Rangers in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park are excited about putting a $1 million grant from Toyota to use.

“We see Toyota’s grant as a powerful tool to help engage the next generation’s interest in science and the environment,” said Park Superintendent Dale Ditmanson.

Here are some of the programs that will be funded by the grant.

• Parks as Classrooms: This on-going program by the park brings students in grades K-8 from neighboring counties on field trips to the park during the spring and fall, and sends park rangers into the classrooms over the winter. The program is funded by Friends of the Smokies through grants and donations. But the program has been the same for years and needs an overhaul to make it more relevant. The grant will be used to create a new curriculum for the fieldtrips, which have students doing everything from using GPS units to testing water quality in streams. The grant will also buy the latest equipment for the students to use.

• High school internships: For three years, high school internships have been funded by Burroughs Wellcome, but the grant runs out this year. Thanks to Toyota, the internships can continue. The internships partner high school students with visiting researchers to serve as assistants, often several over the course of a summer.

“Whether it is the affect of acid rain on calcium in bird egg shells or ozone impacts to plants, they are really learning about the scientific process — how you conduct they study, how you use the equipment, how you record data, how does a scientist think through this — and hopefully getting some sort of mentoring from those scientist as well,” said George Ivey, who secured the Toyota grant for Friends of the Smokies.

• Teacher workshops: Bringing teachers from across the state and the country into the Park for a week or weekend gets them fired up about teaching environmental science. By teaching the teachers, who then take the lessons back home with them, thousands of students can be reached.

• Conferences for park rangers: With park service budget cuts, travel has been on a short-leash, preventing rangers from attending conferences where important exchange occurs between those in environmental fields. Toyota’s grant will allow rangers to participate in conferences, both as learners and as teachers to share the kind of work going on in the Smokies.

• Four new rangers to serve as science liaisons: Scientific research is occurring every day in the park, but it rarely gets shared with the public. These rangers will spend the next three years integrating the latest scientific research and studies with visitor outreach, from adults to kids. One task will be refreshing the Junior Ranger Program and finding ways to use technology, like podcasts and GPS units, to connect with today’s kids in a language they are familiar with.