LEARN NC

K–12 teaching and learning · from the UNC School of Education

Great Smoky Mountains

Environmental educational programs instructed by National Park Rangers and classroom teachers for students in grades K-8.

Preview your trip on the web: Great Smoky Mountains

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  • NatureWorks Learn about animal adaptations, habitats and interdependence or go straight to the facts about North American animals and birds.
  • Lesson plan: Dynamic dialect: Horace Kephart and our Southern Highlanders Students will read an excerpt from Horace Kephart's Our Southern Highlanders and explore how language and dialect have changed over the years.
  • American Field Guide A collection of online videos that explore many aspects of America's wilderness from animals to earth and space to public policy.
  • Lesson plan: Ecosystem problem solving Students will apply their knowledge of ecosystems and the interdependence of plants and animals to creatively solve problems.
  • Lesson plan: Mountain dialect: Reading between the spoken lines This lesson plan uses Chapter 13 of Our Southern Highlanders (available online) as a jumping-off point to help students achieve social studies and English language arts objectives while developing an appreciation of the uniqueness of regional speech patterns, the complexities of ethnographic encounter, and the need to interrogate primary sources carefully to identify potential biases and misinformation in them. Historical content includes American slavery, the turn-of-the-century, and the Great Depression.
  • Lesson plan: If a tree falls in the forest... Students will explore the role that forests play in their own lives by listing everyday products made from trees. Then students will research and categorize less common products that may be less familiar to them.

Related pages

  • Occoneechee Mountain State Natural Area: Originally settled by the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation, the Occoneechee Mountain State Natural Area has a diversity of natural communities including undisturbed forest and a wide variety of wildlife species.
  • Durant Nature Park: Enjoy a visit to this 237-acre City of Raleigh park and discover the flora and fauna of the area.
  • Tanglewood Park Nature Education Center: In spring and fall, Tanglewood Park offers quality nature education programs which are correlated with the N.C. Standard Course of Study for Science or Social Studies.

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Smoky Mountain Classrooms are environmental education programs available to area schools in North Carolina and Tennessee. The programs utilize Park Rangers as primary instructors with assistance from teachers. The Park’s outdoor "classrooms" become the teaching resource. These k-8 programs reflect North Carolina and Tennessee curriculum objectives and educational goals. There is no charge for these programs. Topics range from the interdependence between plants and animals in their habitats to learning how the forest was both a supermarket and a drugstore to mountain communities.

For more information, contact the Park’s education office at (865) 436-1292 or send e-mail to: GRSM_Education@NPS.gov.

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