Greg Koelsch, Jason Jennings, Tyce Yates

Math and Science Methods

TEEL 362

Dr. Germaine Taggart

12/04/98

Grand Canyon Web Unit

TITLE: Grand Canyon

AGE LEVEL(S): 3th-7th

TEACHER BACKGROUND INFORMATION: History of the Grand Canyon, State it is located in, the region it is located in, the components that make up the Grand Canyon, population of tourists in the Grand Canyon each year, the different types of animals seen in the Grand Canyon, what causes erosion in the Grand Canyon, what river flows through the Grand Canyon, which ocean the river that flows through the Grand Canyon disperses into, awareness of cardinal, and intermediate directions, and layers of rock in the Grand Canyon and how old each layer is.

BRIEF DISCRIPTION: The Grand Canyon is a national monument located in the Southwest region of the United States in Arizona. It has been created by erosion over thousands of years. It contains plateaus, mesas, and buttes, it stretches over 200 miles in northern Arizona. It's canyons reach over a mile in depth, and at its widest point the canyon walls extend over 18 miles wide. The Grand Canyon is located in the Southwest region this region is only made up of four states, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. This region has the fewest states than any other region in the U.S. However, these states cover an enormous area-bigger than the eight states of the Northeast. These four states also include a large variety of landforms and environments.

1. MAJOR CONCEPTS: math, science, reading and language arts, art, and social studies
2. OBJECTIVES: (The students will...)
   1. be able to determine the ability to appreciate, visualize and respect the Grand Canyon and the history surrounding its' majestic splendor.
   2. be able to determine the ability to justify and predict the amount of tourism the Grand Canyon will provide to the state of Arizona.
   3. be able to determine the ability to construct a visual picture of the Grand Canyon and it's great mass and structure.
   4. be able to transfer information from the research paper into a creative brochure.
   5. be able to modify and paraphrase the information and condense it into a small, but informative piece of tourist information.
   6. be able to comprehend implications of environmental hazards that can effect the Grand Canyon.
   7. be able to break down and list all the environmental factors that could effect the Grand Canyon in the future.
3. LIST OF MATERIALS:

   Math

   1. ruler
   2. maps
   3. construction paper
   4. pencils, pens
   5. colored markers

   Science

   1. water
   2. aquarium
   3. dirt or soil
   4. sand
   5. cups for pouring water
   6. paper towels
   7. pencils and pens

   Reading and Language Arts

   1. English books
   2. Paper
   3. Pens
   4. Pencils
   5. Misc. Books

   Social Studies

   1. pencil and pens
   2. map
   3. construction paper
   4. rulers
   5. crayons

   Art

   1. construction paper
   2. pencils
   3. pens
   4. crayons
   5. colored markers
   6. white typing paper

   Culminating Activity

   1. poster boards
   2. paints
   3. crayons
   4. markers
   5. scissors
   6. glue
   7. construction paper.

IV. LIST OF REFERENCES:

1. FOR THE TEACHER:
   1. http://www.gorp.com/gcjunkies/canyon.htm
   2. http://airgrandcanyon.com
   3. http://canyon-country.com/flagstaff/index.html
   4. http://grand-canyon.com/redfeather.html
   5. social studies book teachers addition, "Regions" Macmillan Publishing
   6. "Exploring Our National Parks", videotape
   7. Downriver By Will Hobbs
   8. Down the Colorado With Major Powell By James Ramsey Ullman
   9. First Through the Grand Canyon By Steve Frazee
2. FOR THE STUDENT:
   1. Downriver By Will Hobbs In this story a group I young adults risk their lives down the dangerous Colorado River. While a young girl named Jesse takes a dramatic adventure and gains personal growth from the experiences and new friendships on the river.

       

CONTENT RELATED WORDS: Plateau: A large steep hill with a flat top. Mesa: A large steep hill with a flat top slightly smaller than that of a plateau. Butte: A hill with a flat top, smaller than a mesa. Canyon: A deep valley with steep sides. Erosion: A process by which water, wind or ice, slowly carry away sand and soil. Cardinal Directions: North, south, east, and west. Intermediate directions: Northwest, southwest, southeast, and northeast. Southwest Region: Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. Rapid: As a river flows swiftly as elevation drops. River Runners: People who visit the Grand Canyon. Environment: The circumstances or the conditions surrounding one. Pollution: contamination of air, soil, or water by the discharge of harmful substances

1. PROJECTS AND ACTIVITIES FOR STUDENTS:

   Reading and Language arts

    

   1. The students will gather valid information and facts on the Grand Canyon. The students will explain and summarize their paper to the rest of the class and the students will understand the facts that they present.
   2. The students will find many different books on the Grand Canyon and be able to understand the many different types of books can tell the story. Also, the students will write a well-informed Literature review and be able to determine if the rest of their classmates will like it or not.

