The Carbon County Environmental Education Center received a state grant for one of its popular programs for teachers.

The $4,458 grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection is for the center’s “Making the Dead Come Alive” educator workshop that marries elements of museum science with environmental education.

“It is a program that we have been doing here for quite a while,” said Susan Gallagher, the center’s chief naturalist. “The grant will take it to another level for teachers and get supplies for them to use to prepare specimens for them to use in the classroom.”

Gallagher noted that environmental education is “all about” hands-on learning.

So being able to offer examples of the outdoors — things like plants, butterflies, feathers, fur and even skulls — in the classroom can further engage students, she said.

The class shows teachers how they can prepare and preserve specimens. It provides insights on “pickled” specimen preparation, taxidermy and more.

In essence, the workshop aims to bring natural history to life for students through the use of collected and prepared specimens.

“All of these things can be done relatively inexpensively,” Gallagher said. “We teach them now to be safe, and how to be legal about it.”

With the grant, educators will be given tools to use to prepare specimens.

Gallagher said the class will be offered again sometime again this year.

She noted that teachers in environmental justice areas — including those at the Panther Valley School District — will be given first crack at reservations.

Teachers from neighboring counties will also be welcome.

“It does teach you how to do this inexpensively so if the teachers don’t have a lot of money, if the school doesn’t have a big budget, then there are ways to do this on the cheap,” Gallagher said. “We want to make sure that they know what tools are available.”

The Summit Hill center was among 68 award recipients.

“These projects help connect people to the ways we can protect the air we breathe and the water we drink, and many of them encourage learning at any age whether you’re a kid or an adult,” DEP Acting Secretary Jessica Shirley said when announcing the grants. “Every grant we are awarding supports educational opportunities and will further improve people’s connections to their environment.”

The Environmental Education Grants program prioritizes proposals that will deliver meaningful environmental education programs to people who live, work or attend school in areas of the state often most threatened by climate change, and air and water pollution.

This year 87% of the awarded projects will support projects that engage youth and/or adults within such areas, DEP noted.