Our environmental education programs help kids experience the fun of science, while learning about their relationship to the natural world and the ways in which they can protect our natural environment.
We provide free and low-cost environmental education programs for elementary, middle and high school students throughout New York City. Through school day, after school and summer programming, we reach more than 3,000 kids across New York City. We also offer credit-bearing training and paid internships for teenagers interested in environmental science.
View our program overview here.
Seeds to Trees provides outdoor field experiences and hands-on classroom activities in New York City parks for elementary and middle school students. Students will be introduced to science and nature in fun and engaging ways, whether through studying biodiversity, urban wildlife, forest ecology or healthy waterways.
Feeling frustrated or discouraged about climate change? Are you ready to take a leadership role in the care of New York City’s environment? Join CityParks Eco-Innovators! In this paid summer internship, you’ll work with young people from across the City to invent creative projects that push the resiliency movement forward. Make real change as you explore advocacy tools and learn techniques to tackle and help solve challenging environmental issues, including expanding green spaces, increasing recycling and reducing waste, and improving energy efficiency.
Our gardens fosters a love of science and nature among kids through hands-on lessons during the school year and group programs during the summer as well workforce training for high school students. From gardening to growing fresh produce, elementary and middle school kids learn the fun of community gardening, healthy eating, understanding biodiversity of our urban environment and more in our four gardens across the city.
Our program invites middle school kids to use the New York City waterfront as outdoor classrooms to get actively involved in our marine ecosystem with hands-on learning. Participants will explore our waterways and learn about everything from water ecology to quality, urban waterfront restoration to preservation, sparking excitement and passion for conserving our coasts and waterways.
Our Teacher Training programs provide 2nd – 8th-grade teachers with academic and administrative tools to conduct science lessons using a New York City park as their outdoor classroom.
This program has been temporarily suspended. Check back later for updates!
Generous private support for CityParks Learn programs is provided by The Pinkerton Foundation, The Carroll and Milton Petrie Foundation, the Guru Krupa Foundation, ExpandED Schools through funds administered by the New York City Department of Youth and Community Development in Partnership with the City Council, The Linda B. and Howard S. Stern Family Foundation, Rose M. Badgeley Charitable Trust, The Burpee Foundation, the Catskill Watershed Corporation in partnership with New York City Department of Environmental Protection, the Michael Tuch Foundation, the Watershed Agricultural Council, Jane and Frances Stein Foundation, and Dr. Robert C. and Tina Sohn Foundation. Supporting sponsors Ernst & Young, The Walt Disney Company. Generous public support for CityParks Learn is provided by the New York State Environmental Protection Fund NYSDEC Hudson River Estuary Program, and by the New York City Council under the leadership of Speaker Adrienne Adams.
CityParks Learn programs are made possible in partnership with NYC Parks.
At City Parks Foundation, our mission is to encourage New Yorkers to use their neighborhood parks by offering free environmental education, arts, sports, and community-building programs that bring people into their local green spaces. Please give now if you can—we know that city parks will continue to thrive when all New Yorkers get involved.
