Central Park Conservancy

Central Park Across the Curriculum (CPAC)

          CPAC is a program that offers New York City teachers training and enrichment workshops during the academic year in different areas of Central Park. The goal of the program is to provide educators with the tools they need to integrate content on Central Park into their classroom, and to lead educational experiences with their students in Central Park. All workshop offerings are tied to NYC Department of Education learning standards. In each workshop, participating educators will experience a replicable, hands-on activity in the Park and will receive a packet that includes pre- and post-visit lesson plans and background materials on the specific topic. If you have any questions about the program, please call 212-360-1403. 

          Having taught in Central Park for years, we are happy to share our knowledge and experience with you.  The links below will get you to our hints for leading outdoor field trips, a few time-tested activity plans, and our suggestions for sites in the Park to study specific content.  What we encourage all educators to consider are the different lenses through which students can investigate Central Park: earth science, life science, math, history, social studies, art, design, reading, and writing.  The possibilities are endless.  

          Perhaps the biggest lesson we've learned over the years is that every educator — whether on his first or her fiftieth trip to Central Park with students — can lead powerful experiences here.  How each of us helps our students to interpret a sudden movement in the canopy of a Park woodland or the animal tracks hidden along the shore of a water body or the mood of a seemingly encompassing landscape shapes their memories of this place.  These are the memories, we know, that inspire real learning and enable New York City students to feel connected to Central Park, their own 843-acre backyard.

See you in the Park,

Central Park Conservancy Education Department