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ParkWise
> Teachers
> Culture
Cultural
Connections
to Your National Parks
National
Parks preserve our nation's cultural heritage. NPS
Associate Director, Pat Tiller, spoke recently on the importance
of history to our culture. Today, more than half of the 388
national park areas have been set aside as symbols and evidence
of our history and prehistory. Collectively, these places present
important stories about America's history and culture, much in the
same way that a textbook educates us about the people, events, buildings,
objects, landscapes, and artifacts of the American past. ParkWise
will explore the rich human history cultural legacies found in Alaska's
national parks.
- Cultural
Connections Units:
- People
and the Land of Denali National Park and Preserve -
Take your
students on a journey to explore the connections that both Alaska
Natives and Euro-Americans have to the land at Denali National
Park and Preserve. What do miners, Athabaskans, park visitors,
mountain climbers, and explorers have in common? From the earliest
times they were attracted to Denali's remote and elevated country
because of the concentrations of wildlife and resources near the
Alaska Range. Archeological sites in and adjacent to the park
and preserve document Native occupation and use for as long as
11,000 years. Want to learn more? Join us! Grades 6-8.
- Living
in Kenai Fjords National Park New!
- Kenai
Fjords National Park is wild and rugged country, home to huge
whales, playful Orcas, colorful nesting puffins, raucous sea lions,
and blue-tinged glaciers. In the early 1900s, Rockwell Kent and
his nine-year-old son, also named Rockwell, lived on Fox Island,
adjacent to what would one day become Kenai Fjords National Park.
In 1918 and 1919, father and son spent seven months chopping trees
for firewood, cooking, skating and exploring the terrain. They
also sketched and painted what they saw on the island and wrote
letters and entries in their journals. Today's students can learn
much from what Rockwell Kent called his "wilderness adventure"
and, hopefully, be inspired to create their own nature adventure.
Whether you live in a big city or near wilderness we hope you
will be able to take your students outside to enjoy the natural
world and, then, come back into the classroom to discuss, illustrate,
and write about your discoveries. This Website's lesson plans
and interactive components are designed to support you and your
students in your outdoor explorations. Grades 3-8.
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