Imagine your students gaining an appreciation of life during the Revolutionary War…engaging in debate over nature versus economics in the National Parks… analyzing water samples from New York Harbor…or stepping back in time through treasure chests chock full of Victorian-era games and clothing. Watch history unfold, as students learn from experienced staff at the very sites where many of our country's most momentous events took place.

Whether teaching History, Science, Ecology, Language Arts, Art, or Math, national parks can help enliven your curriculum by providing opportunities for students to learn through structured place-based experiences that teach about the natural world and the people and events that shaped the nation and engage students in civic dialogue.

Since its establishment in 1916, the National Park Service has held education to be central to its mission to "conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wildlife therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations" (16 USC 1). Throughout the first half of the century, education efforts focused on cultivating a national constituency supportive of agency goals.

In the mid-1960s, the National Park Service responded to the country's growing interest in environmental issues by launching environmental education programs at national parks throughout the country. A decade later, public interest in the country's bicentennial resulted in the creation of history-based education programs at sites with thematic links to the nation's founding.

In 1992, responding to new national education goals and increased interest in authentic learning, the National Park Service and the National Park Foundation launched Parks as Classrooms®, an agency-wide educational initiative that strives to help teachers make history, science, art, and culture come to life through structured learning experiences that bring students to parks and park resources into classrooms. Last year, more than one million students participated in Parks as Classrooms programs developed through partnerships between teachers and staff at national parks throughout the country.

Today, curriculum-based education programs are recognized and supported as an essential part of National Park programming. The Northeast Region of the National Park Service is committed to helping teachers respond to demands brought about by education reform, and has set a goal for every site in the region to offer at least one curriculum-based program with the intent of engaging every student in a curriculum-based park experience before high school graduation.