A Road Trip Through the National Parks of Utah
Excerpted with permission from the book
National Parks Live! A Student's Internet Tour of the United States National Parks
©Curriculum Adventures
Grade Level: 6-12
Overview:
The national parks of Southern Utah showcase the brilliant rock formations for which Southern Utah is famous in addition to containing diverse wildlife. Students can use the Internet to explore several of these parks. They'll get to see the scenery at each park and write a travelogue of their "trip." Students of all levels will benefit from this activity, but the last section, which asks students to design a new Utah license plate with national park scenery, is probably best for younger ages. Students may want to use an extra blank outline map for this activity.
Time Frame: 4-5 hours
Objectives
- Use an online mapping program to figure out the best routes and distances between these five national parks.
- Write a travelogue of the scenes you see on the road trip.
- Design a new Utah license plate using the arches plus other scenery from Utah's national parks.
Suggested Extension:
Have students research and report
on some of the pressing environmental concerns facing Southern
Utah. They can start by going to the home page of the Southern
Utah Wilderness Alliance at http://www.suwa.org. Are there currently any bills in Congress
that could affect the wilderness in this area?
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