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Environmental Education Exchange
Contact: Hale Sargent, 415-623-2344 This school year, more than 2,500 fourth graders across Tucson and southern Arizona connected with the 100th birthday of the National Park Service through 100 classroom presentations about the Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail. Exploring the Anza Trail brings a vivid storyteller into the classroom, along with pre- and post-visit activities about our country’s Spanish colonial history. The nonprofit Environmental Education Exchange developed the curriculum-based program for the Anza Trail, and Saguaro National Park helped the classrooms connect to Every Kid in a Park. Jordan Wiley-Hill served as the storyteller during this year’s presentations. His extensive experience as a classroom teacher, professional storyteller, and dramatic educator helped bring the subject to life in ways that were fun, age-appropriate, and deeply engaging. “This was one of the most exciting presentations we have had,” one teacher wrote. “The presenter held the students' attention the entire time.” Due to the program’s success and interest among teachers, the classroom visits will be available again in the fall. Evaluations for the entire Exploring the Anza Trail program were extremely positive. The on-site presentation received predominantly excellent ratings in all categories; 82% of teachers indicated they completed the pre-visit lesson, and 23% indicated they had completed the post-visit activities, with 65% indicating they planned to complete some lessons soon. ### |
Last updated: February 21, 2018