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For the Teacher

National Parks Project

 

Introduction: This lesson is designed for students in 7th grade as a way to introduce the United States National Parks System.  The lesson can be used to fulfill several of the Connecticut State Standards in Social Studies. The purpose of this lesson is to create awareness about the environment through an in depth look at the National Parks throughout the United States.  Students will use selected websites to locate information about the history, maintenance, and importance of several National Parks.  They will then select one park and create a travel brochure about the information they have found. 

 

Objectives: Students will . . .

  • learn to identify important features of a National Park (Social Studies Content Standard 9: Places and Regions).
  • identify and evaluate various perspectives associated with places and regions (Social Studies Content Standard 9: Places and Regions).
  • enhance their knowledge of map skills by performing interactive map skill assignments.
  • research the National Parks system and decide how to become active in its preservation (Social Studies Content Standard 6: Rights and Responsibilities of Citizens).
  • engage in a variety of activities to enhance their knowledge of the internet.

 

Materials:

 

Web Sites:

 

This interactive government website includes a vast variety of information about each of the National Parks.  It is the leading website focusing on the National Parks Systems.

www.nps.gov

 

Contains an interactive map of the United States and links to all the U.S. National Parks.  A great source of information about each of the parks.

http://www.areaparks.com/

Includes information about each National Park through a geographic search by name of location.

http://www.nps.gov/applications/parksearch/geosearch.cfm

Contains a list of National Parks linked to information for tourists and travelers.

www.us-national-parks.net

 

Is a website which discusses the ten most endangered National Parks and the reasons for their status as such.

http://www.npca.org/across_the_nation/ten_most_endangered/

 

Identifies the major and minor National Parks in each state

http://travel.discovery.com/convergence/majesticamerica/interactives/main.html

 

 

Lesson Sequence:

 

Day One:

  1. Students will view the National Parks PowerPoint as a class (20 minutes).
  2. Next students will use the website: http://travel.discovery.com/convergence/majesticamerica/interactives/main.html

to complete a map of the United States which includes the major and minor National Parks in each state (30 minutes)

 

 

Day Two:

1.      Students will log on to www.us-national-parks.net and navigate the system in pairs.  They will view as many of the Parks as they can in the allotted time.  Students will look at photos and information about the parks (45 minutes).

2.      At the end of the day, students will turn in their ballots of the top three parks they are most interested in learning more about (5 minutes).

 

 

Day Three:

  1. Students will navigate a series of websites in order to locate information about the top three parks of their choice (35 minutes).

            www.nps.gov/parks.html

www.us-national-parks.net

http://www.areaparks.com/

  1. Each student will fill out an information sheet for each of the three parks (25 minutes).

 

 

Day Four:

  1. Students will create a travel brochure using Microsoft word for one of the three parks they have researched (Choices must be approved by the teacher to ensure that each student has selected a different park) (50 minutes)
    1. Information in the brochure should include what year the park became a National Park, why it became a National Park, the location of the park, average visitors each year, when is the best time to visit the park, what there is to see and do at the park, what kinds of animals and plants are native to the park, price of admission and any other interesting facts about the park.
    2. Brochures should include color photos retrieved from the any one of the websites or from use of a Google image search, a map of the region retrieved from Areaparks.com, and a labeled map of the United States complete with all major and minor National Parks.

 

 

Day Five:

1.      In pairs students will view the website www.ncpa.org/across_the_nation/ten_most_endangered/to determine the reasons why National Parks and their inhabitants are at risk of becoming extinct (30minutes).

2.      As a class, students will decide on ways they can help prevent the extinction of Natural habitats within their area and aide in the preservation of the National Parks.  This can be done through a brainstorming chart written on a poster board and displayed in the room (15 minutes).

3.      One preservation technique will be chosen by the class (5 minutes).

4.      For the remainder of the year, the teacher and the students will continue to work on the selected preservation technique.

 

Assessments:

  • Will be based on students’ completion of the three elements of this webquest (1. Complete labeled map of the United States – Fifty states and the major and minor parks found in each  2.Three completed information sheets about each of the three parks they selected 3.A completed brochure which follows the guidelines of the Brochure Rubric)

 

 

Handouts:

 

 

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@Christina Ziegler| Last Revised: 6/22/06