|
IBRRC has many educational
goals including primary goals of building an education complex
for classes to provide various programs for grades K-12, and
to provide intern housing for the San
Francisco Bay area Center. The education classrooms will
provide for all grade levels and an outreach program, and
intern housing will provide more opportunities for visiting
veterinarians and student rehabilitators from all around the
world. IBRRC´s primary emphasis and end goal is to promote
personal responsibility for our natural environment. In other
words, we want you to become a steward of the environment.
A high percentage of
the animals we treat are in one
way or another harmed as a result
of our impact on them or their environment.
Most of this is avoidable when we
take responsibility for our own
personal actions. One of the ways
in which we plan to promote our
various education programs and educate
people is by bringing them to our
Centers. Our plan is to develop
education opportunities using indoor
and outdoor classrooms at our proposed
Education Complex at our Fairfield
site, the San Francisco Bay area
Center. With our supporters´ donations
we will be able to move forward
from our current planning stage
to a firm foundation in breaking
ground for our education program
and facilities.
We know that education
is the key if we are to preserve
the planet and reduce our impact
to the animals and the environment.
The future generations educated
through our programs will learn
to understand and appreciate that
each individual is important in
making a difference in the world.
Internships
We plan on including
a variety of uses to our education
buildings. Living quarters will
provide much needed intern housing
to allow the Center(s) to provide
additional education opportunities
to students from the United States
and other countries. Our foreign
interns return to their own country
to put IBRRC’s rehabilitation
techniques into practice. This
supports our overall goal of building
local capabilities in vulnerable
areas throughout the world. (Interns
from around the world can apply
for our intern program. See: Internship
program)
 |
|
IBRRC now holds trainings throughout California.
|
Grades K-12
Classrooms that are specially designed and equipped will be included for students and teachers. Programs will include everything from basic avian concepts such as flight, feather structure, water proofing, and migration patterns to help students gain a rudimentary understanding of the physiology to the and behavior of birds in general. In order to provide the birds with as little human contact as possible, cameras are placed in strategic locations and positioned so that students can view birds being rehabilitated from monitors in the Classroom and public areas.
Cameras are crucial
and will help to tell the story
without stressing the animals any
further while providing the children
a unique opportunity to view Cameras
are crucial and will help to tell
the story without stressing the
animals any further while providing
the children a unique opportunity
to view pelicans, cormorants, murres,
loons, egrets, herons, ducks, geese
and multiple other aquatic birds
in rehabilitation pools and aviaries.
For a true question and answer
session, headsets with microphones
will enable students to talk to
the wildlife professionals during
video examinations of the birds.
Our Southern
California bird center is
currently using these successful
techniques working in conjunction
with the Los Angeles Unified School
District providing education to
over 10,000 school children each
year.
Volunteers
We have volunteers, retired school teachers, who
have expressed an interest in traveling to schools, boy and
girl scout troops, etc., to give presentations on wildlife
and acting responsibly about the environment. See: Volunteer
program
Grades K-3
We are developing a coloring book about a pelican
and a murre in a storybook format. The children will be asked
by the teachers to take the book home, read it with and have
their parents sign the book, providing the children discussion
time with their parents about what they’ve read. Children
can talk in class about what they learned from the book and
stories their parents shared. The theme will focus on the
two birds, their habits and habitats. The story will tell
children what they can do to help the environment such as
how to encourage their family to properly dispose of fishing
lines, hooks, and plastics that are so dangerous to animals.
Grades 4-8
IBRRC will have a series of education programs geared to attract and hold the interest of children in grades four to eight. And example would be learning about the Salton Sea – the fastest boating water in the United States and an environmental “hot spot” for birds that IBRRC is involved with. Teachers will be sent education literature for presentations to their students.
Grades 9-12
Working in concert
with school counselors and science
teachers, we will develop programs
to present career options in the
environmental field. The students
will be able to visit the Centers
to learn through the classroom
and by observation some career
potentials such as a wildlife biologist,
veterinarian, and rehabilitator
for animal welfare. Our program
and staff will present options
for a potential career in the
field of conservation, and how
they can make a difference in
the world.
Inner City Students
|
|
|
Pelican aviary at San Pedro bird care center
|
IBRRC will work with the inner city school districts
for bus trips to the Centers for presentations on animals
and their habitats. The students will be able to see the animals
over the monitors for a new experience in learning about the
wonderful wildlife in and around such large cities as San
Francisco and Los Angeles. A window to what’s going on
in their own backyard to inspire education and protection
of the environment! Parents will be invited to attend also.
Hispanic Program
We are developing a program for children and their
families for the large Hispanic population in California.
The theme will surround types of wildlife and habitats in
the area, the importance of the environment to their everyday
life, and some of the small things everyone can do to protect
the wildlife. In order to have as large of an outreach as
possible, the program will be presented in both English and
Spanish.
Final note
All of our programs will contain materials for students to learn about wildlife, its habits and habitat. And we are taking that more than one step further. We want to reach out with the message that EVERYONE IS RESPONSIBLE FOR OUR ENVIRONMENT. Picking up trash is so important, but more can be done such as picking up plastics and fishing lines and hooks and disposing of them properly which is so easy to do. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of birds die each year due to monofilament fishing line and hooks that could have been properly disposed of easily – just as easily as recycling soda cans, newspaper and magazines.
|
