Hunter Education in Schools Program
Inspire your students to safely explore outdoors by teaching them how to be ethical hunters and handle firearms, as well as understanding wildlife management and conservation of land and natural resources.
The legal certification course of Wyoming Hunter Education can be incorporated into your Wyoming classroom.
Hunter Education When incorporated in schools, gives students the tools to:
- Be safe and ethical hunters.
- Respect and safely handle firearms, decreasing firearm-related injuries and accidents.
- Gain an understanding of how hunting is a wildlife management strategy that also sources food.
- Identify how their participation in hunting impacts the conservation of land and other natural resources.
- Safely explore the outdoors, gaining skills to respectfully observe wildlife in their habitats.
The curriculum is recommended for 6th grade and up.
Incentives for schools and teachers
As of February 2024, school teachers who become certified as Wyoming hunter ed instructors can apply for an additional professional teaching endorsement through the Professional Teaching and Standards Board (PTSB). School teachers who participate in an annual Hunter Education Instructor Training Workshop may also apply for additional PTSB credit for teacher license recertification. This is facilitated by the Hunter Education Team at an instructor training workshop.
To earn an endorsement in hunter education, an applicant shall:
Educator license
Hold a valid and current standard Educator License or Professional, Industry, Career (PIC) permit
Documentation
Submit documentation of meeting all requirements of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department to provide hunter education instruction
Certification
Meet Wyoming Game and Fish Department requirements to maintain certification
How do I incorporate Hunter Education into my school's curriculum?
Get administration approval
Schools that are willing to incorporate hunter education into the school must have administration approval and cooperation to conduct the hunter education course.
Become a certified instructor
Have a willing licensed school teacher, para or coach in your district become certified as a Wyoming Hunter Education Instructor. Instructor Training workshops are only offered 3-4 times a year.
Classroom Format
Every school district can be flexible with the format as long as all required class components are included. Hunter Ed curriculum can be included in school day curriculum, such as a PE course. Or it can be offered as an enrichment program or afterschool program.
Teaching Standards of Hunter Education
Hunter Education can apply to a wide range of standards in both Career and Vocational Education, Social Studies and Science:
- CTE Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources Career Cluster
- Natural Resources System Pathway
- Wyoming Science Standards
- MS-LS2: Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics
- MS-LS3: Heredity: Inheritance and Variation of Traits
- Wyoming Social Studies Standards
- SS Content Standard 1 - Citizenship, Government, and Democracy
- SS Content Standard 4 - Time, Continuity, and Change
- SS Content Standard 5 - People, Places, and Environments
