The North Carolina Zoo is growing, and it is an exciting time to join our team! We are looking for an enthusiastic School Programs Manager to develop and oversee the Zoo’s School, Afterschool and Nature Play education programs. The primary purpose of this position is to develop innovative conservation education programs designed for audiences that work with or are a part of the formal education sector from preschool to university students and educators. These groups include teachers, preservice teachers, informal and environmental educators, public and private school children and homeschool groups, and children in afterschool programs (e.g., Boys and Girls Club and the Dream Center). The position collaborates across Zoo departments to advance the organization’s mission and requires occasional weekend, evening, and holiday work.
Key Responsibilities:
• Oversees the Zoo’s KidZone nature play space and related nature play programs, including preschool summer camps and educator workshops, while building and maintaining community partnerships with local afterschool organizations.
• In collaboration with their team, this position develops and maintains a formal education program (pre-K -12th grade – onsite, offsite and virtual) and afterschool programs focused on conservation education.
• Responsible for marketing and updating the content of the Zoo’s app and maintaining the Zoo’s fleet of tablets.
• Trains, coaches/mentors, supervises, and evaluates a team of four full-time staff, up to 15 seasonal educators and the Zoo’s Education Fellow in addition to volunteers and interns assigned to the Education section.
• Designs, delivers, and evaluates workshops that focus on a wide range of environmental and science topics (e.g., environmental education, conservation education, ecology, biology, nature play techniques and place-based learning techniques) to educators and community college/university students.
• Evaluates all school, library, Kidzone activities/pop-up programs, afterschool programs, and educator professional development workshops. Works with appropriate staff to update the experiences based off the feedback.