denver. Major Education Project TRTs will produce a major education project or program as part of the requirements for both the NPS and CU Denver components of the program. The major project should equal approximately 160 hours of effort by the TRT. The suggested major project for Little Rock Central High School NHS will be to review existing CHSC education materials, synthesize relevant curriculum with subject matter from external partners, and generate web-based content to better connect educators to CHSC and other sites connected to the Civil and Human Rights movements. The major project will consist primarily of researching and writing. Applications are due by Friday, May 15. For more information, please refer to the information included in the application. Completed applications should be delivered to Little Rock Central High School NHS either by mail, email or fax. Mail: Teacher Ranger Teacher c/o Little Rock Central High School NHS 2120 W. Daisy L. Gatson Bates Drive Little Rock, AR 72202 Email: Send to David_Kilton@nps.gov Fax: Send to (501) 396-3001 Attn: Teacher Ranger Teacher application |
Last updated: September 17, 2021