Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
Press release here. My question – how much did REI give to the WNC Nature Center?
Backpacks, first aid kits and lots of scientific investigative tools will be available to the visiting public and local schools as part of a generous grant from REI to the Friends of the Western North Carolina Nature Center, 75 Gashes Creek Road in East Asheville.
“Wild Child activity booklets and backpacks” chock full of outdoor educational activities for use on the Center’s Trillium Trail may be checked out by interested families beginning Thursday, April 1st. Children that complete three of the six content areas in the booklet be awarded a special Wild Child patch. Each pack will contain various naturalist tools such as binoculars, hand lenses and field thermometers to allow children and parents to investigate the forest and understand it on a deeper level.
Also part of the REI grant, the Center’s Education Office is in the process of developing lesson plans for the “School Ed-Venture Packs” which will be available in May. Teachers can reserve the “Ed-venture Packs” for their scheduled class visit. These educational packs are designed to engage students in weather data collection in order to study various processes of weather and its effect on micro-climates in our forest. The lesson plans and activities will correspond directly with science objectives for the fifth grade as defined by the North Carolina Standard Course of Study.
For more information on the REI grant or the Wild Child program, please contact Dan Clere, Education Specialist, at (828) 298-5600 ext. 320 or Ching Fu, Outreach Specialist, REI, at 687-0918.
