Local News
Atlanta Audubon awarded education donation
Atlanta Audubon has been awarded a $99,980 gift from a private Atlanta family foundation, according to a press release. The funds will allow it to build and grow its educational programs to educate the next generation of leaders about conservation and the environment through the lens of birds.
With a focus on citizen science, project-based learning, and conservation problem-solving, Atlanta Audubon’s Learning About Birds STEM-based youth programs are unique among other environmental education programs. Atlanta Audubon will use grant funds to:
- Undertake a comprehensive redesign of Atlanta Audubon's Learning About Birds bilingual curriculum to align with updates to the K-12 Georgia Standards of Excellence and to include new online resources and lesson plans that will emphasize local birds, habitat, and conservation.
- Welcome a new partner school to Atlanta Audubon's Connecting Students with STEM through Birds program. The selected school will be a federally designated Title I school in an underserved population of metro-Atlanta. This funding will complete a match to existing funding for the program provided by the grants from the Morgens West Foundation and Wells Fargo Foundation.
- Provide full scholarship support for 10 student participants in Atlanta Urban Ecologists. Scholarship selection will be based on financial need to support students in underserved communities and those who would be unable to participate in the program without support.
- Develop a second Atlanta Urban Ecologists course to allow current program graduates to broaden their foundation of knowledge and experiential learning. This extension course would follow the same model of the current Atlanta Urban Ecologists program, introducing students to new environmental partners and coursework over the span of an academic year.
- Create five additional slots for K-8 educators to participate in the Taking Wing continuing education program to expand the number of teachers using the Learning About Birds curriculum and teaching methods in their classrooms across metro-Atlanta.
- Hire an Education Program Coordinator and contract naturalists to help Atlanta Audubon increase and broaden its community engagement through regular educational programming.
