Program:
School & Youth Groups
- Budget:
-
$47,718
- Category:
-
Environment
- Population Served:
-
Children and Youth (infants - 19 years.)
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Adults
-
Aging/Elderly/Senior Citizens
Program Description:
Placer Nature Center provides engaging interactive outdoor programs for preschool through high school students. We engage students in learning through real-world, hands-on experiences with a focus on environmental literacy, science and nature. All our programs are designed to meet the California Content Standards in science, natural and cultural history and social studies. All programs relate lessons to natural resources with special focus on how humans interact with our environment and our watershed.
Programs are given at the nature center, in a local nature preserve or at the school or community center. Every program builds awareness about the local environment through trail walks and theme-related interactive activities. Customized programs are given for Girl and Boy Scout groups working on badges. Programs are delivered by senior citizens and college students.
Program Long-Term Success:
Many past students have been inspired to pursue scientific, public service or teaching careers. Other students have applied stewardship attitudes to decision making in both general business and commerce, returning to do college level internships or high school projects.
Education obtained through our programs instills a sense of personal responsibility in each student to the natural world. Our community will become increasingly more sustainable and be preserved for future generations. Parents and teachers of students who attended school field trips return to become docents and board members.
Program Short-Term Success:
Students will show growth in personal, social and academic skills. They will develop skills in problem solving and critical thinking and creativity. Students will behave better in school and get better test results.
Students will connect every day actions to world-wide pressing environmental concerns. All programs are presented by staff naturalists and trained volunteer docents who actively engage students using an interdisciplinary and interactive approach. Multiple students return to the nature center with their families for community events and volunteerism.
Program Success Monitored by:
Success and areas of improvements are monitored through student surveys, teacher surveys, personal interviews, and statistical tracking of returning teachers and schools.
Teachers/parents evaluate each program using a rubric inclusive of scheduling to delivery. School programs at Placer Nature Center are dynamic, changing as the California content standards change as well as with feedback from facilitators and teachers. School groups pay for these programs unless grant funds are available.
Program Success Examples:
Placer Nature Center works more with school children than any other population. Since programs were first offered, program options have grown from 5 to 25 and the area we service from local to regional as requested by teachers and service professionals.
Students report in surveys that they “enjoy science more,” wish they “had more time” in the programs and can readily report back key topics and ideas taught during the programs. One teacher reported she had before never seen “so many hands raised” after asking a lesson related question.
Program Docents report meeting students in public or on repeat field trips more than a year apart with students recognizing and acknowledging the docent and recounting what they remembered from their experience at the nature center.
Former students have returned to volunteer multiple years through high school and college.
Program:
Community Workshops, Events and Classes
- Budget:
-
$69,279
- Category:
-
Education
- Population Served:
-
General Public/Unspecified
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Children and Youth (infants - 19 years.)
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Adults
Program Description:
Programs offered to the community provide environmental education on local and regional topics. Programs include organized events such as First Friday Lecture Series (college students, adults, seniors), Adventures in Nature (family-orientated, all ages), Green Gardening (adults, seniors), Astronomy & Star Gazing (all-ages), various one-time events and on-going drop-in activities at the nature center (all-ages).
The First Friday Lecture Series provides brain food on current environmental issues. Every month Adventures in Nature engages families in outdoor discovery and hands-on activities in seasonal fun. Star classes for the budding astronomers and gardening classes for the gardener add to the list of provided programs.
Free classes are given for parents and their preschoolers giving parents the skills and confidence to bring their preschoolers outside for experiences essential to their development.
All programs are either free are low cost. Members of the nature center get into these programs at greater reduced cost or free.
Program Long-Term Success:
Participants will have a greater understanding of their connection to the environment. This awareness will influence changes in day-to-day behavior and consumer habits. Participants will also continue learning about and engaging with their local environment through returning to the nature center’s programs, self-guided learning, citizen science activities, and sharing new knowledge with loved ones.
Program Short-Term Success:
Over 8,000 people will return to the nature center throughout the year for various programs.
Program Success Monitored by:
Number of participants are counted on a daily bases and per program/event. Online learning is also monitored through tracking newsletter hits, links, and shares, web visits, time spent per page and the number of people reading web posts on external websites.
Program Success Examples:
Over 20,000 hits to the website each year, and additional 10,000 hits to the nature center's blog. FaceBook friends have grown at an average of 15% per year over the last two years. Visitation is increasing at the center at about 10% per year.
As of November 2011, memberships have doubled in the last two years and donations have quadrupled in the last two years.
Program:
Teacher Workshops
- Budget:
-
$22,184
- Category:
-
Environment
- Population Served:
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Poor/Economically Disadvantaged, Indigent, General
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Children and Youth (infants - 19 years.)
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Adults
Program Description:
Placer Nature Center provides continuing education workshops for teachers to augment their curriculum with local environmental and science knowledge. These programs are often free to the teachers and provide required professional development units. Project Learning Tree, and Project WILD, are examples of the workshops we facilitate.
