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  Richard H. Collins

Healthy Habitats at Caddo Lake

Collins Academy is the executor of a Texas Parks and Wildlife Department Community Outdoor Outreach Program grant awarded to the Today Foundation for Healthy Habitats at Caddo Lake.  The Healthy Habitats program presents initial educational outreach for Caddo Lake National Wildlife Refuge, which opened on September 26, 2009.

The goal of Healthy Habitats is to prepare school children to manage and conserve the natural and cultural resources of the Caddo Lake area and to provide low impact outdoor recreational opportunities for their use and enjoyment.  To accomplish this, three objectives must be met:

• Objective 1 – Integrate outdoor education and recreation programs with Karnack ISD’s curriculum, pre-school through Grade 12.

• Objective 2 – Increase access and use of Caddo Lake State Park and Caddo Lake National Wildlife Refuge by rural, underserved, economically disadvantaged minority students and their families.

• Objective 3 – Create and nurture the awareness and the knowledge and skills to empower the next generation of conservation/preservation leadership at Caddo Lake.
  

The program is composed of four projects:

• 1.    Growing Up Wild for 3-year olds through Grade 1,

• 2.    Junior Master Gardener for Grade 2-Grade 6,

• 3.    Texas Stream Team for Grades 7 and 8, and

• 4.    Cooperative Management of Invasive Species, a citizen science project to control invasive species in the region for high school students.

Winnovators

Winnovators is a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics enrichment program for students 14 years to 21 years of age.  Students work with industry professionals and education experts to create 3D models, animate models, and place models into interactive, virtual environments in summer boot camps.  During after-school follow-up segments, students are taught the technologies associated with movie-making whereby they integrate 3D models and animation into videos that present solutions to issues of local importance.

Collins Academy is currently waiting for extended funding from the Texas Workforce Commission via a second grant award from the Office of the Governor.  The primary goal of Winnovators is to keep underserved, at-risk students in school while teaching them priority 21^st Century job skills.  Two previous iterations have met this goal by keeping 100% of the participants in school.  Every student advanced to the next grade level or graduated with a plan to attend college or technical school.

Areas of Study:

• Technology Classes

  • Robotics

  • Winnovators - Gaming

• MS Office

  • Word

  • Excel

  • Power Point

  • Expression Web

• Build Your Own Computer

  • "A Lifetime of Trouble Free Computing"

• Basic Computer Course

• Windows Movie Maker / Sony Movie Studio

• Video Editing

• Ecology Classes

• Adult Education 

• istation             

                        info@CollinsLearningAcademy.com