Lynn Fonfa, Education Specialist
Golden Gate National Parks
Introduction to PARK Teachers
Like many other national parks in the 1990s, our education staff started looking more specifically at which teachers were bringing their students to our park for field sessions. It was hard to miss that the teachers able to access our programs taught at well-resourced schools that promoted outdoor learning opportunities for their students. Many parks then made it their top priority to reach out and provide programs for underserved schools. 
At Golden Gate, we focused on 1. Directing our resources to programs and buses for underserved schools, and 2. Designing and delivering education programs that include a teacher workshop providing content, a curriculum suggesting lessons, and safety messages curbing group management concerns to make the field component more accessible and relevant to principals and educators.
Our staff also realized that the overwhelming majority of teachers who participated in our programs were experienced classroom educators with the confidence to take students on field sessions, as well as the well-honed ability to organize such a trip with ease. We asked ourselves– how could we best reach teachers earlier in their career to plant the seeds of place-based learning? In fact, could we introduce new secondary science teachers to national parks as premier places of learning while they are earning their teaching credential? This idea grew into PARK Teachers, a partnership with Golden Gate and San Francisco State University Secondary Science Teachers’ Credential Program, initially funded by the Toyota USA Foundation and the National Park Foundation in 2005.
We chose San Francisco State University (SFSU) as our key partner because SFSU’s credential program is widely acknowledged as an excellent course of study. SFSU’s candidates conduct their pre-service work primarily in San Francisco schools. And, many choose to remain and teach in the San Francisco Bay Area.
The NPS staff met with Dr. Kathleen O’Sullivan, the education professor who taught the secondary science methods course at SFSU and had over 20 years of experience working with both pre- and in-service teachers in largely urban settings. Her course emphasized inquiry-based instruction; students as constructors of their own knowledge; a standards-based curriculum; and congruency among standards, student outcomes, and instructional activities. She believed strongly in the project and envisioned the PARK Teachers program as part of her “how to form laboratory units” for her candidates. We were fortunate to forge our partnership with Dr. O’Sullivan in 2005, and since then with Dr. Lawrence Horvath, who succeeded her in 2011.
Our university partners were enthusiastic to incorporate a field-based inquiry module in their course because they agreed this would be the perfect time for credential candidates to see how informal settings, such as national parks, can enhance formal science instruction and engage students in authentic science. It also could prove to be an opportunity to see how outside experts can offer classroom support on a variety of science topics.
They also concurred that new teachers 
• Can be overwhelmed with curriculum mandates
• Are not certain how outdoor pedagogy can enhance their teaching and student learning
• May have limited contact with experienced teachers who know how to access community resources
• Tend to be assigned to schools in low-income areas whose students have less exposure to national parks
• Seek guidance in designing units aligned with standards and are student-centered

Building the Program and NPS Team
Golden Gate offers an array of possible investigative sites for scientific inquiry. The park - with fragile native habitats, ancient redwood groves, and dramatic coastal preserve - is the setting for one of the largest and most inspiring urban outdoor classrooms. From the initial discussions, the NPS staff and Dr. O’Sullivan favored the design of a geology-based program for four key reasons:
1.	Demonstrated need by secondary teachers to learn geology in an authentic context
2.	The Marin Headlands’ world renowned location for the study of geology and plate tectonics of the important Franciscan Complex
3.	The expertise of the NPS staff to create learning opportunities in geologic study
4.	How often can you say you walked across an ancient seafloor?
We formed our park team based on the project’s goal to create a geologic investigation: 1. Two NPS Education Specialists (who served as project managers), 2. The Education Park Ranger with expertise in geology, primarily responsible for the design and delivery of the program (a former classroom teacher and designer of several park education programs, including the one on which PARK Teachers is based), and 3. A Park Ranger in the Interpretive Division with a PhD in geology (who had taught at the college level, as well as presented an array of public geology programs).
The full team – NPS and SFSU - then identified the two critical issues to track: 1. How could the field session provide a high-quality inquiry experience? How could the module strike a balance between inquiry and instruction within the relatively short time frame of a one-day field session? Candidates would need time to observe, interact, and create their own understanding of the geologic changes evidenced by the Franciscan rocks. They would need to feel that the lessons and new teaching tools were useful, meaningful, and could be applied to their own classroom curriculum. (Dr. Horvath and Park Ranger Roxi Farwell offer their perspectives in their short essays.)
PARK Teachers has brought together formal and informal educators to encourage aspiring classroom teachers to view outdoor pedagogy as an exciting alternative (or supplement) to textbook learning. Entering into our 12th year of partnership, we can share our most salient agreements that reaffirm our commitment to each other, teachers, and their students: 
•	All team members understand the science and classroom pedagogy
•	The field experience is linked to laboratory learning units taught at the university classroom
•	The field experience is based on inquiry and student-centered learning activities
•	The field experience can be modified based on prior knowledge of the candidates
•	All team members share assessments to inform future efforts
•	The specific site of the field session may shift based on priority for safe, non-impact, hands-on investigations
The Project Team's list of shared agreements will be familiar to those who have embarked on similar journeys. Other national parks have begun and sustained their own PARK Teachers as participants in the original project sponsored by the Toyota USA Foundation and the National Park Foundation. We encourage you to learn more about their programs as you consider the PARK Teachers model for your park or historic site.