The document describes an environmental living program where students stay overnight at Yosemite National Park and assume the roles of historical figures to perform tasks from the 19th-20th centuries like chopping wood and blacksmithing. The main focus is on the history of land management in Yosemite and how current land use issues are similar to those in the past. Students will discuss and experience firsthand what life was like for pioneers to better understand land use decisions over time.

1. Brooke Hammer
Geography 300
March 22, 2012

2. Environmental Living Program
Students will stay at the Pioneer History Center at
Yosemite National Park. They will assume the roles of
historical people from the 19th and 20th century.

3.  During an overnight visit, students will confront the
problems and decisions of the pioneers by performing
tasks such as chopping wood, blacksmithing, cooking on a
wood stove, and working with horses.
 The main focus of the program is the history of land
management in Yosemite. Through a simulated experience
of a historic period in Yosemite, students will discover that
land use issues of the past are similar to land use issues and
park management conflicts today.

4. 3.3 Students draw from historical and community
resources to organize the sequence of local historical
events and describe how each period of settlement left its
mark on the land.
2. Describe the economics established by settlers and
their influence on the present-day economy, with
emphasis on the importance of private property and
entrepreneurship.

5. Human Systems
12. The process, patterns, and functions
of human settlement.
Environment and Society
16. The changes that occur in the meaning, use,
distribution, and of importance of resources.
The Uses of Geography
17. How to apply geography to interpret the past.

6.  National Park Service fees ($400.00)
 Teacher, Parents or Volunteers , Students
 Transportation
 Food
 Supplies
 Requirement: Teachers are required to attend a specific
training workshop held the preceding autumn (adult helpers
must also attend).
 There are three different handbooks to help you make your way
to a great Environmental Living program experience. These
include the: Program, Curriculum, and Historical Figure
Biographies Handbooks – all of which have all been prepared
to assist you in planning and conducting the program.

7. Lesson One: In the Classroom
 Students will spend time before the trip discussing
historical times.
 They will research the 19th and 20th century and
discover how people lived in these times.
 Students will then talk about their research and what
they found.
 Students will also be able to ask questions on things
they did not understand.

8. Lesson Two: Outside the
Classroom into Nature.
 Students will take a trip to
Yosemite National Park.
 For 24 hours students will
then learn and live like
pioneers did in the 19th
and 20th Century.
 Students will have certain
materials that will help
them through this time.
 At the end of the 24 hours
Students will talk about
their experience.

9.  This Trip and overall experience is intended to show
students how pioneers live. It will give them a chance
to experience a new or in a sense an old way of living.
This is a way of life that these students will never really
understand until it is done first hand.
 Students will be able to share what they thought of
this experience. They will talk about what it was like to
live this way. Did they like this experience? Why or
Why not?

10.  Information about this program as well as other
programs offered at Yosemite National Park are
available at:
http://www.nps.gov/yose/index.htm