The Missouri Department of Conservation has a new online portal for teachers, and the hope is that the resource will streamline grant applications to support classroom conservation activities.
The new Discover Nature Schools teacher portal has granted increased access to a more comprehensive grant application tool, MDC News Services Coordinator Lucas Bond explained.
The portal shows a list of all available grants and details what is needed to apply for them, whereas before applicants would have had to call him and submit paperwork, Bond said, adding no paperwork has to be submitted now.
MDC Education Coordinator Steven Juhlin said all available grants in the portal are state-funded, through the one-eighth percent sales tax dedicated to conservation.
Four of five curriculum units available for teachers have grants available that are "designed to help teachers teach the curriculum," Juhlin added.
Such support can buy items like yarn, magnifying glasses and hand tools for activities, or native plants to make additions to outdoor classrooms, he said.
Transportation funding for field trips is also available. Juhlin said conservation-based field trips are "basically taking the same concepts and investigation that they've learned to do on the school yard, they're taking that to a real area."
The new portal is available to teachers who participate or have an interest in MDC's Discover Nature Schools program, according to a news release.
The DNS program started in 2007 and supplies instructional materials for teachers and students from preschool through high school about the state's plants, animals and habitats.
The new portal for the program will provide opportunities for teachers to download free instructional materials, request class sets of student books and science notebooks, order educational posters and MDC publications, register for free teacher workshops and post questions and ideas to an educational bulletin board for teacher collaboration.
More information about and access to the portal is available online at mdc.mo.gov/teachers.