The Education Department at Potter Park Zoo is excited to offer a series of Professional Development Seminars for teachers. These trainings will focus on environmental and place-based education that teachers can do both at their schools and here at the zoo.
Upcoming Sessions:
January 27, 2025 8:00 AM-3:30 PM
Growing Up WILD and Trees and Me
Growing Up WILD And Trees and Me are excellent resources for bring environmental education to our younger learners!
Growing Up WILD is the early childhood offering from the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies’ Project WILD line of resources. Geared at ages 3-7, this guide provides lesson plans and resources for helping young learners explore nature and learn about the world around them.
Trees and Me is the early childhood guide for the Project Learning Tree program from the Sustainable Forestry Initiative. This manual is designed for learners ages 1-6 and provides lots of fun games, activities, and lessons for engaging littles in exploring nature, with an emphasis on forests.
Snacks will be provided throughout the day. Lunch will be on your own from 11:00 to Noon. You are welcome to bring a sack lunch and explore the zoo during your lunch or head out to any of the great Lansing eateries within easy distance of the zoo.
Registration is $60 and includes both manuals. SCECHs will be available, so make sure you bring your PIC! If you have any questions, please feel free to email Rebecca Morningstar at rmorningstar@ingham.org.
Agenda at-a-glance:
8:00-11:00 Growing up WILD, Tips and Tricks
11:00-12:00 Lunch on your own
12:00-3:30 Trees and Me, Sample Activities
Past Sessions:
May 16, 2024 8:00 AM-3:00 PM
Project WILD and Project Learning Tree Professional Development
Project WILD is a K-12 curriculum resource/training from the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies that equips teachers with the skills and activities to integrate outdoor learning and environmental education into their classes. You leave the roughly five hour training with a book containing over 500 pages of activities and resources including links to Wildlife Careers, STEM extensions and detailed lesson plans. More information can be found here: https://www.fishwildlife.org/projectwild.
In addition to Project WILD, we will also be working our way through the Project Learning Tree guide from the Sustainable Forestry Initiative, discovering how to move our classroom outside to use trees and forests as a window to environmental education, environmental justice and more! More information can be found here: https://www.plt.org/
This training will be in person at the zoo from 8:00 AM to 3:00 PM. Registration fee is $70 and includes two manuals for you to take home, lunch and the full day of training. SCECHs will be available, so make sure you bring your PIC!
Questions about Professional Development?
For questions regarding Professional Development, please email Rebecca Morningstar at rmorningstar@ingham.org.
