News Release

Tumacácori Receives Hybrid Learning Grant

Date: April 26, 2021
Contact: Melanie Rawlins, 520-377-5064

Tumacácori is one of 32 parks and park partners to receive an Open OutDoors for Kids Hybrid Learning grant from the National Park Foundation (NPF), which works in partnership with the National Park Service and the park partner community to ensure that national parks reach their fullest potential and connect with as many people as possible. This grant will enable Tumacácori to share its story through the voices of its many demonstrators, volunteers, and staff members and then create a space for students to lend their own voices to the discussion. The full list of grantees can be found on NPF’s website. 

For Tumacácori, the grant will support hiring a student intern over the 2021-2022 school year. This person will act as a guide for teachers and students navigating a three-step hybrid learning model. First, students will view the park's pre-recorded video content. Second, they conduct a live interview with a subject-matter expert. Lastly, the students produce their own audio/video report to be shared with other peer classes. Tumacácori’s ranger for youth and school programming, Melanie Rawlins, is looking forward to the opportunity to try out this new approach. "Tumacácori's meanings can change from person to person, moment to moment, so it's exciting to bring the 21^st century perspective into the mix,” she says. 

With more than 400 parks across all fifty states and the U.S. territories, the NPS traditionally hosts more than 60,000 in-park and distance learning education programs annually, serving over 1.8 million students.   

Recognizing that the COVID-19 pandemic has shifted how and where students are learning, NPF collaborated with the NPS to facilitate a program design workshop in September 2020 with leading experts in evaluation, digital programming, community engagement, and national park leadership. The goal being to advise on how NPF and NPS can meet the needs of students, teachers, schools, and communities during these uncertain times and how lessons learned can be applied in the long-term. The workshop led to the Open OutDoors for Kids Hybrid Learning program, an extension of NPF’s Open OutDoors for Kids Field Trip program.   

“National parks are America’s largest classrooms, and the National Park Foundation is committed to helping students, teachers, and families navigate learning during the pandemic and beyond,” said National Park Foundation President and CEO Will Shafroth. “From green time to screen time to family time, the National Park Foundation is helping the National Park Service and parks community engage students with educational opportunities across the country.”   

Since 2011, NPF has engaged more than one million students in educational programs connecting them with national parks across the country. Earlier this year, NPF announced its goal to connect another one million students to parks over the next four years.   

Thanks to private philanthropy, including support for Open OutDoors for Kids from Union Pacific Railroad, a premier partner of NPF’s Youth Education and Engagement initiative; Winnebago Industries Foundation; Niantic; Sierra; Columbia Sportswear; Parks Project; The Batchelor Foundation, Inc.; Humana; and many individual donors, NPF is investing nearly $1 million in the Open OutDoors for Kids Hybrid Learning program supporting communities across the country during the 2020-2021 school year.   

Learn more about NPF’s efforts to engage students with national parks as classrooms. 

ABOUT TUMACÁCORI NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK 

Tumacácori protects the ruins of three Spanish colonial mission sites and a stretch of the Santa Cruz River in O’odham homeland and interprets the stories of colonization, cultural blending, and adaptation.   

ABOUT THE NATIONAL PARK FOUNDATION  

The National Park Foundation works to protect wildlife and park lands, preserve history and culture, educate and engage youth, and connect people everywhere to the wonder of parks. We do it in collaboration with the National Park Service, the park partner community, and with the generous support of donors, without whom our work would not be possible.  Learn more at www.nationalparks.org.