   Art

    

   1. The first activity will allow the students to construct a picture of the Grand Canyon consisting of all of its parts. Mesa, plateau, and butte are the parts that will be arranged in the drawing. The students will have a strong understanding of each term as the lesson progresses. The students will comprehend and realize the important parts of the Grand Canyon. The students can draw their picture either from an aerial view, river view, or rim view. The students can be as creative as they would like. Also included it the drawing should be a direction route, cardinal and intermediate directions.
   2. The second activity included in the art curriculum is a picture of the Southwest region constructed out of construction paper. The students will be asked the label each state in the respective place on a map. Located in the northern part of Arizona should be an overview of what the Grand Canyon looks like on a map. The students must construct the map of the Southwest region to scale size keeping in mind that the Grand Canyon is 218 miles long in northern Arizona. The students must plot on the map cardinal and intermediate directions also. One final item the map of the Southwest region must contain is the labeling of the Colorado River running through the Grand Canyon.

   Science
   

   1. The first activity the students will engage in is a hands on activity displaying erosion. The teacher will have an aquarium filled with different types of soil and dirt or sand. The soil needs to be filled into the aquarium about a 45-degree angle in order for the water to successfully flow down the soil. After the soil is placed into the aquarium at a 45-degree angle the teacher will have the students at the front of the room take turns pouring water into the aquarium on the dirt, the water will flow down the soil and creating an erosion effect. By displaying this to the students they will be able to see exactly how erosion by the Colorado River has formed the Grand Canyon over thousands of years. Also while the students are pouring water into the aquarium the teacher can explain how other large rivers cut deep canyons as water passes through. This is a great activity for visual learners, they may have hands on activities as they learn about an important aspect of science and the environment.
   2. Explain to the students that the Grand Canyon contains layers of rock that are over a billion years old. The bottom layer of rock is the oldest in the Grand Canyon and it is called Vishnu Schist, it is 1.7 billion years old. The newest rocks in the Grand Canyon are only about 235 billion years old. Next you can have the students find out how geologists study the Grand Canyon to gain clues about the stages of the rocks that are in the Grand Canyon. The students can present their research to the class in the form of a short report that includes an illustrated, labeled drawing of the canyon's walls and layers of rocks. The teacher can find out more about the layers of rocks through the internet pages found in the teachers resources.

Math

1. Tourism population- The activity that would proceed the topic of tourism population will be to figure out the number of tourists per year (800,000). After that number is found, we will take it and divide it by 12 to see the amount of people per month. Then we will take the total number(800,000), and divide it by 365 to see the approximate number of people per day. This activity will provide the students with more realistic numbers that they can relate to on figuring out how popular the Grand Canyon is.
2. Size of Grand Canyon- The size of the Grand Canyon is so enormous that it is hard for the kids to realize it's great mass. For this activity the students would know the length in miles. From there they would figure out the amount of feet that would be. For instance if the Grand Canyon is 217 miles long, the students would take 5,280 times 217 to get the number of feet. From there, the students could figure out how long it would take to walk the whole length of the Grand Canyon by figuring out how many feet they could walk in one minute. If they walked 100 feet in one minute, then they can take that 100 and divide it into the answer that they got from taking 5,280 times 217.

Social Studies

 

1. Where the Grand Canyon is located- The kids will have a blank map of the U.S. Their responsibility would be to figure out the state that the Grand Canyon was in, then they would have to find the state on the map.
2. The second activity would be to figure out what region the Grand Canyon was in by using their intermediate directions. This would also lead to figuring out all of the states within this region such as, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, and of course Arizona.

VII. CULMINATING ACTIVITIES

1. Based on the research the students read from the books listed above they will be able to create and brochure that will give a typical tourist the information they need to know about the Grand Canyon. We would ask the students to include in this brochure: Pictures of the Canyon history and fact about the Canyon, animals that may be encountered while visiting the Grand Canyon. Furthermore, students may include in the brochure reasons why one should respect the Grand Canyon by not polluting it, keeping the environment clean.
2. The next activity will deal with the environmental implications that have or may happen to the Grand Canyon due to over population, water, air, and soil pollution. Furthermore, pollution is a great factor that could harm the environment and animals in the Grand Canyon.
1. EVALUATION: (Correlate to objectives)
   1. We the teachers will evaluate the students' performance by checking their understanding through completed worksheets and drawings. Furthermore, the students should have a complete understanding of the Grand Canyon and it's components by the end of the unit. We will have a completed rubric for the students to assure the students they will know how they will be evaluated. Through worksheets, drawings and a completed brochure containing facts surrounding the Grand Canyon the students will have a well rounded understanding of the Grand Canyon. We will be sure the students will respect and appreciate the Grand Canyon through this entire unit by assessing their behavior during the unit. If the students are not participating in every project they grade will be negatively affected. Finally, by creating a brochure of the Grand Canyon the students will understand and visualize the negative as well as positive effects of tourism in the Grand Canyon.