After completing your fantastic Yosemite/Mono Lake 7th grade field trip, you will now be asked to create a blog that will document what you learned.
Please complete the following:
Create a Blogger Account
Create a Blogger Life Science Homepage
Create a Yosemite/Mono Lake Blog Page that will be linked to your science page.
On the Yosemite/Mono Lake Blog Page please include the following:
Post One: Title it “Yosemite Valley”
Please insert one picture - hopefully one that you took on the trip at Tunnel View (the first stop we made).
Write a one paragraph summary of how Yosemite Valley was formed. Please include the following words: Glacier, glacial moraine, plucking, sediment, erosion, granite, Half Dome, El Capitan, fissure.
Insert an image of from Google images of a glacier carving out Yosemite Valley.
Post Two: Title it “Yosemite Granite”
Insert one image from Olmstead Point. (Hopefully one that you took on the trip)
Write a one paragraph summary that explains the story of Yosemite granite. Please include the following words: Seafloor, Oceanic Plate, Continental Plate, subduction, uplifting, magma, slow cooling, crystals, erosion, granite, igneous rock.
Insert one image of an oceanic plate subsiding under a continental plate. (Do a Google image search)
Insert an image of from Google images of the igneous rock cycle and explain why this is relevant to Yosemite granite.(Think strength and crystal growth)
Include as many other images of granite as you like.
Post Three: Title it “Mono Lake”
Insert one image from Mono Lake. (Hopefully one that you took on the trip)
Write a one paragraph summary of Mono Lake using the following words:
3. Write a second paragraph that explains how humans have impacted Mono Lake
and your opinion of that.
4. Insert an image of a tufa tower and explain how it was created.
5. Insert as many other pictures of Mono Lake as you like, either from your camera or Google images.
Post Four: Title it “Bodie”
Insert one image from Bodie. (Hopefully one that you took on the trip)
Write a one paragraph summary of Bodie using the following words:
Gold, Stamp Mill, Gold Rush, mining, 10,000 people, boom, bust. ghost town, AND include your personal opinion of Bodie.
3. Insert as many other pictures as like.
Post Five: Your favorite memory
Insert as many photos of the trip as you like.
Write a one paragraph summary of your favorite moment. I include as many details and descriptions as possible!
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Date Created: October 11, 2015
Sunday, August 23, 2015
Pre-Field Trip Assignments:
The History of Yosemite National Park
Learning objectives: Students will learn the history of Yosemite Park; including the history of the people who lived their first, the importance of John Muir and other first settlers, and how the land we know as Yosemite has been legally protected by both the State and the federal government.
Before we venture out into the wild and beautiful Yosemite Nation Park on our Yosemite/Mono Lake field trip, you need to understand the history of Yosemite; both the people and the geography. We will begin by studying the people of Yosemite and how the National Park came into existence. We will then study the natural history of Yosemite and learn about how the valley, the granite and the landscape was formed.
Assignment 1: (Anticipatory set) Watch this video to understand how people created Yosemite as a National Park.
Please watch the above video: The National Parks, America's Best Decision
We will be watching this video together as a class.
Assignment 2:
After watching the video please complete the following Scrapbook assignment.
Go to http://www.pbs.org/nationalparks/parks/yosemite/ (see below)
With a partner, please create a Scrapbook of important figures in Yosemite history by clicking on the scissors. Then add your own description of why these characters are important to story of Yosemite. Please add at least 10 entries to your Scrapbook. 10 is the minimum. For each entry please write a well written paragraph that accurately details each event or individual.
Miwok Indians in front of Umacha teepee, Yosemite National Park, 1925
For thousands of years, the Ahwaneechee Indians occupied the area we know today as Yosemite. In 1851, the first white men entered the Yosemite valley searching for Indians with the aim of driving them from their homeland. One of the men, a young doctor named Lafayette Bunnell, was struck by the astonishing beauty of the place. He named the area "Yosemite," mistakenly believing it to be the name of the tribe living there.
In 1855, a second group of white people led by James Mason Hutchings entered Yosemite Valley. Hutchings hoped to make a fortune by promoting California's scenic wonders and running a tourist hotel in the valley. In 1859, Hutchings returned to Yosemite with a photographer. News and images of the incomparable beauty of Yosemite quickly spread, bringing more tourists to the area.
In those early days, visiting Yosemite required a two-day trip from San Francisco to the nearest town, followed by a grueling two- to three-day trek along rocky mountainsides either by foot or on horseback. Between 1855 and 1864, only 653 tourists made the arduous journey.
When Frederick Law Olmsted, the designer of New York City's Central Park, visited Yosemite, he wrote that it was "the greatest glory of nature... the union of the deepest sublimity with the deepest beauty." There was a growing sense that the area needed to be legally protected if it was to survive through the ages.
The cavalry was given the task of protecting the national parks. Under Captain Charles Young, the first black man to be put in charge of a national park, soldiers built the first trail to Mount Whitney and erected protective fences around the big trees.
On May 17, 1864, Senator John Conness of California, acting at the urging of some of his constituents, introduced a bill to Congress that proposed something totally unprecedented in human history: setting aside a large tract of natural scenery for the future enjoyment of everyone. On June 30, 1864, President Abraham Lincoln signed an act of Congress ceding the Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias to the state of California.
As a member of the board of commissioners appointed to oversee Yosemite, Frederick Law Olmsted wrote a detailed report about the future of the park. He called for strict regulations to protect the landscape from anything that would harm it and stressed the importance of making Yosemite accessible to everyone. But his recommendations were deemed too controversial to bring to the state legislature and his report was quietly suppressed.
