Wildlife Conservation Society

Purpose: Serving as Centers of Community Engagement The world's largest urban zoo-the Bronx Zoo-is one of five education and conservation centers operated by the Wildlife Conservation Society. Over the past five years, the zoo has developed a pioneering parent-involvement program called Project SPARKS (Supporting Parents in Advocacy, Reform, and Knowledge about Science). The SPARKS pilot, which ended in September 2003, was highly effective in engaging parents in support of their children's science education. The program consisted of two primary components: (1) a series of workshops that prepared parents to engage their children in science learning and support their children's school science education and (2) a series of Family Science Fairs at the zoo that enabled the workshop graduates to teach thousands of other parents about the importance of science literacy, the need for parental engagement, and the crucial role museums play in augmenting science education. In this project, the Bronx Zoo will expand the SPARKS pilot to involve the entire New York City Department of Education Instructional Region I, which encompasses 109 schools and more than 93,000 students in the Bronx.