This summer, Protectors funded another Teacher-Ranger-Teacher (TRT) position for the National Park Service. Damon Wahl has been a teacher for 20 years in the Clark County School District and currently teaches the Gifted and Talented Education Program at Kay Carl and Steve Cozine elementary schools. He has previously worked at several mines in California and Montana, has been involved with Scouts for most of his adult life and has a great love for rock hounding. His favorite dinosaur is the stegosaurus and his favorite pliocene animal is the ground sloth. Damon received the Heart of Education Award (in elite company with our Board President!) and enjoys presenting at science conferences or anywhere that will let him show off. Damon has wandered Tule Springs and other fossil sites for many years and does field trips with students in these areas, so the TRT program was a great fit with his experience.
Over the summer, Damon completed middle school and elementary school standard-based lesson plans about the Tule Springs area. Thanks to his efforts, the curriculum has been enhanced for all CCSD science classes and students can learn about the significance of the area where they live. We hope to schedule him for a presentation to members soon to share his great work.