Teaching the Next Generation of Conservationists
Environmental education programs sponsored by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reaches nearly one hundred thousand students and young people each year in California and Nevada. Photo Credit: USFWS
THREE STORIES: Connecting Youth to Nature
At the core of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service's mission is a passionate commitment to ensure the nation’s wildlife and plants are passed on to future generations to enjoy. That commitment is expressed in environmental education programs that introduce thousands of young people to their natural world, and educate them about the importance of conserving it.
For example, our wildlife refuges often serve as outdoor classrooms where students learn about conservation biology and science through hands on experiences. Over the past year in California and Nevada alone, 31,565 students participated in environmental education programs. Another 54,510 people have participated in educational wildlife interpretation programs.
Our partnership with the Santa Barbara Zoo and Fillmore Elementary school in Fillmore, California, has created a curriculum called “Condor Kids.” This science-based curriculum integrates a live-streaming video of nesting California condors and field trips to see condors in the wild into lessons about math, science and technology.
Through our Schoolyard Habitat Program, 80 schools provided their students the opportunity to create wildlife habitat as part of their environmental edication curriculum. Our Junior Duck Stamp Program in Nevada and California engages kindergarten through high school age student in a science-based curriculum focused on wetlands and waterfowl as expressed through art.
Read more about these speciific programs in the articles below...
A CondorKids student from Fillmore Middle School, Fillmore, Calif., with her condor wings. Photo Credit: Ashley Spratt/USFWS
CONDOR KIDS: California Educators Praise Ingenuity of CondorKids Environmental Education Program
What began as a tool for wildlife biologists to collect critical data on one of the world’s rarest birds has evolved into a full-fledged, multi-disciplinary environmental learning experience for hundreds of kids. And state educators are taking note of its success.
Sixth graders from Sterns Elementary School in Klamath Falls add native milkweed and other pollinator plants for monarch butterflies to their Schoolyard Habitat project. Photo credit: USFWS
SCHOOLYARD HABITAT: The Learning Program That Takes Classrooms Outside
The Pacific Southwest Region’s Schoolyard Habitat Program is a unique pairing of teachers and biologists whose goal is to bring the outdoors into the classroom and the classroom outdoors by providing opportunities for students to learn about the natural world around them and helps teachers to use the schoolyard to bring science to life.
The Federal Junior Duck Stamp art contest is relatively unknown throughout much of California. The Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge Complex staff are aiming to change that. Photo Credit: Cindy Sandoval/USFWS
JUNIOR DUCKSTAMP: Grants Expand Reach of Youth Art Program Throughout California
Last year, staff from the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge Complex (NWRC) and other partners provided lessons in wetlands and waterfowl conservation to more than 2,700 students in California through the Federal Junior Duck Stamp Program. This year, thanks to additional grant funding, regional and Refuge staff aim to carry those lessons to even more schools in the Central Valley.
