Wilderness Views and Teacher Resources
An interactive multimedia website, Wilderness Views was released in late 2004 in honor of the 40th anniversary of the Wilderness Act. The project evolved as an interdisciplinary, interagency effort to engage viewers in their discovery of wilderness through technology. The module, recently offered in both English and Spanish, contains interviews with wilderness management staff, researchers and volunteers, 360 degree panoramas, soundscapes, and interactive screens to test the viewer's knowledge. A teacher resource center provides educators with standardized lesson plans and activities.
Original K-12 Wilderness and Land Ethic Curriculum
The Wilderness and Land Ethic Curriculum is the product of many educators, Forest Service wilderness managers and interested organizations. The curriculum was been pilot tested in Colorado, Minnesota and Montana through teacher workshops and with elementary and middle school students in rural, suburban and urban schools. The goal of this project is to develop an awareness of the wilderness resouce and its significance to our culture and society. It is designed for use in urban classrooms without dependence on any "field experience" (many are adaptable to a field setting). The first edition of the curriculum was released in 1994, with an updated second edition reseased in 2003. An Evaluative Study of the "K-8 Wilderness and Land Ethic Curriculum" by Kari Gunderson and Leo McAvoy (Powerpoint Presentation) is a summary of research conducted on the effectiveness of this curriculum.
WildLink
WildLink brings one hundred culturally diverse, low-income students from across California (and inner-city Detroit) on wilderness expeditions every year. The students take digital photos, write in their journals and collect resource monitoring data. All of this information is loaded onto the WildLink website for online viewing and use in their classrooms. Students return to their communities as ambassadors for wilderness. Follow-up activities include family weekends, where students can guide their own family members during a visit to Yosemite, rock climbing in Central Valley climbing gyms with living legends like Royal Robbins, and internships where students can spend 3 months working in Yosemite.
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