In keeping with the educational mission of the Tennessee River Gorge Trust  to enrich our community through development of a better understanding of ecological principles related to land protection in the Tennessee River Gorge, the TRGT uses the Gorge ecosystem as a model for global preservation and environmental education by combining sound science and hands-on activities with visual and performing arts to educate children and adults about the diversity and natural systems of the environment, and specifically the Tennessee River Gorge.

Through educational events for families and standards-based curricula for local schools, the Education Program inspires children and adults to appreciate and protect “Tennessee’s Grand Canyon” and the global environment.  We support the research by Trust interns and UTC faculty to gain a better understanding of the ecosystems we protect.  Recently initiatives have begun to record the history of human culture in the Gorge through the accumulation of oral histories, critical artifacts and written accounts.

From the Education Director

Environmental education—especially when it involves hands-on learning—helps cure kids of what writer Richard Louv calls “nature-deficit disorder.” 

“Well-meaning elementary school curricula may teach students everything there is to know about the Amazon rain forest's endangered species, but do little to encourage kids’ personal relationship with the world outside their own doors. And advances in technology, while opening up a wealth of ‘virtual’ experiences to the young, have made it easier and easier for children to spend less time outside,” writes journalist Sarah Karnasiewicz in summary of Louv’s ideas.