National Park Service Fee Free Day.... NOT AUGUST 25!
Posted by: homenews <homenews@...>
In a message dated 8/15/03 10:50:20 PM Eastern Daylight Time, [email protected] writes:
Admission to USA National Parks is free on August 25 to celebrate anniversary of park system. http://www.nps.gov/
(Thanks to Phil Kent and Leisa Lee)
I checked this out and it looks like it was usually Aug. 25, but was June 22-23 this year: (from http://www.nps.gov/mrnrpt/msg01215.html)
OPERATIONAL NOTES
Entrance Fee Waiver on Founders Day - There will be NO waiver of fees on
August 25th, Founder's Day. Fees were waived on the weekend of June 22nd
and 23rd in support of President Bush's "Healthier U.S." initiative. This
was done in lieu of the annual fee free day in August. [Jane Anderson,
RAD/WASO]
but from data2.itc.nps.gov/morningreport/:
Fee Management Program
Annual Fee Free Day
One of the goals of the Interagency Fee Council is to designate a Fee Free Day honored at Federal lands that collect entrance fees. The interagency Fee Free Day will be celebrated on September 20, 2003.
All park entrance fees, including commercial tour entrance fees and transportation entrance fees, will be waived on September 20th.
Please refer to the NPS Fee Management website on InsideNPS for a copy of the official NPS and DOI memoranda related to this designation.
[Submitted by Jane Anderson, [email protected], 202-513-7087]
So is Sept. 20 free.....?
Looking, I also found this gem:
Learning From Historic Places
100th Lesson Plan Commemorates Supreme Court Ruling on School Integration
(Washington, D.C.) --- Make history come alive. These words have driven the success of the National Park Service’s award-winning Teaching with Historic Places (TwHP) program that today releases the 100th classroom lesson plan in a series begun in 1991.
“America’s history is found in our national parks. From Minute Man to Manzanar, from Wright Brothers to Klondike Gold Rush, the places that shaped our nation are protected and preserved as touchstones for us all,” said National Park Service Director Fran Mainella. “But the places of our history are also all around us in turn-of-the-century industrial districts and community squares, school houses and city halls that tell the stories of struggle and success. Whether in a neighborhood or a national park, these places are part of a seamless system of tangible connections to our past. In a world where ‘reality’ is increasingly virtual – and inexplicably used to describe a genre of patently unreal television programming – these places are real. They are authentic. They capture our imagination, which in the classroom, can be the key to unlocking a student's interest.”
Understanding this, the National Park Service worked with teachers to develop a way to incorporate historic places into classroom studies. The resulting Teaching with Historic Places program offers a variety of assistance for educators, including the online lesson plans found at http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/twhp. The lessons feature buildings, sites, and other places from among the more than 76,000 listings on the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places. The plans are written by national and state park interpreters, teachers, professors, and preservationists following guidance provided in the TwHP author's packet, and then submitted to the National Register staff for editing and publishing online.
The lessons can be used to help prepare for student field trips to sites, but even more frequently teachers use them to explore places their classes may never visit. “The value of using historic places to teach history, even though you're not there at the site, is that they help to bring history alive in a very, very, specific and unique context,” said Jim Precoco, a teacher at West Springfield High School in Springfield, VA.
“We want children to be active in their learning. We want them to construct their knowledge of history. One way to get them to do that is to get them to ‘do history’ the way historians do, the way we try to have kids ‘do science’ in the classroom the way scientists do. Teaching with Historic Places allows us to do that,” adds Charles S. White, Professor of Education, Boston University, Boston, MA, who introduces TwHP to his classes of aspiring teachers.
The 100th TwHP Lesson Plan
In commemoration of African American History Month, TwHP launches its 100th lesson plan, New Kent School and the George W. Watkins School: From Freedom of Choice to Integration. The lesson features the two schools in New Kent County, VA, that were the subject of the 1968 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Green v. County School Board of New Kent County, Virginia. Coming 14 years after Brown v. Board of Education ruled that separate schools for blacks and whites were inherently unequal, the Green decision placed an affirmative duty on school boards to integrate schools. The lesson plan helps students explore the history of this decision and to meet the individuals who played an active role in integrating the public school system of New Kent County. The two schools – New Kent School and the George W. Watkins School – were highlighted in a Congressionally mandated study of desegregation in public education completed by the National Park Service in August 2000. One result of that study was the recommendation, accepted and carried forward by the New Kent County School Board, to nominate the schools as National Historic Landmarks. Gale Norton, Secretary, U.S. Department of the Interior, on August 7, 2001, made that designation.
Following the landmark designation, an impressive array of partners came together to create a Teaching with Historic Places lesson plan on the schools – an approach that is actively encouraged by the National Park Service. Three Ph.D. candidates at the College of William and Mary, Jody Allen, Brian Daugherity, and Sarah Trembanis, researched and wrote the lesson, with assistance from Frances Davis, Na’Dana Smith, and Megan Walsh, Class of 2002 at New Kent High School. To fund the students’ work, the College of William and Mary, the National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers (a continuing partner in TwHP), and the National Park Service, jointly applied for a grant from the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and Public Policy’s African-American Heritage Program. The lesson, New Kent County School and the George W. Watkins School: From Freedom of Choice to Integration, is posted on the National Park Service website at http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/twhp
“The strength of Teaching with Historic Places, like so much of what we do in the National Park Service, is the active participation of partners. Working with educators, sharing talents and expertise, ensures that the plans are of real value to classroom teachers,” said Mainella.
A listing of all 100 TwHP lesson plans by state is attached and can also be found online at http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/twhp/state.htm
and: (which will sit better with some who shun the New Age elements of Earth Day)
NATIONAL PUBLIC LANDS DAY
On September 28, people across the country will volunteer to work on the public lands that include parks, forests, monuments, wildlife refuges, and recreation areas. Public Lands Day is a way to contribute our labor towards making our parks cleaner and a more enjoyable place for you our visitor and to preserve parkland. Many national park sites participate by providing opportunities for volunteers to restore river banks, clean campgrounds and roadsides, paint building, repairs trails, and remove invasive plants. Call your local national park to find out how you can volunteer or you call 202-619-7222 for your closest park listing.