In a world increasingly focused on environmental conservation, it is vitally important that urban children understand and appreciate the natural world around them.
Thanks to the National Grid Foundation’s Into the Forest Program, students from three schools in Brooklyn are getting to experience the Prospect Park Alliance’s acclaimed Science for All curriculum free of charge for three years.
The three schools participating in the program are PS 249, 18 Marlborough Road; PS 22, 443 Saint Marks Avenue, and PS 375, 46 Mckeever Place.
Science for All is an environmental science outreach program for elementary school children in grades 2−5. Students attend four sessions with Prospect Park Audubon Center Teacher Naturalists in the park and at their school.
Teacher Naturalists facilitate program activities for each class, focusing on one of three topic areas: pond life, forests, and birds (the current year’s program is called “Bonkers for Birds”).
The program stresses hands−on learning activities, utilizing the interactive exhibits of the Audubon Center and the forest, water features and varied natural settings of 585−acre Prospect Park. The Into the Forest Program began with students in grade 2, and will continue with the same students through grade 4; culminating with the fourth grade elementary−level science test.