Lesson Plans & Teacher Guides

Individual lesson plans for the Day By The Buffalo program are listed below. Click on the lesson plan title to download the pdf file.

The Powerpoints link provides several powerpoint presentations to introduce your students to their Day by the Buffalo program.

 

National Treasures
This lesson of pre-trip classroom activities will help students identify the significance of Buffalo River to our nation. It reviews the role of national park system areas and the use and preservation of these areas for future generations.

River View Stroll
Forests are more than a collection of trees. Plants and animals of many types can live in forests, forming communities that may interact. These activities will introduce your class to various forest communities at Buffalo National River.

Overlook Hike
The Ozarks of northern Arkansas harbor a great variety of plant and animal life due to factors such as location, elevation and climate. Buffalo National River protects many different types of habitat, harboring a wide diversity of species.

Rush Ghost Town
The Rush Creek Mining District is recognized as the most important zinc-producing area in the State of Arkansas. A resource like zinc caused the development of a whole new industry and its associated impact on the economy.

Beaver Jim Villines
Participants will learn the pioneering ways of the Ozark region's earliest settlers and how they are revealed in the clues they left behind.

Collier Homestead Tour
Change came slow to the Ozark mountains, and settlers depended upon their own resourcefulness long after "conveniences" were common in other regions of the United States.

At the Water's Edge
One way to determine the health of a river is to look at what organisms are living in it. Students learn how to identify and inventory organisms through actual hands-on activities.

Indian Rockhouse Hike
The vast diversity of natural resources of the Buffalo River valley has attracted people for thousands of years. The Ozarks is a biological crossroads, exhibiting species from east and west, north and south, many unexpectedly found in association with other species. This biodiversity provided for the needs of the people that lived in this region.

Lost Valley Hike
Through experiment, research projects and games in the classroom and in the field, students learn about the importance of our natural surroundings and the role of human beings in the protection of the outdoors.

Boxley Mill
Boxley Mill continued grinding grain long after mills in other areas of the country had ceased their operations.

Silver Hill Cave
Experience a classroom underground to discover how caves form and some of the animals that live in them.