Article

Yellowstone Travel through Time: Teaching with Museum Collections Lesson Plan

Automobile Stages at Sylvan Lake
16404. Automobile Stages at Sylvan Lake (Postcard), Frank Jay Haynes, ca. 1920s-30s, Yellowstone National Park, YELL 66707-116.

A. Title

Lesson Plan Title: Yellowstone Travel through Time
Developers: Morrigan G. Kelley, Museum Technician, Yellowstone National Park
Sara Godin, Museum Specialist, Yellowstone National Park
with Joan Bacharach and Dara Shore, NPS Museum Management Program
Grade Level: Middle School (grades 6-8)
Number of Lessons in Unit and Duration: 5 lessons, 45 – 60 minutes each

B. Overview

Park Name: Yellowstone National Park

Description:
This lesson unit plan explores how visitors to Yellowstone National Park traveled through and the park and experienced its unique natural features.

Lesson 1. How to Read an Object and a Photograph. Students “read” and analyze objects and photographs from the Yellowstone National Park museum collection.

Lesson 2. Mapping the Park. Students identify and locate natural features and past and present roadways using maps of Yellowstone National Park.

Lesson 3. Changing Travel. Students identify different methods of transportation in the park and evaluate how they have changed over time.

Lesson 4. My Travel Journal. Students create their own travel journal modeled after diary entries from the park collection and using the Haynes postcard collection.

Lesson 5. Paving the Way to the Future. Students design and build a model sustainable vehicle that will keep future park visitors, wildlife, and the landscape safe.

Essential Question:How have travel and visitor experiences in Yellowstone National Park changed over time?

C. Museum Collections, Similar Objects, and Resources Used in this Lesson Plan

Lesson 1. How to Read an Object and a Photograph

Objects

Historic Photographs

Other Resources

Yellowstone: Travel Through Time virtual park museum exhibit

Forms and Charts:

Other materials:

Printed images, pencils

Duration

45 – 60 minutes

Lesson 2. Mapping the Park

Lesson 3. Changing Travel

Similar Objects:

Stagecoaches | National Postal Museum (si.edu)

Yellowstone Canyon and Great Fall, Wyoming (Library of Congress)

Other materials:

Paper, pencils, student-created map (from lesson 2)

Additional Resources:

The History of Transportation with Miriam Watson (youtube.com)
YNP Historic Vehicle Collection

Duration:

45-60 minutes

Lesson 4. My Travel Journal

Additional Resources

Artwork: Haynes Postcards (Yellowstone NP Flickr gallery)

Thomas Moran's Diary - Yellowstone National Park (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov)

Other materials:

Paper, pencils, pens, colored pencils

Duration:

45-60 minutes

Lesson 5. Paving the Way to the Future

Similar Objects:

Transportation in Yellowstone, old and new: side view | Flickr

Other materials:

Art making materials: boxes, blocks, crayons, sticks, boxes, popsicle sticks, pretzel sticks, pipe cleaner, clay, etc.

Duration:

45 – 60 minutes

General Resources

D. National Education Standards


Social Studies
  • NSS-USH5-12.6 Development of the Industrial United States: Understands how the rise of corporations, heavy industry, and mechanized farming transformed the American people.
  • NSS-G.K-12 Uses of Geography: Understand how to apply geography to interpret the past. Understand how to apply geography to interpret the present and plan for the future.
Writing
  • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.4.3: Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences.
Reading
  • RI.4.7.: Interpret information presented visually, orally, or quantitatively (e.g., in charts, graphs, diagrams, timelines, animations, or interactive elements on Web pages) and explain how the information contributes to an understanding of the text in which it appears.
Art
  • 5.VA:Re7.2.5a: Identify and analyze cultural associations suggested by visual imagery.
  • VA:Cr1.2.4a: Collaboratively set goals and create artwork that is meaningful and has purpose to the makers.

E. Learning Objectives

Students will be able to:

  • Analyze how travel methods and technology in Yellowstone National Park have changed over time
  • Identify Yellowstone’s unique natural features and how visitors have experienced these over time
  • Document their own travel observations and experiences

F. Background

Yellowstone: Travel Through Time examines the history of travel through Yellowstone National Park from the nineteenth century to the modern day. Yellowstone National Park is America’s first national park, established in 1872. It spans Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho and is known for its abundant wildlife and geysers, including Old Faithful. Over time, visitors have used stagecoaches and wagons, tour buses, cars, and other vehicles to experience the park’s natural features. The objects and photographs from the Yellowstone Museum collection illuminate these changing visitor experiences. For detailed information, visit the Yellowstone: Travel Through Time virtual park museum exhibit.

