Date: 04/22/09
Contact: Doug Nielsen
Phone: (702) 486-5127 x 3500

PROJECT WILD GETS PHYSICAL

While many people were getting their exercise by running their taxes to the post office on April 15, physical education instructors from the Clark County School District were going wild. Sixteen physical education (PE) teachers from both elementary and secondary schools attended a special Project Wild workshop conducted by the Nevada Department of Wildlife (NDOW) at Becker Middle School.

They were at the workshop because school administrators are encouraging PE teachers to tie their programs to the Nevada Education Standards for science. When the teachers learned that Project Wild activities were correlated to the life science standards, they wanted a demonstration and hoped that they could be correlated to PE standards as well.

“We are looking for new ways to make the connection between kids and the outdoors,” said Hayden Ross, secondary physical education facilitator for the school district.

Project Wild is a curriculum for students in kindergarten through 12th grade that teaches about wildlife through science, social studies, math, language arts, visual arts, music, and physical education activities. In the workshop, the teachers reversed roles, becoming the students and participating in very physical activities from the Project Wild curriculum. “Oh Deer,” for example, is a popular activity in which participants re-enact the components of an ecosystem, with deer, predators, and other factors. The theme is survival of the fittest.

“Hooks and Ladders,” from the Project Wild Aquatic curriculum, re-enacts salmon swimming upstream. Facing a challenging obstacle course, workshop participants demonstrate their dexterity by making their way through turbines, up ladders, and over a waterfall. At this workshop, the PE teachers also were able to test their own fitness by partaking in the “Bird Olympics” and learned about the impact of outdoor games on the environment through “Playing lightly on the earth.”

In the end, teachers participating in this workshop were able to correlate these activities to the Nevada State Education standards for physical education. All of the activities fulfilled many of the standards that teachers are required to incorporate in their lessons. So the next time your child attends PE class, he or she may be learning about wildlife as well.

“Many of the physical education teachers have the added responsibility for health education, and there are applications from the Project Wild curriculum in this area as well,” said Margie Klein, wildlife educator for NDOW. “A healthy lifestyle and being in the outdoors naturally go together.”

The Nevada Department of Wildlife (NDOW) protects, restores and manages fish and wildlife, promotes fishing, hunting, and boating safety. NDOW’s wildlife and habitat conservation efforts are primarily funded by sportsmen’s license and conservation fees and a federal surcharge on hunting and fishing gear. Support wildlife and habitat conservation in Nevada by purchasing a hunting, fishing, or combination license. For more information, visit www.ndow.org.