by David Wheeler, CWF Executive Director
CWF’s innovative environmental education program served as the cover story for the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA) Review, a monthly magazine that reaches over 200,000 subscribers, including every public school teacher in the state. The story, written by education director Stephanie DAlessio and executive director David Wheeler, highlights CWF’s singular approach to environmental education, which meets NGSS standards by melding experiential learning with scientific observation and hypothesis testing about nature’s phenomena via wildlife webcams and other online resources, all based on educational theory.
In doing so, we help develop their interest in STEAM, or Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics – a vital field that offers growing opportunities in career development.
CWF has worked over the past year with schools in Newark, Camden, Linden, Trenton, Margate, Millburn, Byram, Asbury Park, East Brunswick, and many other municipalities across the state on initiatives ranging from single talks to monthly programming. Generous sponsors like NJEA, Phillips 66, PSEG, Victoria Foundation, The Merrill G. and Emita E. Hastings Foundation, Lackland Foundation, Church & Dwight, GAF, and Wakefern Corporation have made our educational work possible.
CWF’s celebrated Species on the Edge art-and-essay contest for fifth-graders across the state has attracted over 25,000 participants over the past decade, with the winners celebrated in a field trip and an awards ceremony. And our Species on the Edge 2.0 multimedia contest for high-schoolers across the state has given thousands of dollars in college scholarships to the winning students.
For more information on how your school or organization can benefit from our educational programming – which includes in-school programs, after-school programs, summer camps, professional development workshops for teachers, curriculum and lesson plan development, art and video programs, field trips, kindergarten and Mommy & Me programs – contact CWF education director Stephanie DAlessio at stephanie.dalessio@conservewil
Teachers are invited to consider attending CWF’s “Bald Eagle Ecology for Teachers” professional development workshop at Duke Farms on January 13.