We are building a program that connects K-12 students to National Park Rangers via personalized video messages. Our mission is to leverage technology to improve access to some of our world’s most treasured places, coolest people, and biggest ideas. Post Pigeon EDU gives students the opportunity to learn from National Park Rangers and provides a window of access to the outdoors.

The program supplies classrooms with a foundational curriculum on the park of their choosing and the opportunity to develop their inquiry skills by formulating questions for a Ranger. Classrooms then receive a personalized video “postcard” from a Ranger answering their questions. We are a platform and service that handles the technical backend and communication between classrooms and National Park sites. Our program links the research-backed benefits of multimedia learning and developing inquiry, collaboration, and communication skills to improve engagement, STEM outcomes, and access to the outdoors.

We hope to serve as an entryway for students to get curious about the outdoors and believe a natural extension of exposing students to NPS sites and having them engage with sites virtually is to encourage them to visit the sites in person. We want students to get the joyous itch to explore and learn about the natural world so that they can reap the benefits of outdoor exposure and become stewards of the place they call home.

Finally, we hope that the flexible, asynchronous program allows Florida’s National Parks to reach more students, in more communities both in Florida and beyond. Florida’s National Parks represent some of our most precious and incredible ecosystems, and we want all students to be able to learn from them and experience them in some capacity. The first National Park Sites I reached out to were Biscayne and Everglades — both Parks have been instrumental in starting to bring the program to life.