December 2017 - Parks & Recreation - 25

more, read Politico's magazine article,
" How Baltimore Is Growing Its Tech
Gurus From Scratch, " at https://tinyurl.
com/y9bcvs3h.)
STEM as a Health Issue
NRPA's Commit to Health Campaign
supports the implementation and evaluation of Healthy Eating Physical Activity
(HEPA) standards in park and recreation
sites across the country. As part of this
effort, NRPA is working with the Alliance for a Healthier Generation to provide technical assistance and planning
support to park and recreation sites as
they implement the HEPA standards.
Alliance for a Healthier Generation
recently released an educational brief,
STEM and Wellness: A Powerful Equation
for Equity (https://tinyurl.com/yazphzye), in which it frames the core of
its vision as:
Imagine...the potential of empowering
the 10.2 million children in afterschool programs with science, technology, engineering
and math (STEM) skills, while providing
them with opportunities to eat healthy and
stay active...Combining STEM and wellness is both a powerful equation for equity
and an efficient way to implement both practices in a complementary manner....
Daniel Hatcher, director of community partnerships for the Alliance for
a Healthier Generation, states, " From
serving summer meals to providing inclusive physical activity opportunities,
recreation professionals are MVPs of
community health. Your dedication
to promoting outdoor activity means
you're positioned perfectly to blend
STEM and citizen science with wellness
goals...Recreation and park agencies
are in a powerful position to not only
create a culture of health, but address
equity in STEM. Imagine if every recreation agency across the country blended
wellness goals with STEM education
and conservation! "

STEM as a Conservation Issue
Not only can the work park and recreation agencies deliver on environmental
education and connecting children with
nature be considered STEM learning opportunities, but their efforts around environmental stewardship and encouraging
youth to assume responsibility for the
preservation of America's great outdoors
can also fulfill the intent of STEM programming to foster an interest in career
pathways. Giving young people handson, field-based opportunities to engage
with nature-based science programming
is a core goal of hundreds of park and
recreation agencies across the country.
NRPA supports the 21st Century Conservation Service Corps (21CSC), a national effort to put 100,000 young people
and veterans to work protecting, restoring and enhancing America's great outdoors. This program prepares a diverse
group of youth to be the next generation
of natural resource employees.
Delivering STEM Programming at Parks
Currently, 32 percent of park and recreation agencies around the country offer
STEM programming. One in three park

and recreation agencies provides students
with the chance to have hands-on experiences in the careers of tomorrow. Park and
recreation agencies provide flexible learning environments for their students and are
increasingly focused on coding, physical
science and innovative STEM programming not typically available to disadvantaged, rural and low-income children
during the school day or at home. Park and
recreation agencies can offer students the
space to explore interest and improve competencies, such as team work, communication and problem-solving, while inspiring
technological curiosity, improving creativity and promoting deeper critical thinking.
As we develop an advocacy strategy
to advance federal policies related to
STEM, we want to showcase the park
and recreation agencies that are already
at the forefront of this work, and open
new opportunities for a greater number
of agencies to be at the table.
Do you have a STEM story to share?
Contact NRPA's government affairs
manager, Kate Sims (ksims@nrpa.org).
To learn more, visit nrpa.org/stem.
Kate Sims is NRPA's Government Affairs Manager
(ksims@nrpa.org).

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December 2017 - Parks & Recreation

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