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Social Studies > Place Names > National Parks (10 resources)

State Park Investigations

Grade Levels: 4 - 6

INTRODUCTION
Students will find out how many national parks are in their state and figure out how much of the area of the state is composed of national parks.

SUGGESTED TIME ALLOWANCE

40 minutes

OBJECTIVES
Students will:

become aware of the national parks in their state.

realize how much of their home state is comprised of national parks.

compute the total acreage of the parks in their state.

MATERIALS

Website: http://www.factmonster.com/states.html

Website: http://infoplease.com/ipa/A0108355.html

Website: http://www.onlineconversion.com/area.htm

Worksheet: State Park Land

Calculators

PROCEDURES

Review the following vocabulary words with students before beginning the lesson: acre, acreage, square (as in square miles), percentage, convert.
Advise students that their task is to figure out what percentage of the land in their state is made up of state parks. Begin by having students find out the area of their state by looking here: http://infoplease.com/ipa/A0108355.html. Have students enter this information on their worksheet.
To convert this square mile figure, use this conversion chart: http://www.onlineconversion.com/area.htm. Students should set the first counter at "square miles," and the second counter at "acres," and then type in the square mile figure showing the area of their state from their worksheet. Record the number.
Have students search for the number of state parks and their acreage by finding their state at http://www.factmonster.com/states.html and scrolling down to the State Parks heading. (Several states only have state forest information; this can be used instead of state park information, if necessary.) Students should note the number of parks and the total acreage on their worksheets.
Ask students how they could figure out what percentage of their state’s total land is comprised of state parks. Lead students to conclude that by dividing the total acreage of the state (which was converted above) by the total acreage of the state parks, the resulting percentage will be that part of the state that is covered.

ASSESSMENT

Check answers as a class. If students have gotten a wrong answer, help them retrace their steps to find their mistake.

EXTENSION ACTIVITIES

Hang a state road map on the wall. Have students locate as many state parks as they can find on the map, marking them with a pin or adhesive star. Using the scale of miles on the map, have them figure the distance each park is from the city where they reside.

Using the site http://www.nps.gov/parks.html, which links to the National Park Service for all 50 states, ask students to research various state parks and find one they’d like to visit. Make posters telling about the park’s features.

STANDARDS CORRELATION

Solves real-world problems involving number operations (e.g., computations with dollars and cents)

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