Education United States Project #52592

Help 50 Title 1 Classrooms Meet Wildlife Up-Close!

by Piedmont Wildlife Center

Project Report | Jun 7, 2022
Summer Learning with Title 1 Summer Camps

By Noelle Dalhouse | Conservation Coordinator

Hi Friends!

I can't believe the school year is almost over and that summer is right around the corner. As our busy spring wraps up with the end of the school year, our summer is just getting started. This past spring, we visited over 10 Title 1 schools in the Triangle area in North Carolina because of YOUR donations. We're headed to our last school program today and it just so happens to be one that was funded by the donations from our GlobalGiving project!

While the school year is technically over for many students this week, that doesn't stop our efforts to continue to reach the students in our community who may not get the chance to see much wildlife during their summer camps. We will be visiting at least 7 different summer camp sites with the Durham Public School System over the next two months. All of these sites will be receiving a Title 1 discount as more than 75% of their campers will fall into the Title 1 category. Even though summer camp is a completely different and unique learning environment than the traditional classroom, students will still walk away from our programs with a renewed sense of wonder about wildlife and feel empowered to continue learning about them for years to come.

One of my favorite and most shocking stories from our Title 1 visits comes from a school we visited in Garner, North Carolina. We visited for three separate programs so that all of the 4th graders at the school would get the chance to learn about wildlife. In North Carolina, 4th and 5th graders typically learn about how animals and plants are connected through food chains, so our programs fit right into this essential NC Science Standard. During one of these programs, I brought out our very noisy red-shouldered hawk, Willow. As she normally does, she made her call when she came out of her box and immediately got the students' attention. After some excitement and a chance to take in the realization that there was a real hawk in their classroom, the students became enamored with Willow.

As we began talking about Willow, I mentioned that red-shouldered hawks are one of the most commonly seen and heard hawks in North Carolina. To my surprise, almost all of the students responded with "I've never seen a red-shouldered hawk before" or "I've never heard that call outside before". This came as a shock to me as Garner is far enough away from the City of Raleigh where there are plenty of fields and farms where red-shouldered hawks would live. I was suprised to learn that these students might not have had the chance to truly hang out in the woods and listen to the sounds of the forest. This conversation with the students reaffirmed that our programming is creating a unique learning environment for students who may never get the chance to experience wildlife on their own.

We're excited to continue to visit students over the summer and can't wait to share our stories with you!

Noelle Dalhouse

Links:

https://www.piedmontwildlifecenter.org/animal-encounters

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Jan 25, 2022
Our First Title 1 Classroom Visits

By Noelle Dalhouse | Conservation Coordinator

Hi Everyone!

I hope you're all staying warm through the winter. Over the past couple of weeks, Piedmont Wildlife Center and our Ambassador Animals have visited two Title 1 schools in Durham and Orange counties in North Carolina! Over the next two months, we'll be visiting at least 9 more Title 1 classrooms.

PWC was fortunate to receive a grant for $4500 to specifically visit Title 1 schools in the Triangle area. This grant allows for us to visit 10 Title 1 classrooms in our region. Teachers were encouraged to fill out our Title 1 interest application form. We had over 25 applicants! After choosing the classrooms that would benefit the most from our programming and would be able to apply it to their current curriculum, we began to see if there were leftover funds in the grant to visit at least one more school. With the limited leftover grant funding plus YOUR donations to our GlobalGiving project, we are now able to visit 11 total Title 1 classrooms this spring semester! We would not be able to provide the additional free program without YOUR support. Thank you!

While the grant we received does cover our travel expenses and instructor's time, it also allows us to provide each student in the 11 classrooms with two PWC bookmarks and a sticker. Each Title 1 classroom we visit with the grant will also get a 3-month Adopt-An-Ambassador Sponsorship of one of the animals they met during their program. We are piloting the idea of letting a classroom sponsor one of our animals. We're excited to hear feedback from the teachers and students!

We currently have 3 classrooms on our waiting list for a Title 1 program scholarship. These teachers are hoping that they will be able to provide a unique experience for their students in a year that has already been bursting with difficulties. Will you help us visit more Title 1 classrooms this spring?

Thank you for your continued support!

The PWC Conservation Team

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Sep 28, 2021
Anxiously Waiting to Visit Classrooms

By Noelle Dalhouse | Conservation Coordinator

Visiting Central Elementary

Hi Friends!

First, thank you so much for your donation(s) to Help 50 Title 1 Classrooms Meet Wildlife Up-Close. We are eternally grateful to each and every one of our donors. You make our work possible!

We are anxiously awaiting our chance to jump into a Title 1 school in Wake, Orange or Durham County with our animals. Getting a new project off the ground can be a slow start, but we remain vigilant with our efforts to find donors. Each program we take to Title 1 schools costs about $250 on average. Through this program, these programs will be FREE for teachers and schools.

You may be wondering what we do during our programs! For an hour, students get the opportunity to meet live North Carolina wildlife up-close from the comforts of their classroom. They learn all kinds of fun facts as well as the natural history of each animal including diet, habitat, predator/prey interactions and adaptations. With small classroom sizes of ~30 students or less, the students get the chance to touch some of our animals. This up-close, personal interaction with wild animals is always a unique experience and helps to spark curiosity and a yearning to learn more. The best part about our visits is that the teachers and schools don't need to worry about transportation or permission slips. We roll our animals in to the classroom in a large red cart and the experience can begin right after lunch, math or even as soon as the students step off the bus in the morning.

We actively email local area teachers year-round to get the word out about our programs, but these efforts are ramped up in August and January. Hours upon hours are spent emailing teachers to let them know of this awesome resource in their backyards. Once we hear back from an interested teacher, we are able to coordinate programs and pricing, based on each individual teacher's needs. Once we have enough money in our project fund, we will be launching a Title 1 school program request form on our website. This will enable interested Title 1 school teachers to sign up for a scholarship for us to visit their classrooms.

We're so excited to visit classrooms soon! Prior to COVID, we had the chance to visit Central Elementary in Orange County at least twice. During these visits, the students' eyes lit up everytime we brought out a new animal. Many of the students commented that they had never seen these animals in real life and especially not in their classroom. The teacher emailed afterwards letting us know that we were the talk of her students and they couldn't believe those animals came right into their classroom to see them!

Please share our project with any friends you may know who might be interested in donating. We look forward to sharing our adventures around the Triangle with you soon!

Best,

The PWC Conservation Team

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