G. Vocabulary

  • Concessioner: A person or company granted the right to sell a product or to run a business in a park. These may include tours, lodging, meals, and other services and products.
  • Document: (Verb) To record (something) in written, photographic, or other form. (Noun) A written record, photograph, video, or other medium that contains information about an activity, event, or object.
  • Motorized Vehicle: A self-propelled land vehicle, commonly wheeled, that does not operate on rails and is used to transport people or cargo.
  • Stagecoach: A four-wheeled transport vehicle drawn by horses (typically 4 or 6) and carrying passengers and/or cargo. Stagecoaches were used by early concessioners (businesses with contracts to operate within the park) to conduct tours and trips within Yellowstone from 1886 until 1917.
  • Snowcoach: A motorized vehicle with large tires used to travel over snow
  • Tourism: To travel to and visit a location for purposes of recreation, education, service, or other activities of interest.

H. Teacher Tips

  • Download and print out color copies of the museum objects used in the lesson unit plan.
  • Use the virtual park museum exhibit Yellowstone: Travel Through Time, including objects, documents, maps, and photographs to further inquiry and address learning objectives.
  • Adapt activities for class length and grade levels and collect materials prior to class.
  • Assemble similar tangible items to the museum objects that students can examine in the classroom.

I. Lesson Implementation Procedures

Lesson 1. How to Read an Object and a Photograph (45 – 60 minutes)
Objective: Students will visually analyze, deduce, and extrapolate information from Yellowstone National Park museum objects and historic photographs.

Instructions:

  1. Divide students into small groups, and distribute an object image and How to Read an Object chart. Groups complete the chart and report back to the class on:
    • Why these objects were important for traveling throughout the park?
    • When they might have been used?
    • Who might have used them?

  2. Distribute a historic photograph from and the How to Read a Photograph chart. Groups complete the chart for report-back on:
    • What people, places, vehicles, and animals are depicted in the photograph?
    • When was the photograph taken?
    • What kinds of activities are included in the photograph?

  3. Discuss how these objects and photographs are protected in a museum environment for the education and inspiration of current and future generations.

Lesson 2. Mapping the Park (45 – 60 minutes)
Objective: Students will identify Yellowstone’s natural features on a map and learn why the region became a national park.

Instructions:

  1. Students will describe what they know about Yellowstone (popular features such Old Faithful, Mammoth Hot Springs, Yellowstone Lake, etc. with Haynes postcards as visual aids) and discuss how they would locate these features if they were visiting the park. Teacher provides overview (drawn from Yellowstone: Travel Through Time exhibit) of how early European American accounts of the wonders of Yellowstone inspired expeditions such as the Folsom-Cook-Peterson expedition of 1869 and the Hayden survey of 1871 that mapped and documented the region. Documentation (photographs, paintings, scientific documentation) produced by the latter expedition was integral to the establishment of Yellowstone as the world’s first national park in 1872. Lead a discussion of why maps of the area were so important to creating and managing the park (planning out roads and buildings, documenting natural features) and what types of information needs to be included.
  2. Break out class into small groups and distribute copies of the Norris and Folsom maps. Groups will identify and compare the types of information included in each map (wildlife, natural features, survey routes, roads, buildings, etc.). Students will analyze and report on what categories of information maps provide for park visitors and management and why these are important (e.g. location of roads to navigate, where features are, data to help study and protect the park’s visitors, wildlife and other resources, etc.).
  3. Provide groups with Yellowstone National Park Tear-off map. Students will use online maps (GoogleMaps, Yellowstone National Park map webpage) to identify points of interest on their tear-off map, including the natural features, roads, and other categories of information they identified in Step 2. Students will discuss how their maps compare with the Folsom and Norris maps and why.

Lesson 3. Changing Travel (45 – 60 minutes)
Objective: Students will analyze and describe how transportation in the park has changed over time.

