Badlands in Your Classroom

A park ranger sharing information with a class about fossils.

NPS Photo

Bring Badlands National Park to Your Classroom

Park rangers are available for an in-person visit to your classroom if you’re in the local area. Areas served extends a 80-mile radius from the park visitor center to communities such as Black Hills area schools, Philip, Kadoka, and Pine Ridge Reservation.

Program offerings include:

Fossil Express

Grade Levels	3rd
Curriculum Standards	3-LS4-4, 3-LS4-1
Essential Question	How does studying fossils help us understand our environment?
Program Description	Fossils give us clues about Earth’s past including the kinds of organisms that lived in the past, how the environment changed, and how organisms have changed. Discover what it means to be a paleontologist and the importance of finding fossils. Using observation skills and viewing fossils, students will learn about ancient animals and compare them with modern day animals.

Bison Banquet

Grade Levels	4th
Curriculum Standards	4.H.1.1
Essential Question	Why was the bison the most important mammal to North America?
Program Description	Bison have had a great importance to Great Plains ecosystem and to the people who lived within it. Discover more about these amazing creatures, how they supported Native people for thousands of years, and how their decline changed an ecosystem.

Ancient Ecosystems

Grade Levels	3rd-4th; Middle, and High School
Curriculum Standards	3-LS4-1, 3-LS4-4, 4-ESS1-1, 4-ESS2-1; MS-ESS2-3, MS-ESS2-2, 7.G.4.1; HS-ESS2-4
Essential Question	What can characteristics of fossils and geology tell us?
Program Description	Some kinds of plants and animals that once lived on Earth are no longer found anywhere. Discover how rocks can tell us about history and explore the ancient ecosystems of Badlands.

Contact the education specialist at e-mail us or [phone] to set up a visit, or discuss other programming options available.