OUTDOOR BRIEFS

NATIONAL HONOR

Nevada Project Wild gains recognition

The Nevada Department of Wildlife Project Wild program has gained kudos from the national Project Wild office. This widely used education program is based on a curriculum developed by conservation educators and wildlife managers nationwide, and is supported by each state's fish and wildlife agency.

With help from the Clark County School District partnership office, NDOW correlated the activities contained in the Project Wild curriculum to the Nevada state education standards. The state Department of Education developed these standards to guide teachers in planning their lessons. With the recent emphasis for classroom teachers to "teach to the standards," these correlations become invaluable for validating the effectiveness of the Project Wild program.

"The correlations will make both the Project Wild program and NDOW's overall wildlife education program more accessible to educators," said Margie Klein, Conservation Educator for NDOW.

Currently, the correlations are to the life science standards, as this is where most of the activities match up. The standards for grades 3-5 are addressed, as that is the target audience for NDOW's wildlife education program. Correlations were done for both the Project Wild basic curriculum and the Project Wild Aquatic curriculum.

Project Wild can be used in an extracurricular fashion or as a supplement to standard school-based curriculum. Any number of the Project Wild activities can be used to enhance and illustrate concepts in all school subjects -- science, math, English, social studies, art, music and physical education -- through scenarios using wildlife. The activities can also be used as stand-alone lessons to teach about wildlife and the environment.

Although NDOW has offered Project Wild teacher training for years, the curriculum was not previously correlated to state standards, though it had been correlated to national standards. Nevada now joins several other states whose Project Wild curricula are correlated to their own state standards. Josetta Hawthorne, executive director of the Council for Environmental Education, which administers the Project Wild curriculum, said that the news of the correlations being done "was a delight to see." She added that the national office will add Nevada to the list of states that have updated WILD correlations.

Clark County School District teachers can find the correlations on the school district's Web site, under Beyond the Classroom, on the Nevada Department of Wildlife page. Other educators can find them on the NDOW Web site, at www.ndow.org. NDOW conducts Project Wild classes each spring and fall. Registration for classroom teachers is through the Clark County School District's Pathlore system on the internet. Educators who are not part of the school district should call Margie Klein at (702) 486-5127, Ext. 3502 or via e-mail mbklein@ndow.org.

FUN FOR ALL

Family fly-fishing workshop scheduled

Families looking for the opportunity to learn a new outdoor sport they can share together may want to consider attending a family fly-fishing workshop offered by the Nevada Department of Wildlife. The workshop, for families with children 7 years of age and older, will be March 8 at City View Park in North Las Vegas. The free program will begin at noon and will cover the basics of fly-fishing, with a focus on casting skills and equipment needs.

Following the workshop, the Las Vegas Junior Fly-Fishing Club will have its monthly meeting at City View Park at 2 p.m. For more information, contact Ivy Santee at 486-5127, Ext. 3503, weekdays. The club meeting also is for families with kids 7 and over.