•
: A Module Written for The National Mall and Memorial Parks
Students explore the management of the abiotic, biotic and cultural components of urban pools,
through analysis of water quality in the Reflecting Pool and other built pools in the park.
•
: A Module Written for Harpers Ferry National Historical Park
The physical and historical geography of the Harpers Ferry area demonstrates how landscapes
shape human history and how human endeavors profoundly affect natural landscapes—a
powerful reminder that the actions of today determine the opportunities of tomorrow.
Modules are under development for four other participating parks, including the Chesapeake and Ohio
Canal National Historical Park, George Washington Memorial Parkway, Manassas National Battlefield,
and Prince William Forest Park.
All modules are written to fit the model of a Meaningful Watershed Educational Experience,
under the Chesapeake Bay 2000 Agreement.
In addition to the partnership with the NPS, BTW partners with local school systems. The most
significant of these is with Prince George’s County Public Schools (PGCPS). The school system has
written BTW into the Scope and Sequence document for the high school Environmental Science course.
In addition, PGCPS releases teachers from their regular classroom duties 5 days per year to attend
professional development workshops with BTW, and provides substitutes for these days as well as during
field studies. The process for gaining permission to take students has been streamlined for teachers. In
return, BTW (as with all other schools), charges no fee for the program or training, and provides funding
for bus transportation to the parks.
The partnership aspect of the BTW program has been an asset to all parties involved, though can
be a challenge. The cooperative agreement that formalizes the relationship between AFF and NPS is held
at Rock Creek Park, though the partnership is with 11 parks in the region.
A Ranger Liaison group has been convened quarterly through the life of the program to
communicate information to and share ideas with the frontline rangers who deliver the program in their
parks. Members are tasked with communicating about BTW back to others in their parks, and all help
shape the program as it grows and changes. However, the fairly significant turnover in personnel at many
of the parks has lead to difficulty in having consistent representation at these meetings.
In the last year, an Advisory Council was formed to bring together stakeholders from both AFF
and NPS in an effort to expedite the decision-making process. This increases the communication within
the parks, by adding a top-down element to the current bottom-up strategy. Soon, representatives from the
third stakeholder group, the school systems that participate, will be invited to join the Council.
This strong base partnership puts BTW in excellent position as it enters the next phase of
program development. BTW is poised to receive significant funding increases, through a few anticipated
private grants and the NPS’s Centennial Challenge (see
). The additional funding
would allow BTW to shore up the service learning initiative, and to expand programming in systemic
fashion to several more school districts in the region.
Convention