CONTACT:
Nicola Whitley: (603) 271-3211
Lindsay Webb: (603) 271-6649
February 22, 2023
Concord, NH – Whether in school or at home, students, teachers, and parents are working harder than ever to enhance each child’s educational experience. To help fuel curiosity about the wildlife and wild places of the Granite State, the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department (NHFG) offers a diversity of educational resources to connect youth of different ages with their natural environment—including their backyards.
Thanks to a grant from the Wildlife Heritage Foundation of New Hampshire, Wild Times for Kids engages younger students with the natural world through fascinating stories, images, and games that introduce them to ecological concepts and scientific information. In the latest issue titled “Winter Wildlife,” students will learn about how different animals prepare for winter. Wild Times for Kids presents terminology that can be defined by reading the text of the issue and provides key words used in many science textbooks. Explore the latest issue for your class or home-learning environment by visiting https://wildlife.state.nh.us/pubs/kids.html.
The New Hampshire Wildlife Journal features stories and columns that connect the reader with New Hampshire’s diverse wildlife resources and opportunities to explore the Granite State’s natural environment and sporting heritage. Ideal for middle and high school students, the magazine is published 6 times annually by the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department and contains no commercial advertising. Subscription revenue helps Fish and Game conserve and manage the state’s natural resources, promote conservation education, and maintain opportunities for outdoor recreation in the Granite State. Visit www.wildnh.com.
Subscriptions are just $12 for one year – that’s 40% off the cover price – or $20 for two years. Subscribe online or by mail at www.wildnh.com/pubs/wj-magazine.html. New Hampshire Wildlife Journal magazine also makes a great gift subscription to your school’s library program!
NHFG also offers educational programming designed to enrich each student’s in-person learning experience about their natural surroundings. The Wildlife Education Program helps to provide students of all ages with a connection to wildlife through high-quality professional development for teachers and educators of pre-K through grade 12 students, including home schoolers and non-formal educators. Hands-on activity-based professional development workshops offered annually include Project WILD, Aquatic WILD, Growing Up WILD, and Below Zero and are available as half-day, full-day, and multi-day workshops depending on the topic. To learn more about upcoming workshops, sign up for Educator eNews by visiting https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/su/g7Zbw07/WildEducation.
To enhance lessons or educational units, fur, track, moose, and furbearer fundamentals curriculum kits can be checked out for up to two weeks. These hands-on tools get students “in touch” with wildlife and track and scat cards help to identify two types of wildlife sign students may encounter even in their own back yards. To request any of these resources visit https://wildlife.state.nh.us/education/kits.html.
Supported by a growing number of virtual and video resources, the Watershed Education Program is aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards and includes water quality and macroinvertebrate monitoring, watershed mapping using ArcGIS technology, and the study of warm- and coldwater fish habitats using tanks in the classroom. Students can become citizen scientists, studying and working with local community partners to improve and maintain healthy aquatic ecosystems for fish and other wildlife. To learn more visit https://www.wildlife.state.nh.us/education/watershed.html.
Schoolyard Action Grants from the New Hampshire Partnership for Schoolyard Action Grants are available for schools with students from pre-K through grade 12 to help fund nature-based outdoor projects. The New Hampshire Partnership for Schoolyard Action Grants includes the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service New England Field Office, NH Project Learning Tree, the NH Fish and Game Department, and New Hampshire Audubon with financial support from the Wildlife Heritage Foundation of New Hampshire. The partnership was created to make it easier for school staff to apply for grants to enhance their schoolyards. Now a common grant application works for all four of the partner organizations and streamlines the application process. Connections to curriculum, more information about the grant program, and the grant application can be found by visiting https://wildlife.state.nh.us/education/grants.html.
To learn more about any of these and other exciting educational programs visit www.wildnh.com/education.