• Developers: Verena Calas, National Park Service Museum Educator, Washington D.C
• Grade Level: 6-8 grades
• Number of Sessions in the Lesson Unit Plan: 6
  [Back to top]
  

• Park Name: Treasured Landscapes: Virtual exhibit artworks from multiple parks.
• Description: This unit explores how landscape art contributed the preservation and conservation of natural, cultural, and historic places of importance to Americans that are part of the National Park System. These artworks, are owned and preserved by the National Park Service and are locate in the collections of many different parks. This unit includes activities that develop students’ skills of observation, documentation, and analysis. Students will be able to apply these skills to through a real-world application in which they will develop a campaign to conserve and reorganize a significant local site.    
• Essential Question: How did American landscape artists and photographers such as Thomas Moran and William Henry Jackson help to promote the conservation of America’s natural and cultural wonders and establishment of the National Park Service?
  
  
  Lesson Overviews
  
• Lesson 1: This lesson teaches students how to identify NPS parks by theme and state on a U.S. map. Students will also discuss the relationship between 19th century conservationism, Westward expansion, and the NPS.
• Lesson 2: Explore Your World! This lesson teaches students how to compare and contrast casual and scientific observation techniques and interpret the field notebook of a Yellowstone botanist. Students will systematically observe and document the geography, plants, and animals of an area.
• Lesson 3: For the Record: This lesson teaches students how to compare and contrast photography, drawing, and painting as visual records while using primary source sketches to identify artistic choices and perception of an artistic subject. Students will also explore the process and tools of traditional film photography.
• Lesson 4: The Campaign for Yellowstone: This lesson explores who 19th century conservationists worked to establish Yellowstone National Park. Students will conduct a mock interview of a historical figure and write a newspaper article.
• Lesson 5: The Bull Pen: A Photographic Comparison: This lesson explores how landscape painting and photography preserve and convey the significance of historical places.
• Lesson 6: Crafting Your Campaign: In this lesson students will collaboratively design a campaign advocating for the preservation and recognition of a local site.

[Back to top]

NSS-USH.5-12.1 Era 4
Standard 1
Understands United States territorial expansion between 1801 and 1861, and how it affected relations with external powers and Native Americans

National Park System:The collective organization of over 400 sites of natural and cultural units within the U.S. and its territories. National Park Service [NPS] units are associated with pre-historic peoples; eminent Americans (presidents and cultural leaders); important cultural/social events and ideas; historical conflict (battlefields, forts, etc.); and natural expression (flora, fauna, and habitats). The NPS also administers the National Register of Historic Places, the National Historic Landmarks Program, and the National Heritage Areas Program, among others.

Organic Act of 1916 (16 USC 1 et seq.):Act of Congress that authorized the creation of the National Park Service. The act states that the mission of the NPS “is to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wildlife therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.”

[Back to top]

• Use online collections; objects, documents, maps, and photographs to further student inquiry and to address student learning objectives.
• Activities can be adapted for class length and grade levels.

• Participation in daily activities.
• Products from Student Activities (Lessons 2-5).
• Individual homework assignments that build towards culminating project.
• Campaign material preparation
• Mounting of campaign material in exhibit

• Produce a 5-10 minute documentary video on a selected local landscape/monument/landmark.
• Create a publicity poster for the student-curated exhibitions
• Use the dates and locations recorded in Thomas Moran’s diary to trace the route of the Hayden expedition. Use maps of Yellowstone to calculate daily distances that Moran travelled.
• Research a recent preservation or conservation controversy at a National Park of your choice (e.g. the reintroduction of gray wolves in Yellowstone).
• Select a National Park or Historic Site and research its designation as a protected site