Going WILD!

One million teachers in the world have gone WILD. "They've learned to teach Project WILD in their classroom schools, and that means that 53 million kids in this country and across the globe know how to think about wildlife" Steve Huffaker, Project WILD Committee co-chairman, said. In Idaho, 12,000 teachers have gone through the training program. "The biggest problem that we have in wildlife management in the fish and wildlife agencies is the lack of understanding of the basic principles by the general population. Project WILD gives kids a foundation for how to think about wildlife," Huffaker said. Project WILD is an international program designed to teach about wildlife through science, math, social studies and reading in classrooms. "Animals are so motivating for students anyway, and then to tie in science and history and math and all the other things you can tie into it ... the kids just love it and they learn a ton," Karyn Boersig, elementary school teacher, said. For many children, reading, writing and arithmetic may not be the most exciting subjects but using wild animals is the key to trigger their interests. "I think to learn about it in a book just isn't the same," Boersig said. The idea behind Project WILD is to present university credited workshops that offer training, lesson plans and activities to the teachers, providing them the tools they need to incorporate wildlife into their classrooms. "They definitely leave with a renewed appreciation of wildlife and how they're going to share that with the kids in the classroom. It's going to happen because they are so excited," Lori Adams, Project WILD coordinator of Idaho, said. For example, the activity "Oh Deer" teaches children about habitat by having them race to find the components of habitat that they need to survive. Project WILD activities not only help students learn about careers in wildlife and resource conservation, but also encourage good citizenship by teaching problem-solving and decision-making skills. At a time when more studies show that children who are exposed to nature live healthier lifestyles, programs like Project WILD are on the cutting edge. Training the millionth teacher has made Project WILD one of the largest wildlife education programs in the world.