Instructions:

  1. Distribute printouts or show images of the stagecoach, tour bus, car, bicycle, and snowcoach. Lead a student discussion to analyze and compare features of each. How is each vehicle powered (motor, human, animal)? Who operates it (concessioner or visitor), and where can it go (preset tour route, snow, etc.)? What is the relationship between each vehicles, park roads, and park features (e.g. road width and type for carriage vs. motor vehicle, protection of resources from oversnow vehicles, etc.) and how have these changed over time?
  2. Compare the travel speeds of a horse-drawn stagecoach (5 mph) and motorized vehicle (allowable speeds in park 15-45 mph). Students will calculate and compare travel times for each using the maps from Lesson 2.
  3. Break class out into small groups. Students will chart out and report on pros and cons for each form of transportation (horse-drawn, human-powered bicycle, motorized bus, car, motorcycle). What supplies (food, clothing, fuel, other supplies) would be needed to tour the park with each type of vehicle? How long will it take to travel between the points of interest students identified on their maps in Lesson 2?
  4. Students will identify and report on what forms of transportation are available to them locally (bus, car, bicycle, walking) and how long it would take them to travel to school, and/or a recent trip using each type of transportation.

Lesson 4. My Travel Journal (45 – 60 minutes)
Objective: Students will use Yellowstone National Park museum travel diaries and images to journal their trip through Yellowstone or a local park or recent vacation.

Instructions:

  1. Distribute copies and transcripts of the Moger and Dyer diary excerpts and have students note and discuss what these visitors documented from their trip. Did visitors notice their surroundings, other visitors, wildlife? Do they mention other travelers? Why do you think they wrote about these moments?
  2. Distribute copies or project images of Haynes postcards and lead student discussion of travel photography. Ask students to consider who is taking photographs (visitors, park staff, professional photographers such as F. J. Haynes) and what was photographed (nature, people, wildlife etc.). Why would early visitors want to document this moment? Would today’s visitors to the park also photograph the same content? What would the students want to photograph if they were visiting the park?
  3. Students will create a journal of their own “travel” through Yellowstone or a local park using Lesson 2 maps, features in the Yellowstone: Travel Through Time virtual park museum exhibit, and the park website, or recent vacation. Have students write passages and/or sketch out drawings of sights they see and activities they did.

Lesson 5. Paving the Way to the Future (45 – 60 minutes)
Objective: Students will design, draw and build a small-scale model of a vehicle to allow visitors to safely and sustainably experience the park in the future.

Instructions:

  1. Have students compare the stagecoaches and White Motor Company Bus and describe how the introduction of motorized travel changed the features of tour vehicles, roads, and visitors’ travel itineraries.
  2. Teacher provides background on how Yellowstone became a national park to “protect the scenery, cultural heritage, wildlife, geologic and ecological systems and processes in their natural condition for the benefit and enjoyment of present and future generations.” Students will debate and discuss which features of current vehicles help to achieve these goals, and which may change in the future.
  3. Student groups imagine, design, draw and build a small-scale model of a vehicle used for park transportation 100 years in the future. Provide students with materials such as small boxes, popsicle sticks, pipe cleaner and clay.
  4. Students create an exhibit, campaign, or brochure to promote or increase visitation to and sustainable use of the nearest local, city, municipal, state, or national park. Students research the history of the park to identify when and why it was established, who has used it historically and today, and what modes of transportation are used to access it.
  5. Students create an exhibit label for their model for inclusion in the class exhibit. Students should include “tombstone” information (maker, date, materials, measurements) as well as interpretive information on how their model’s design achieves the goals of sustainable park transportation.

J. Assessment

  • Participation in daily activities.
  • Products from Student Activities
    • Lesson 1. “How to Read and Object” and “How to Read a Photograph” Worksheets
    • Lesson 2. Student-created map
    • Lesson 3. Student transportation charts
    • Lesson 4. Journal entry
    • Lesson 5. Transportation model and class exhibit or campaign

K. Enrichment Activities and Site Visit

The site visit includes a visit to Yellowstone National Park, or a local a park or museum, historic house museum, or historical society. Visit the Yellowstone: Travel Through Time virtual museum exhibit.

Before the visit, students visit the institution’s website for an overview, or provide brochures and other written/visual materials about the site. Have each student come up with 2-3 questions to guide the visit.

Students select at least two objects on exhibit at the park or museum to analyze using the “How to Read an Object” worksheet. Teacher creates a “scavenger hunt” object list for students to find to promote observation skills.

Last updated: June 10, 2024