The document describes a 3-session field trip to Joshua Tree National Park for 4th grade students. In session 1, students will locate and make predictions about the park. They will study maps to develop spatial reasoning skills. Sessions 2 involves exploring Key's Desert Queen Ranch to create maps and identify features, then a hike where they will observe plants and wildlife. Session 3 has students use photos to discuss what they learned and demonstrate their new understanding of maps, spatial concepts, and the park's human and physical geography.

1. Overview:
Joshua Tree National Park Field Trip
- In this lesson students will explore the varied ways in which humans have interacted within
the environment of the Joshua Tree National Park. They will also create maps, identify plant
life, wildlife, geological formations, and develop a better understanding of the ways in which
climate, physical Geography and time contribute to the different ways we use land.
Objectives:
- Students will be able to create mental maps and use spatial reasoning. They will gain an
understanding of how and why people choose specific locations for habitation. They will
develop map making skills and recognize how the subjects of keys and legends actually
appear in physical Geography. They will be able to express themselves through the creation
of maps and photographs. Reasoning skills will be increased through questions and
suppositions.
Standard:
- California state standards 4.1 and 4.2.
- National Geography standards: The World in Spatial Terms standards, 1, 2, and 3. Places and
Regions standards 4, 5, and 6. Human Systems standard 12. Environment and Society
standards 14, 15, and 16. The uses of Geography standards 17 and 18.
Specifics:
- Grade level: fourth
- Number of sessions: three, Session one 40 minutes. Session two 6 hours. Session three 45
minutes.
- Number of adults: One for every 8 to 10 students up to 60 students.
Materials:
-Map of Coachella Valley, Blank Paper, Clip Boards, Colored Pencils, Disposable Digital
Camera.

2. Session one:
The students who are by now familiar with
the coordinate grid system and understand
different regions and their climates will locate on
a globe where the Joshua Tree National Park is
located. Based on previous instruction they will
be asked to write down what they might expect
to find when they get to the park. This list will
include physical geographic characteristics,
population density, wildlife, plant life, water
resources and climate.
Next the students will study their Coachella
Valley maps, paying specific attention to the key,
scale, and legend. The teacher can ask them to
describe how far they think a mile is or how many
miles they think they are from a mountain range.
This will help to get them thinking spatially, they
can apply distances in their own lives like how
long it takes to get home or to the grocery store.
During this session the teacher serves to
encourage students to ask questions and to help
them develop mental maps. The questions and
theories will then be answered when they are on
the field trip.

3. Session two:
Part one.
Students will arrive first at Key’s Desert Queen
Ranch. Under supervision they will explore the area
and create maps. They are encouraged to list as
many man made objects as well as naturally
occurring topographical objects that they can find.
They will also be encouraged to guess what the
objects were used for and why. Students will also
take photos of the objects that they mark on their
maps. These photographs will be used in session
three.
Next a parks employee will give an historical
narrative describing the area and its inhabitants past
and present. The employee will also describe life on
the ranch and reveal the actual purpose of the
buildings and artifacts located there.
Students will be encouraged to ask questions.
Students will also learn if they were correct in
naming the uses for the buildings and objects. This
should take approximately an hour and a half
depending on the size of the group.

4. Part two.
After a half hour lunch break the students will be
taken on a short hike to Barker Dam. Along the way
they will encounter a wide variety of plants and wild
life. They are encouraged to capture as many different
plants, animals, and rock formations as they can with
their cameras. Students will also have an opportunity
to see up close petroglyphs and drawings that date
back to the areas Native american inhabitants
Once at Barker Dam the teacher can ask
questions and answer questions that the students may
have. There are also park rangers that can provide
information about the areas physical geography and
the history of the Dam itself.
This should take about two hours.

5. Part Three. Session Three:
While viewing the slide show students can
The final stage of the trip is a visit to Key’s demonstrate what they have learned during the
View. At an elevation of over 5,000 feet, Key’s field trip. If there is a computer lab available
view offers a panoramic vista which includes the students can research the plant and wildlife they
Coachella Valley, Palm Springs, The Salton Sea, have captured in their photographs. Students can
El Centro and many other landmarks both also print copies of their photos to accompany
natural and man made. the maps they created adding representative
images to key objects on the map.
It is here that the students can look down
from above and see first hand what they may
have only seen on their maps or at ground level.
With their maps in hand they can circle
with colored pencils the things they spot. This
vantage point will greatly increase their spatial
understanding of Geography. They may for
instance determine for themselves why I-10
runs the way it does rather than through the
Morongo Basin. They can also take photos and
encourage one another in the hunt for new
items to circle.
At the end of the field trip the teacher
will collect all of the digital cameras. The
teacher will create a slide show for the students
to view during session three.

6. California State Standards 4.1 and 4.2
- 4.1.1: Students locate Joshua Tree National Park using longitudinal and latitudinal coordinates.
- 4.1.2: Students determine which hemisphere the park and there own cities are located.
- 4.1.3: Students identify the Mojave Desert region and the vegetation, landforms, and climate of the park.
- 4.1.4: Students can locate mountains, valleys, rivers from Key’s view.
- 4.1.5: Students use and create maps and can witness the differences between the Coachella Valley and High
Desert communities as well as within the Park itself
- 4.2.1: Students learn about the Native Americans who lived in the area of the park prior to settlement and
also have the opportunity to see first hand the some of the art works they created.
National Geography Standards
The World in Spatial Terms:
- Standard one: Students make and use maps learning from a spatial perspective.
- Standard two: Students use mental maps to organize their questions and suppositions J.T.N.P.
- Standard three: Students will compare their own cities with those in the high desert.
Places and Regions:
- Standard five: Students will see how the lack of water resources affect how and where people settle.
- Standard six: Where the park was once home to Native Americans, then to settlers who grazed cattle it is
now home to visitors from all around the globe and it serves many functions from simply
looking at the rocks to actually climbing them.

7. Human Systems
Standard twelve: At Key’s Ranch and Barker Dam students will see how even in the wilderness people tend to
have a pattern of development. They will also see many vehicles, machines, wells, windmills, and
various other artifacts that fairly recently allowed Key to live and thrive. They will also be able
to compare Key’s experience with that of the Native Americans and with how people live
elsewhere today.
Environment and Society
Standard Fourteen: Students will clearly see the contrast between the environment within the park and the
environment outside of the protected area. They will also see how Key’s development
affected the area.
Standard Fifteen: Students will see how the terrain and climate affect the ways in which people interact with
and develop them.
Standard Sixteen: As a land resource the Joshua Tree National Park has changed over time. Initially inhabited by
Native tribes it was not settled as much as being used for its sheltering rocks and wildlife.
However there are still signs of the indigenous people etched on the rocks and in pottery,
arrowheads and make shift shelters. Then it was used by ranchers and miners who were
trying to make a living off the land if not become rich from it. Now it is a protected National
Park which is home to visitors from around the world and it’s uses vary as wildly as its
landscape. Students will get a first hand account of these changes.

8. Expected outcome:
I expect that students will learn to
reason spatially and apply what they witness
to the study of maps, globes, streets,
buildings, mountains, deserts, rivers, and
valleys. Hopefully they will gain an
inquisitiveness and an overwhelming need to
ask questions about their surroundings and
places beyond their immediate experience.
That they will continually develop the need
to know more. By starting out in session
one with questions, then by traveling to find
the answers to these questions students will
learn to ask more questions and understand
better how to find the answers they seek.