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Lehigh Gap Nature
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The Palmerton Zinc Superfund site is the most famous toxic waste site in the east, and is a case study for textbooks and the subject of numerous scientific articles. Yet the students in the local districts (not to mention the populace in general) do not know anything about the site. The legacy of the zinc company in Palmerton is one of great things done for the town and its people (schools, library, hospital, water supply, the income for many families and college students, etc.) and of a barren landscape on the ridges surrounding the town. This legacy and an understanding of the chemistry and ecology of the Superfund site are important parts of the areas cultural literacy and they are nowhere to be found in the curriculum.
In addition, the Kittatinny is a world-class hawk migration corridor, with people visiting from all over the world, yet many of the students never experience this natural wonder. They also know little about how to access the two national trails in the area – the Appalachian Trail and the Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor Trail. By working with teachers, the Lehigh Gap Nature Center can help correct these curricular deficiencies that have already been recognized as such by administrators and teachers in both districts.
Visits to the refuge by students can also provide an opportunity for highly motivating lessons in geology, botany, ecosystems and habitats, environmental issues, migration, aquatic ecology, and an array of other topics. The refuge, with its excellent variety of habitats and biodiversity, is an outstanding outdoor classroom that we are sharing with the teachers and students of the districts.
Best of all (especially from the standpoint of the districts and their taxpayers), the Lehigh Gap Nature Center is receiving donations to fund the partnership. PPL Corporation has provided a major gift to the Center under the Pennsylvania Educational Improvement Tax Credit Program. The Harleysville Bank donation was also an EITC donation.
This is a new paradigm for developing programs at a nature center. We are working with teachers and administrators in local districts to build a program that fulfills the needs of the district. With the pressure on districts to raise language arts and math scores on standardized tests, there is no room in curriculum for additional content. Our goal is to help students learn the current curricular content more efficiently and effectively, and also motivate district personnel to evaluate and change curriculum if necessary. We provide support in the form of curriculum development expertise and funds, money for implementation of curriculum and a program of field trips and in class study, some of which will be presented by WIC staff.
Center director Dan Kunkle says that the Lehigh Gap Partnership is unique. “I don’t know of any other nature center that built its environmental education program from the ground up with local schools. The sites I knew about and visited with my own classes developed programs, and then offered them to schools, of course adjusting them based on teacher and student feedback. This is different because the teachers will collaborate from the beginning with the Lehigh Gap Nature Center staff to develop relevant and interesting programs from students.”
Another way this program is different is that we intend for it to be a program with continuity from grade K-12. Instead of a single visit to a site in say 6th grade, the student may visit the refuge five or six times in his school career and receive programs related to the Refuge throughout his/her years in school. One idea for long-term study includes designating a plot on the refuge as belonging to a particular class, say the class of 2016. Those students are now in first grade and will be able to watch the successional changes on “their” study plot for the next 12 years.
Kunkle and Center volunteer Loretta Fair, a recently retired high School biology teacher, are the main staff members spearheading the Lehigh Gap Partnership, with Dr. Nicholas Sham and Ms. Sara Stroup, the superintendents of Northern Lehigh and Palmerton respectively leading the school district’s participation. But the real work will be accomplished with the classroom teachers. Fair and Kunkle have met with four lead teachers from each of the two districts.
