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USGS Resources for Teaching About Lewis and Clark
The USGS publishes nearly 100,000 different maps, aerial photographs, books, booklets, posters, CDs, digital data, and satellite imagery, many of which are useful for teaching about Lewis and Clark, Native Americans, and the cultural and physical geography of the United States, past and present. These resources can be used in an inquiry-based setting in a variety of courses and projects at the elementary, secondary, and university levels. In addition, the USGS hosts Internet-based resources that can be used for teaching about Lewis and Clark.
Descriptions of some of these items and how to use them in education are at left.
Why teach about Lewis and Clark? The Lewis and Clark expedition of 1803-1806 from Virginia to the Oregon Pacific Coast allows students to be engaged in exciting projects and investigations that are connected to national and state educational content standards, and explore the following disciplines and topics:
Physical Geography--Landforms, climate, vegetation, watersheds, water resources, river processes, alpine processes, glacial processes.
Cultural Geography--Interaction between Native Americans and European-Americans; past and present-day settlement of each; population change on the Great Plains, Rocky Mountains, and Pacific Coast.
Environmental Studies--Flora and fauna of the US Interior Lowlands, Great Plains, Rocky Mountains, and Pacific Coast; current environmental concerns in the region.
History--Reasons for the expedition, chronology of events, why and how events unfolded as they did, how the expedition affected future cultural and political geography of the region.
Mathematics--Logistics and distances of the expedition; latitude-longitude, measurements, cartography.
Civics--Political climate of the newly formed United States, 19th Century history, ramifications of the expedition.
Economics--Commodities exchanged and cataloged on the expedition; comparison to current economic activities in the region.
Maps
Lewis and Clark, Exploration, and Landforms Maps
Ground Water Atlases of the USA
Books
Ground Water and Surface Water: A Single Resource
The Quality of Our Nation's Waters
Fact Sheets
Lewis and Clark (PDF)
Web Sites
USGS North Dakota Lewis and Clark Site
USGS R eal-Time Streamflow Site
ESRI ArcLessons Site
Search on "Lewis and Clark" for GIS-based lessons.
National Geographic Xpeditions Lesson
Create your own adventure!
Core Knowledge's Westward Expansion
Grades K-2
Sierra Club's Lewis and Clark
Grades 3-5
Ken Burns PBS Documentary Companion
Grades 6-8
Discovering Lewis and Clark
Grades 9-12
To order USGS maps or other products, contact:
Your authorized USGS Business Partner. A listing of these is available on:
http://rockyweb.cr.usgs.gov/acis-bin/querypartner.cgi
Order online: http://store.usgs.gov
or email: ask@usgs.gov
or visit: http://ask.usgs.gov
or call 1-888-ASK-USGS
or write: US Geological Survey, Map Distribution, Denver Federal Center, Box 25286,
Denver, Colorado 80225-0286 USA
Or access the order form: http://mac.usgs.gov/mac/isb/pubs/forms/usgsbooks.html
U.S. Department of the Interior |
U.S. Geological Survey
URL: http://education.usgs.gov/common/lessons/lewis_and_clark.html
Page Contact Information: USGS Education Web Team
Page Last Modified: Thursday, 30-Aug-2007 08:51:45 EDT
