The Sixth Year of Kids Discover the Trail! is Complete!
Although the program began in 2005 as a once-a-year field trip by Ithaca elementary classrooms to their assigned Discovery Trail (DT) sites, KDT! has grown into a creative and collaborative academic experience for teachers, students, and DT educators alike. In the sixth year of the program, approximately 2900 students or nearly 100% of the students participated. Participation has been growing each year as teachers hear about the program and sign up for it. Find out more about KDT's Program Goals and Grade to Discovery Trail partnerships.
Kids Discover the Trail! (Brochure in PDF format)
A unique collaboration of IPEI, the Discovery Trail, and the ICSD
- Connects each Ithaca elementary grade with a Discovery Trail organization
- Curriculum-based field trips, books for each student, and linked classroom activities
- Pairs your classroom with another in a different building
Sign up through Randi Beckmann's office by contacting rb229@cornell.edu.
Click here for more information about Kids Discover the Trail!.
Program Update
The core of the program includes student visits to a Discovery Trail museum or the library where they receive instruction from the museum or library educator. In addition to the special curricular programming that is planned to suit the grade level state standards, KDT experiences also have a social component. Visits to DT sites are made by two classrooms from different elementary schools at the same time. The goal is that students get to know those from different geographic and cultural parts of our district so when they meet in middle school there is more understanding, respect and connection. In the fifth year of the program, almost 3000 students or nearly 100% of the students participated. Participation has been growing each year as funding becomes available and as teachers hear about the program and sign up for it.
In the News
Gary Stewart of Cornell Community Relations hosts the weekly cable television show, East Hill TV. In May 2009, his guests were from the Discovery Trail in celebration of the trail's 10th Anniversary. Kids Discover the Trail! is a collaboration of IPEI, ICSD, and the Discovery Trail.
Teachers and Educators Recognized
A reception was held at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology on November 29, 2007, to recognize and thank the Ithaca City School District teachers and the Discovery Trail educators who conduct the program. Special thanks was also given to all the generous donors who are making this program possible. Adam Bauchner, a fifth-grade teacher from Beverly J. Martin School, gave a first-hand account of the impact KDT visits have on students.
The evening concluded with two special announcements. First, the Ian Alberta Memorial Fund, established last year, will make its first gift this spring to support the KDT fifth-grade partnership with Cayuga Nature Center. Second, June and Leon Holt of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, have made a gift of $100,000 to the Johnson Museum of Art to establish an endowment to support the KDT pre-kindergarten partnership with the Museum.
THANK YOU TO OUR DONORS 2009-2010
Trail Blazers ($15,000 per year)
Special Thanks to our 2009 and 2010 Program Sponsor:
BorgWarner Morse TEC
Trail Builders ($10,000–$14,999)
Anonymous
Cornell University
Park Foundation
Triad Foundation
Trail Guides ($5,000–$9,999)
Adams Foundation
Brooks Family Foundation
Trail Markers ($1,000–$4,999)
3D Cinemation
Robert Abrams
Jim and Terry Byrnes
Johnson Art Museum
M & T Bank
Wal-Mart Foundation
KDT! Book Sponsors
Anonymous
Ann Marie Bleach
First Book Foundation
Friends of Tompkins County Public Library Community Organization Grants
Ian Alberta Memorial Fund, IPEI
Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell
Social Service League of Tompkins County
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