Each Discovering Alabama program presents the wonders of Alabama in a manner that is comfortable for general audiences but also useful for Alabama schools. Many of the Discovering Alabama videos and accompanying teacherís guides are drawn from actual backcountry expeditions conducted during Phillips many years of providing outdoor education training for Alabama school teachers. Among educators, Discovering Alabama is noted for its unique value in helping to make learning locally relevant for students. The series is geared to serve as a springboard for schools seeking closer connections with community resources, needs, and issues.

Discovering Alabama is based on an educational philosophy that emphasizes development of the whole student, academically, personally, and as a productive citizen. The series capitalizes on the interdisciplinary aspects of nature and natural history to enrich, vitalize, and complement required academic content. Discovering Alabama programs are correlated with the State Exit Exam and with the Alabama Courses of Study. For further information on how Discovering Alabama is correlated with state requirements, please contact us.

Discovering Alabama is also rooted in a sentiment shared by many Alabamians who believe that, as other parts of the nation continue to lose their native natural surroundings, Alabama ís abundant wildlands help to make our state exceptional. Thus, today there exists a timely opportunity to maintain these increasingly special qualities through increased protection for the state ís natural heritage.

2 New Episodes

Wildlife Rescuers
Animals in the wild fulfill their roles as predator and prey according to the stern realities of nature, which can also trouble their lives with harsh weather, disease, and bodily injury.  Humankind, on the other hand, strives to avoid the threatening realities of nature through the advances of civilization. This program highlights several efforts to help animals by Alabamians.  Included are visits to the wildlife Center at Oak Mountain State Park, the Southeastern Raptor Center at Auburn University and a special project to save endangered sea turtles along Alabama’s Gulf Coast.

Tracks Across Time
Eons ago the land we know today as Alabama was a strange and different world, covered in many places by vast swamps.  The inhabitants of this world were stranger still.  Prehistoric animals of assorted sizes and shapes roamed the shorelines and mudflats of wetlands shrouded with thickets of primitive carbonaceous plants.  This program visits a remarkable coal mine site in Walker County that reveals a scientific mother load of superbly preserved animal tracks from periods dating back around 300 million years ago. 

This opportunity also poses a serious challenge. A foremost need is for improved education that includes an emphasis on conservation and the natural environment. Here, Discovering Alabama is a ready resource for environmental education. Likewise, as most Alabamians understand, the state must seek a proper balance between economic development and environmental protection. And here, Discovering Alabama promotes such a balance while celebrating the state ís additional opportunity for a future in harmony with a prior, fundamental balance - the balance of nature. Meeting this opportunity requires leadership that actively appreciates our wildlands, wetlands, forestlands, farmlands, and undeveloped countryside. Toward this end, Discovering Alabama provides a perspective that underscores the values of these natural assets.

Discovering Alabama is produced in cooperation with Alabama Public Television. Past programs have been supported by funding from a variety of sources, including foundations, businesses, and conservation and educational organizations.*

Countless fascinating topics await future funding and Discovering Alabama welcomes contributions from those interested in supporting the educational aims of the series.