Teacher Ranger Teacher Program | P19AS00188

Opportunity Information: Apply for P19AS00188

The Teacher Ranger Teacher Program is a National Park Service (NPS) professional development grant opportunity designed to expand meaningful outdoor recreation and place-based learning for K-12 students by first investing in the people who reach them every day: their teachers. The core idea is a multiplier effect. By training teachers to confidently use NPS sites, interpretive themes, and educational materials, the program expects the benefits of a single training cohort to extend to hundreds of students per teacher, per year. The opportunity emphasizes that when teachers understand what the National Park Service offers and feel competent using those resources, they are more likely to bring students into parks (physically or virtually) and to integrate park-based content into classroom instruction.

The program’s yearly objective is to increase student engagement with the unique educational and recreational opportunities available through National Park Service places and themes. It specifically highlights building students’ analytical thinking skills through authentic materials and real-world contexts, such as working with scientific data, analyzing primary historical documents, and using historically or scientifically significant landscapes as learning environments. In practice, the program supports teachers in turning parks into extensions of the classroom, where lessons can be grounded in tangible cultural, natural, and historical resources rather than relying solely on textbooks or abstract examples.

To accomplish this, participating teachers receive direct access to NPS places and to a range of scientific, cultural, and historical resources, along with structured exposure to outdoor recreational and educational activities that can be adapted for different grade levels. The training model includes an online course delivered by the University of Colorado Denver, paired with a hands-on summer experience in which teachers develop a major educational project. That project component is meant to help teachers translate what they learn into concrete lesson plans, units, field experiences, or other instructional products that can be used immediately with students and potentially shared more broadly.

Administratively, this opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number P19AS00188) is offered by the Department of the Interior, National Park Service, under a discretionary cooperative agreement. The funding activity categories tied to the opportunity include community development, education, and natural resources, with CFDA number 15.945. Eligibility is limited to public and state-controlled institutions of higher education, reflecting the program’s structure and its connection to university-based coursework and training support. The listing indicates an anticipated single award, with an award ceiling of $50,176. The opportunity record was created May 23, 2019, with an original closing date of June 1, 2019.

• The Department of the Interior, National Park Service in the community development, education, natural resources sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Teacher Ranger Teacher Program" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 15.945.
• This funding opportunity was created on May 23, 2019.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Jun 01, 2019. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $50,176.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Public and State controlled institutions of higher education.

Apply for P19AS00188

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