Discovery Cabin Activities

Grade: K-2
Subject: Science, language arts
Skills: Compare and contrast, communicate observations, classify, observe (use senses)
Duration: 30min - 45min (7min/station)
Group Size: 15-20 students total, 6 groups of 3-4 students at a station.
Location: Discovery Cabin in Apgar Village

Summary: Animal skins, skulls, antlers, horns, as well as rocks, pine cones, and other items found in Glacier National Park are set up at stations with task cards for students to work cooperatively in small groups to sort/group, observe, communicate, identify and spark a sense of wonder to form questions about these items.

Objectives:

Students will be able to visit up to 6 stations and:

• Place items in the touch box and have their partner use their sense of touch and describe what the object feels like to hypothesize about its identity.
• Match ungulate horns and antlers to the correct animal picture (K-1) or put the antlers and horns into smaller and smaller groups based on similar characteristics (grades 2 and up).
• Match skulls to the appropriate pelt and photo.
• Compare and contrast a carnivore and an herbivore skull (can be done with or without a Venn diagram)
• Use letters to describe one of the animal pelts or to write a cinquain poem about one of the pelts.
• Place animals and plants in the correct habitat on a felt board that depicts the forest, lake, mountain, and grassland habitats.
• Sort pine cones, rocks, or other readily available natural objects following a consistent pattern.
• Sort rocks into different groups based on physical characteristics such as: color, shape, size.
• Distinguish between animals that live in Glacier Park and those that do not.

Montana Content and Performance Standards:

10.54.5010 Science Standard 1= Design, conduct, evaluate, and communicate scientific investigations.

10.54.5020 Science Standard 2= Demonstrate knowledge of properties, forms, changes, and interactions of physical and chemical systems.

10.54.5030 Science Standard 3=Demonstrate knowledge of characteristics, structures and function of living things, the process and diversity of life, and how living organisms interact with each other and their environment.

Making Connections to Glacier National Park:

One of the reasons Glacier National Park was established was to preserve the natural processes and the biological diversity (variety of plants and animals) that live here. Scientific research in Glacier focuses on learning about these natural processes because Glacier National Park has few human impacts compared to other areas.

Field Trip Logistics:

All K-2 field trips will spend a portion of the day at the discovery cabin. Teachers should choose a primary education curriculum: K-Sensory Exploration; 1-Wild Animals and Wild Places; 2-Habitat Diversity. Teachers must be able to split students into groups of no more than 18-20 students, and then further divided into station groups of 3-4 students each for time spent in the discovery cabin.