National Park Educational Program offered to schools

Great Smoky Mountains National Park is pleased to offer its spring Parks as Classrooms (PaC) program, March – May, for kindergarten-8th grade students from Tennessee schools. The PaC program provides an opportunity for students to participate in an outdoor education program that integrates the natural and cultural resources of Great Smoky Mountains National Park with Tennessee curriculum objectives. Resource Education Park Rangers are the subject experts and primary instructors during on-site field trips to the Park, with assistance from the classroom teachers. Lesson plans help the students learn all the educational disciplines, including science, language arts, social studies, music, arts, and mathematics. During activities, the Park becomes an outdoor classroom with hands-on learning experiences at several Park locations. The following are the programs available at this time: Coopers Branch Classroom (Cades Cove) (1st grade) Has students become nature detectives by participating in a discovery hike to learn about habitats and a show and tell activity to learn about the six different animal groups and their characteristics. Porters Flat Classroom (Greenbrier) and Cove Homeplace Classroom (Cades Cove) (2nd grade) Takes children back into time to discover how early settlers used the forest for obtaining food and medicines and to recreate the experience of building a log home using real tools. Habitat Diversity Classroom (3rd grade) Students will be given clues to discover how specific animals are interdependent in a forest or stream habitat, and build their own habitat using a “diversity” of species. This program is offered at Metcalf Bottoms and Cosby. Class size is limited to 40 students. Clingmans Dome and Look Rock Classrooms (5th grade) Activities provide students an opportunity to examine plant and animal interactions in a high elevation forest ecosystem, as well as study about the impacts to the forest from non-native insects and air pollution. Students will visit one of the Park’s air quality monitoring stations. Cades Cove Loop Classroom (6th grade) Involves a bicycle tour part of the way around Cades Cove Loop Road. Students will become Park managers and plan the future of four key resources of the Cove. Class size is limited to 30 students. This program can also be given as a hayride for larger groups rather than on bicycles. (A small fee per student is required to rent the bicycles or hay wagon.) Cades Cove Classroom (7th grade) displays the rich variety of life found in the Smokies and takes students on an exploration into how biologists track animals and manage black bear, elk and wild hogs. Students will also use clues to examine many of the historic structures in Cades Cove. Biodiversity Classroom (8th grade) Students will study biodiversity by hands-on sampling and inventorying insects and salamanders in a forest and stream habitat. Classroom size is limited to 40 students and is offered near Sugarlands Visitor Center. All activities are conducted in a three-hour program (including lunch break), March - May. Class size is limited to a minimum of 15 and a maximum of 60, unless otherwise noted. In addition to the on-site trips, most units include a pre-visit materials package with logistical information, a video, and pre-site and post-site lesson plans for use in the classroom. Interested teachers can contact the Park at 865/436-1713 to obtain a program flier and reservation form. Reservations are prioritized as they are received by mail. These educational programs would not be possible without the generous support of Friends of Great Smoky Mountains National Park and many other local donors.