About This Lesson
All of us have a “mental map” of what constitutes a park, depending largely on our past
experiences and where we live. Students in urban areas may “see” an expanse of green lawn between buildings. Those in more rural areas might describe a park as acres of untouched forest. But a survey of America’s national parks reveals many types of environments, from volcanoes and glaciers to sand dunes and marshlands.
Students will use online tools – such as https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/the-national-parks/, the National Park Service Website and Google Earth 5.0 – to locate, “tour,” and share information about America’s national parks.
Objectives
The student will:
- identify the diversity of environments found in the national parks
- research and describe the physical characteristics of a national park
- research and describe the human characteristics of a national park
- create a narrated “tour” of a specific national park using Google Earth
- share the tour with others in the classroom, and online
- integrate their knowledge of the five themes of geography