Park pioneer Galen Clark was the unanimous choice to be given the job of protecting the new Yosemite Grant and Mariposa Grove. He had been lured to Yosemite by James Hutchings' lavish accounts and was the first white man to see the collection of giant sequoias that he named the Mariposa Grove of Big Trees. Clark threw himself into the nearly impossible task of maintaining and protecting the park on only $500 a year.
In brazen defiance of the new law, Hutchings had quickly moved to expand his operations and exploit the valley. He already owned two hotels in Yosemite and soon began charging people for the privilege of seeing the park. He decided he needed a sawmill, and in the fall of 1869 he hired 31-year-old John Muirto run it. Muir would become an eloquent spokesman for the virtues of the park, and its fiercest protector. In 1873, Muir and Hutchings parted ways, with Muir moving to Oakland to write articles about Yosemite for various publications.
Clark continued to fight against James Hutchings, who was technically an illegal squatter in Yosemite. In 1875, after lengthy legal battles, Hutchings was evicted from his hotel and banished from the valley.
Please create a 6 panel cartoon strip that illustrates how the granite of Yosemite was formed. This should be as neat, creative and detailed as possible.
Step 1: Oceanic Plate converging and submerging under the Westward advancing North American Plate
Step 2: Seafloor transformed by heat and pressure into magma
Step 3: Magma rising to the surface very slowly and allowing time for crystals to grow and solidify.
Step 4: Solid Granite rises to the surface of the Earth
Step 5: Glaciers cut through the area that is now Yosemite Valley
Step 6: Weather and erosion removes the top layers and dirt and exposes Yosemite Granite
Assignment 6
Yosemite Nature Notes
Before we visit Yosemite, we will watch various episodes of Yosemite Nature Notes. You will be watching them in your Blogger Assignment and then posting your observations publicly. You need to post your observation and then respond to at least one other person's post.
What is a glacier? What is happening to the Lylle Glacier? Why is it happening? Do you think that it is worth protecting? How can we do that?
Anyone want to be a botanist??? What a great job! Look what you could do, discover, find. Write about what you think being a botanist would be like in Yosemite National Park.
Wow, what an awesome plant. Explain how it makes it own food and how it is different from green plants.
What is your opinion of snowplant?
Field Trip Assignments Assignment 1: Tunnel View
Our first stop on our trip through Yosemite is Tunnel View. We will get off the bus and take in the sites of Yosemite Valley outstretched ahead of us.
Grab your sketchbook and sit on the stone ledge facing the view.
Journal Assignment #1
Sketch the valley as it appears in front of you.
Include and label
El Capitan
Bridal Veil Falls
Cathedral Rocks
Sentinel Dome
Half Dome
Tenaya Canyon
Can you identify the glacial moraine? Include that in your sketch.
Be sure to put the date, the location, the time of day and the weather conditions.
Assignment #2: Lunch at Olmsted Point
As you get off the bus, please find a place to take in the site. We have now come up the North side of the Valley and you are looking out over Half Dome from the side as opposed to the front view that you saw at Tunnel View. The is Olmsted Point. Do you remember who Frederick Law Olmsted was and how he contributed to the creation of Yosemite National Park?
Eat your lunch and wander round the magnificent Yosemite granite. Feel it with your hands.
Take out your sketch book and make a new entry. Please give the location, the time, the date and the weather.
Please take a few minutes to sketch what you see.
Below your sketch please make six panel story board that illustrates the story of granite.
Things to include: Where did Yosemite granite originate? Converging Oceanic plate subsiding under the North Atlantic continental plate. Sea floor changing due to heat and pressure. Rising magma that cools slowly before reaching the Earth's surface, allowing for large crystals to grow.. Uplifting that forces the granite above the Earth's surface. Erosion of the top soil that exposes the granite below.
Include in journal three animals that you see. Sketch them and try to identify them.
Assignment #3: Afternoon at Tenaya Lake
Tenaya Lake is a fantastic high altitude lake that is surrounded by granite and pine trees.
Please come down to the lake and take off your shoes and socks. Run your toes through the sand and put your feet in the water. Why is it so cold? NOTE: Don't drink the water!
Grab your sketch book and label this site: Tenaya Lake. Please date it and put the time and the weather.
Please find an isolated location where you can sit and take in the beauty.
Find one tree that you find particularly beautiful. Sit and sketch that one tree.
If you can get a rubbing of it bark, please do
Please try to identify the type of tree.
Bonus: Who was Tenaya Lake named after?
Final Question: In your journal please answer the following question: Do you think that John Muir's efforts to preserve Yosemite as a National Park were worth his efforts? Why or why not? Do you hope that Yosemite is available for your own children to enjoy one day in the future? If so, what do you want for them to see and experience?
Your sketchbook will be graded when we return. Your grade will reflect the amount of effort, detail and thought that you put into creating a lasting piece of work.
Annotated Bibliography http://www.nps.gov/yose/learn/historyculture/index.htm
Excellent cite created by the National Park Service that explores the history and culture of the people, places and stories of Yosemite National Park. Very good explanation of the Ahwahneechee.
http://www.nps.gov/yose/index.htm
Yosemite National Park's homepage. Very good information on various parts of the park. Where to hike, trails, weather, history and maps. Main site for finding information on what to do in the Park.
http://www.pbs.org/nationalparks/for-educators/
Excellent educator site. Lots of lesson plans for the history of the Park's creation and the people who have lived in the Park.
http://www.pbs.org/nationalparks/parks/yosemite/
Main PBS site for National Parks, America's Best Idea. Great explanation of the video and further history and lesson plans to match the video.
http://www.yosemiteconservancy.org/outdoor-adventures/sierra-nevada-natural-history-1
Very good information on what to do in Yosemite today. It has a great listing of hikes, sites to see, history and classes that you can take while visiting Yosemite. Excellent site for helping to plan a visit.
