C2. Environmental Education Youth Program

Training for Education or Environmental Sciences students

Having a mission to support next generations environmental education efforts and thus bring up thoughtful citizens that will learn to see connections between human activities and condition of nature, SDS/III in cooperation with other community minded organizations developed an idea of creating LaBelle Nature Park Educational Center. The LaBelle Park is currently used (among other functions) as a field trip destination for Hendry County K-12 classes. Our plans call for using the Park as a focus of more structured K-12 natural resources and environmental education curriculums. Researching existing curriculum structures and incorporating the Park related activities into the lessons plans are main objectives of this training assignment.

List of main tasks: Research current environmental education curriculums of K-12 schools; Investigate students' interests in theirs environment related activities; Design LaBelle Park new activities to help students become more involved and aware of environmental issues; Incorporate these new activities (tours, workshops, environment related events, etc.) into education curriculums; Stimulate students' interests in management of natural resources and further studies of the topic; Promote the pursuit of environment related careers among the student; Document efficiency of newly developed activities; Develop and maintain related websites.