My summer at Three Island Crossing State Park was spent creating engaging and educational presentations for visitors and campers at the park! I researched and presented on a variety of topics relevant to the area and history of both Glenns Ferry, Idaho and the Oregon Trail; such topics included birds of prey along the Snake River, invasive plant species, ghost stories of Glenns Ferry, a Choose Your Own Adventure Game, pioneer recipes, and astronomy nights. The goal was to provide guests with a unique experience that gave them deeper knowledge or appreciation of some aspect of the crossing. Many of my activities were tailored towards engaging children specifically in education at the park. For example, I created merit badge buttons for my birds of prey presentation to give to those who listened, and a later activity included learning how to make paper wagons like those used to cross the Snake River back in the 1700s.

I accomplished a significant amount of outreach while at Three Island Crossing. Roughly 80 individuals attended my presentations each month, with my most popular presentation, “Pioneer Recipes”, attracting 40 attendees on that day alone. More importantly, my presentations led to more questions and conversations about the park and the crossing, allowing the other volunteers and I to share our knowledge of the area and history. My career and coaching centers on communication, and my time at the park truly benefited my abilities. I was able to create presentation aids to take back to my classroom to use as an example of exemplary competitive visual aid boards. I learned how to connect to audiences of wide age groups, entertaining and educating young children and their grandparents simultaneously. Such skills will be useful to my competitive speech and debate students who need to adapt to different judge preferences and are interested in a wide range of topics, like the breadth I spanned through this externship. This summer was an invaluable experience, and I plan to continue volunteering my time at Three Island Crossing when possible. The park and I are already planning monthly astronomy nights, and I hope they will lead to more community interest in the park as time goes on.

Grade Level and Subject Taught: 9-12 Speech and Debate