Annually, the Placer Nature Center collaborates with Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) for a PLT Energy and Society workshop. Through grant funds from Placer First 5, we also deliver a series of workshops, Discovering Nature with Children, for early childhood educators. Workshops (6 per year) focus on the integration of nature play into their curriculum. Teachers become aware of tools and resources to enhance their lesson plans using the local environment as the context for learning. .
Program Long-Term Success:
Teachers will actively incorporate nature and Science education in their classrooms. Students will benefit with higher reading and math scores as science encourages cross-curriculum learning and discovery.
Program Short-Term Success:
Teachers self-report the necessity of these programs, actively what will be used in the classroom. Teacher workshops are continually adjusted to fit the requests form teachers.
Program Success Monitored by:
Teacher evaluations and surveys through self-administered questionnaires and over the phone surveys demonstrate the value of the workshop for their classroom. Over 98% of surveys are returned. Since 2008, a variety of topics have been shared, many suggested through teacher surveys, with the most popular being, Birds, insects, and Gardening. Collaboration with Placer First 5 and SMUD sustains these programs.
Program Success Examples:
Teachers who have returned to programs year after year have reported how their classrooms have physically changed to incorporate science learning. Reports from teachers have described: creating a learning library with more science books, school gardens and outdoor lessons, school-yard based phenology projects with students using writing and math skills to observe plant and wildlife, and greater student engagement requesting science based materials.
Program:
Volunteer Opportunities
- Budget:
-
$4,352
- Category:
-
Environment
- Population Served:
-
Children and Youth (infants - 19 years.)
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Aging/Elderly/Senior Citizens
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Young Adults (20-25 years) -- currently not in use
Program Description:
Placer Nature Center includes opportunities for community members to give back through their volunteer programs. Family and Community Volunteer days are promoted a few times a year with themed activities that enhance the Nature Center’s facilities from its garden, buildings or trails. These incorporate education about the local environment, guided by staff and college interns.
Docenting has long been the most popular volunteer opportunity. Docents are trained to facilitate school programs given throughout the school year. Other volunteers are trained to host outreach venues like fairs while others devote their energy to trail and garden maintenance. Eagle Scouts and senior projects are also hosted at the nature center.
Internships are promoted to college students. Interns from a variety of fields are able to enhance their career goals through hands on experience in the field. Internships are evaluated by the participants. Partnering with our local colleges for the interns sustains this program.
Program Long-Term Success:
Volunteerism builds community pride and support. It encourages engaged citizens who will advocate for the well-being of their community and neighborhoods. Programs encourage networking and building new friendships.
Participants will also develop long-term behaviors to continue volunteering and environmental stewardship behaviors.
Program Short-Term Success:
At a minimum the following will receive training, support and experience each year:
* 6 new interns
* 6 new docents
* 4 scout projects
* 3 large-scale, organized family-based volunteer opportunities
Docents continue for 3 or more years, teaching at least one program every 2 weeks. As of November 2011, over 25 active docents participate in teaching and on-going training
Program Success Monitored by:
Participation is monitored and counted as well as the media for each event. The number of volunteer hours ar tracked throughout the year as well as the number of individual youth projects.
Program Success Examples:
In 2011 a successful project called Native Bee Sanctuaries was developed, planned and orchestrated by local college interns. Families and individuals volunteered to plant gardens to attract native pollinators. Interns taught about the plants and pollinators, linking the volunteer work to the long-term project goals, the importance of native insects and to teach people how they could replicate the gardens at home.
Program:
Camp
- Budget:
-
$3,043
- Category:
-
Environment
- Population Served:
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Children Only (5 - 14 years)
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Youth/Adolescents only (14 - 19 years)
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Young Adults (20-25 years) -- currently not in use
Program Description:
Day camp is hosted for children 6-12 years old. Each of 5 weeks has a themed camp such as flutterbys, howlers, geology rocks, and water wizards. Children pay a fee for the camp unless grant funds are available for scholarships. In this program camp counselors are teen volunteers that also acquire knowledge, experience and volunteer hours working with these children. Funding from grant sources help sustain this program along with camper fees. Staff and parent feedback and the enthusiasm of the campers drive the development of new topics and the improvement of the popular ones.
Program Long-Term Success:
Children become life-long learners incorporating the scientific method into their learning patterns. Children also develop environmental leadership skills to help their decision-making.
Program Short-Term Success:
Over 100 children participate in week-long camp programs, learning about science, natural phenomenon and the local environment. Over 35 teen counselors are trained and participate during the camps to help guide the younger students while gaining the same skills the campers are learning as well as gaining work experience.
Program Success Monitored by:
The number of campers, qualitative reports from parents, repeat campers.
Program Success Examples:
During the 2011 Summer Camp sessions a mother called to see if we could handle a child with high-level autism. The boy attend his first week and having enjoyed it so much he attended multiple weeks of camp.
Another mother reported that her son would never share what is happening at school, but after a day of camp would “not stop talking” about everything he learned.