For this lab we searched various resources on Indiana's DoE website. Related to my area, I was able to search for Social Studies or High School resources. I sought out 12th grade lesson plans incorporating Social Studies curriculum. I found the following Geography/Cultural Studies resource:
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/lessons/13/g912/wilderness.html
The resource is a lesson plan designed to "introduce the concept of wilderness" and how the wilderness and its preservation has affected American history and continues to shape American society. The lesson plan presented calls for three to four hours of teaching, plus homework. I believe that this lesson could be shortened using technology or that the length could be preserved but the lesson enhanced.
The core of the lesson asks students to divide into different groups and discuss a relevant article. When the students are brought back together, they present in chronological order, thus tracking the evolution of the subject matter. Using computers, this can be enhanced. The internet allows a much more effective accessing of information; the students could search deeper into the historical and cultural implications affecting their article's content. Thus, the lesson could be moved from simply an environmental studies lecture to a broader and enhanced historical/cultural history lesson.
Also, the lesson relates everything to newspapers; the students are given newspaper articles and then create their own. In today's age, this is not exactly relevant to students. Possibly, one could have the students search for articles on a newspaper's internet site. Also, rather than creating a "newspaper article", the students could each create a web page that, combined, easily tracks the evolution of wilderness preservation. This site could be used for easy future reference. Additionally, instead of presenting a skit the students could create a slideshow and/or video that could be uploaded to YouTube and incorperated into the review site.
There are other minor corrections that are further documented in the revised lesson plan on my Google Site.
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