SPARKS Will Fly at WCS's Prospect Park Zoo
Brooklyn, NY – The Prospect Park
Zoo's SPARKS (Supporting Parents in Advocacy, Reform, and Knowledge in Science)
workshop offers a unique opportunity for parents to help make science
accessible for kids through hands-on
activities, animal encounters, and other interactive teaching methods.
Somewhere
between TV time, story time, and bedtime, the Prospect Park Zoo Education
Department is offering a very unique parent-child ritual: science-time. With
science test scores of U.S. students—particularly those in urban public
schools—failing to meet national standards, cultural institutions like
the Prospect Park Zoo are seeking innovative ways to supplement classroom
learning. SPARKS
parents learn about the scientific method, multiple intelligences theory, and
how standards are used in schools, all while doing hands-on activities
that they can take home to do with their kids. SPARKS parents will also go behind the scenes
at the zoo, meet some zoo animals, study animal behavior and learn about doing
worm-composting with children.
The two-day SPARKS workshop will take
place on: Sundays, January 24 and 31, 2010, Saturdays, March 6 and 13, 2010.
The workshop runs from 9 - 4:30 each day. This workshop is for parents of
pre-schoolers and elementary schoolers and for adults only. SPARKS has a $50 administrative fee, which
covers both days. To make a reservation and for more information, please call 718-399-7322.
In 1929, the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Bronx Zoo
established the first and longest operating Education Department of any zoo in
the country. Today, WCS provides educational services to more than two million
people in the New York metro area, trains
13,500 New York City
teachers, and educates hundreds of thousands of students in 50 states and 14
countries. WCS has won more Education Awards from the American Zoo and Aquarium
Association (AZA) than any other zoological institution and is the only
informal science institution with comprehensive curricular programs that have
been recognized by the U.S. Department of Education for their outstanding
educational merit.
Contact:
Fran Hackett - 718-265-3428
Prospect Park Zoo – Open every day of the
year. Admission is $7 for adults, $4 for seniors 65 and older, $3 for kids
3-12, free for children under 3. Zoo hours are 10am to 5pm weekdays, and 10am
– 5:30pm weekends, April through
October, and 10am – 4:30pm daily, November through
April. The Prospect Park Zoo is located at 450 Flatbush Avenue in Prospect Park,
Brooklyn. For further information, call
718-399-7339 or visit www.prospectparkzoo.com.
The Wildlife Conservation Society saves wildlife and wild places worldwide. We do so through science, global conservation, education and the management of
the world's largest system of urban wildlife parks, led by the flagship Bronx
Zoo. Together these activities change attitudes towards nature and help
people imagine wildlife and humans living in harmony. WCS is committed to
this mission because it is essential to the integrity of life on Earth.