The PA Federation of Museums & Historical Organizations is a partner is a
project with the Delaware & Lehigh Navigational Canal National & State Heritage
Corridor, the PA Historical & Museum Commission, two intermediate units
(regional resources for school districts), two museums/historical organizations,
and an environmental education center.  In this projects, three teams of
teachers will each develop an integrated curriculum unit focusing on land-use
planning and the D&L corridor.  Each team will work with a museum educator and
an environmental educator as well as whatever other community resources they
choose.  In the fall, the teachers will implement their curriculum, then refine
it based on the piloting.  The whole project is a pilot program that we hope to
expand within the entire D&L Corridor (which runs from Scranton/Wilkes-Barre to
near Philadelphia) as well as to other Heritage Parks in the state.

The program will begin with a 5-day training session the end of June which will
introduce land-use planning, integrated curriculum, and museums/env.ed centers
as learning resources.  Participants will spend two of those days touring the
Corridor in a rolling classroom to discover the wealth of resources within it.

We have hired an evaluator who will work with us to design evaluation tools but
will not do the evaluation - we didn't have that much money.  Funding is coming
from D&L money and a grant from the PA Historical & Museum Commission through
its History & Museum Grants Program.

Rhonda R. Newton
PA Federation of Museums & Historical Organizations
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