Environmental Appreciation Day
Each spring, more than 500 students participate in 4-H Environmental Appreciation Days, a unique outdoor environmental education program that takes local 4th, 5th and 6th graders out of their classrooms for a day and into direct contact with nature: at State parks, 4-H Acres, and other natural sites around Tompkins County. The goal of the event is to expand students' knowledge of the natural world and to help them develop a sense of environmental stewardship.
Begun over 20 years ago, 4-H Environmental Appreciation Days are coordinated by Tompkins County 4-H and New York Finger Lakes State Parks. Over 70 volunteer instructors spend a day leading students through 50-minute hands-on nature and ecology lessons. Local teachers choose what lessons their classes will attend, and students generally complete three lessons during their excursions, on topics that range from "Stream Ecology" and "Wildflower Walk" to "Giant Beasts of the Ice Age".
Volunteers are welcome!
Volunteer instructors are what makes this event so successful for the young people who participate. As a volunteer, you can create and teach a lesson by yourself or with a friend, on any topic that will help students become more environmentally aware: birds, trees, watersheds, compost, geology, or whatever you are passionate about. You may submit your lesson ideas online through this site.
Or you may choose to use one of our existing educational kits which contain lesson plans, background information and teaching materials. Several topic area kits are available including "Stream Ecology", "The Beauty of Bats", "Leave it to Beaver", "Animal Tracking" and others. If you would rather help with the logistics of moving students through the program smoothly, you may volunteer to be a site coordinator.
Once you send in your volunteer application (and your idea for an environmental lesson, if you have one) we'll sign you up for an orientation session that covers the basic information we think you'll need to succeed. First, you'll receive your Volunteer Information Packet that covers the EAD program, what to expect of a typical EAD day, site maps, school info, and the other volunteer instructors and site coordinator who will be at your site. Once you're comfortable with the program, the focus of the meeting will shift to helping you create and teach lessons that capture students' interest and give the youth a chance to discover something new while they "do" science in a park setting. You can ask as many questions as you like while meeting the other volunteers who are participating in EAD!
