the john muir exhibit - john_muir_day_study_guide - grades 9-12
Grades 9 - 12
John Muir's Vision Lives On
Unit Concept:
John Muir's vision for the preservation of an ecologically sound natural
environment persists today.
Objective:
In at least three class sessions, students identify perspectives on land
management issues, research and debate Yosemite's General Management Plan,
and develop personal responsibility on a local issue through citizen action.
Preparation:
-
Make copies for the students of the pages entitled
Yosemite General Management Plan
,
National Park Service
,
and
Viewpoints on Yosemite Management
.
Make an overhead transparency of
Ways to Value the Environment
.
-
Obtain posters, videos, slides, photographs, or websites of Yosemite.
Procedure:
-
Find out what the students know about Yosemite. Explain that four million
people visit Yosemite every year, impacting the park and putting pressure on
wilderness and ecosystems.
-
Show a video, slides, and photos of Yosemite. Referring to the overhead of
Ways to Value the Environment
, ask the students to list the different
perspectives people have about managing the park.
-
Distribute the
National Park Service
information and ask students how the
National Park Service
can provide for both use and preservation of the park.
-
Let the class know that Yosemite National Park's General Management Plan is
under discussion for possible revision
. People have many different
perspectives on what the plan should include and how it should be
implemented.
-
Form teams of students to research different perspectives on the management
of Yosemite, using the Yosemite Management Viewpoints.
-
Each group has five minutes to present the viewpoint they researched and
then may discuss the degree to which they personally agree or disagree with
that perspective. The National Park Service team, which could include the
whole class, evaluates the points of view and decides upon a course of
action.
-
Each student should, as a homework exercise, take some action as a
concerned citizen, such as attending a
public hearing on Yosemite or a local planning issue, creating an
educational display or poster, composing a song, or writing a letter to
the newspaper. The homework excercises may be presented in class.
(Note the Final Yosemite Valley Plan Record of Decision was signed on December 29, 2000. Teachers will need to update this exercise until this John Muir Day Study Guide is updated.)
Extensions:
-
Debate another national, state, or local park's management or another
environmental issue, such as development of agricultural land,
world population growth, and land use issues in your community.
Download
this complete unit
in Adobe Acrobat (pdf) format
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bytes).
The
entire Study Guide
is also available in PDF format.
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