Week 2 Topic Selection Mandatory. Week 9 Poster 40; Attendance/participation mandatory for full project credit

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1 Geo-Bio: Geological and Historical Biography of a Park Overview Each student will select a specific park (defined below), research that park and prepare a bibliography, fact sheet, paper, and poster exploring its geological and historical context. The project is broken down into the following assignments and due dates: Date Due Project Assignments Points Week 2 Topic Selection Mandatory Week 4 Bibliography 100 Week 6 Fact sheet & Annotated Bibliography 40 Week 8 Week 9 Narrative, Timeline, and Outline Poster precis Week 9 Poster 40; Attendance/participation mandatory for full project credit Week 9 Week 10 Poster evaluation Final Paper Topic Selection You have your choice of topic for this assignment, but it must fall within certain parameters: Each student will research a different park. Park is broadly defined as any National Park Service, Department of Interior or Bureau of Land Management administered federal area, or a state-administered park. You must be able to connect the park or its landscape to specific issues in U.S. History and the principles of geology. In fact, you should be able to connect the geology of the park with the later human uses of the park. You must choose a park NOT extensively covered in the seminar readings. For example, Gettysburg NMP, Grand Canyon NP, and Cape Cod NS are off-limits for this assignment. Page 1 of 7

2 A list of pre-approved parks is shown below. You are welcome to choose one not on the list, but it must be approved by both instructors. Students will submit a list of their top three choices. The order of student choice will be determined randomly. PARKS: Mesa Verde NP, Isle Royale NP, Shenandoah NP, Great Smoky Mountains NP, Everglades NP, Gates of the Arctic NP, Papahanaumokuakea Marine NM, Sequoia/Kings Canyon NP, Saguaro NP, Flaming Gorge NRA, Timpanogos Cave NM, Acadia NP, Big Hole NB, Olympic NP, Lewis and Clark NHP, City of Rocks NR, Chaco Culture NHP. Alibates Flint Quarries NM, Hot Springs NP, Scotts Bluff NM, Tallgrass Prairie NPr, Chickasaw NRA, Fire Island NS Note: NP = National Park, NM = National Monument, NRA = National Recreation Area, NB = National Battlefield, NR = National Reserve, NHP = National Historical Park, NPr = National Preserve, NS = National Seashore BIBLIOGRAPHY This shows some of the sources available on the subject and the sources that you will draw from for your paper. You must compile a list of at least ONE of each of the following: 1. Article from a peer-reviewed history journal, print or online Examples: Journal of American History; Journal of World History; William and Mary Quarterly 2. Published academic secondary source in history or related field Examples: William Cronon, Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England; William McNeill, Plagues and Peoples 3. High-quality secondary source book in geology or related field Examples: Harris, Tuttle and Tuttle, Geology of National Parks, 6 th ed. 4. Primary American history source in textual form Examples: personal journal, scientific treatise, literary work 5. Primary American history source in visual form Examples: drawing, photograph, historical map, book illustration 6. Academic-quality reference work, printed, NOT online encyclopedia, related to your topic Examples: Smith, ed., The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America; Hitchcock and Cronquist, Flora of the Pacific Northwest 7. High-quality periodical History Examples: Smithsonian; History Today 8. High-quality periodical Geology Page 2 of 7

3 Examples: Scientific American; National Geographic 9. High-quality institutional website (government agency, nonprofit group, or university) Examples: U.S. National Park Service (nps.gov); U.S. Bureau of Land Management (blm.gov); U.S. Geological Survey (usgs.gov); University of Washington 10. High-quality non-academic periodical or book Examples: New York Times; National Parks Magazine; Chronic and Chronic, Pages of Stone FACT SHEET AND ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY Fact Sheet This is a basic geological guide to your park. The guide should be written in complete sentences. The fact sheet must include the following: A map of the park, showing a scale bar and various named features of the park A map of the park s region, showing a scale bar and nearby cities and/or geographic features Picture (drawing or photograph) o You must note the source and/or photographer, even if it is your own photo Specific geological features that your poster will most likely exhibit Facts about the park: the year it was established, the size of the park, who administers it Use by humans and general impact by humans A bibliography, listing the sources you used to make the fact sheet Annotated Bibliography An annotation is a brief description and critique of your source. It summarizes the relevant points of the source, critically evaluates the source, and explains how the source fits into your research as a whole. For the annotated bibliography, you will provide a list of sources, as per the bibliography assignment, and write 4-5 sentences about that source underneath each one. You should also list and annotate any new sources you have found since turning in the first version of the bibliography. The following source provides a description and examples of annotated bibliographies: You can also search online for annotated bibliographies for many more explanatory sites and examples. Page 3 of 7

4 NARRATIVE, TIMELINE AND OUTLINE Narrative The narrative is a 5-6 page essay in which you provide a general historical narrative of the park area, from the distant geological past to the present. You do not have to give equal attention to every part of that history, but the narrative should start with the geological or tectonic setting (note that this does not mean the whole geological history) and ultimately reach the present or near present. You will not need to have a thesis statement for this essay, but you will need to have some overarching organization. Do not merely write a chronology of events, but focus on a particular theme or aspect of the history as your main principle. In an introduction or conclusion, write a big picture paragraph summarizing the main historical and geological points of your essay. Use the questions below to guide your narrative. Your work should answer most of these questions: Timeline What is the general topography of the park? What forces shaped the topography, and when? Who were the first inhabitants of the park? What records did they leave? What impact did they have on the area? When did the first Europeans arrive at the park? What was their use of the park? What interactions did they have with the original inhabitants of the area? When did people perceive a need to protect this area? From what did the area need protection? When and how was the park established, and by whom? What has changed in the way people use this park since then? Create two diagrams, either horizontal charts or vertical lists, one showing the important geologic events for your park and the other showing the important historical events for your park. The time scales of the two diagrams ought to vary significantly. It is up to your judgment and your research to determine what the important events are. There must be a sufficient number of points in time listed, and each must have some direct connection to your park. Each point in the timeline must have a sentence that says what happened then. Outline Provide a topic outline for the Final Paper project (see instructions below). Page 4 of 7

5 POSTER SESSION Students will prepare posters on their work to present on Thursday, June 2. You will make two presentations: one at 9 a.m. (the audience will be the rest of the class, who will evaluate your poster), the other at 11 a.m. at the Making Learning Visible symposium held in the old Cafeteria in the CC building (the audience is the general campus community). You are expected to be present for both sessions for about an hour; from 10 to 11 a.m. that day, you may spend correcting your poster based on the evaluations from your peers you received, prior to presenting it to the general public. The poster précis is a short (125-word) summary of the main points of your poster. It should succinctly connect the geology and the history of the park. It should read like a thesis paragraph for your final paper. You will have at least two other members of the class evaluate your poster and ask you questions about your park. These evaluations are intended to be critical and constructive. You will receive credit for performing the evaluations; the anonymous evaluations will be given to the poster presenter so that she or he can address the criticisms before the Making Learning Visible symposium. Page 5 of 7

6 FINAL PAPER The final paper should be the culmination of your research into your park. It consists of the narrative essay plus a new essay section, the Integrative Essay, which connects your research to larger themes from the course. In the Integrative Essay, in a 5-6 page paper, you will use your park as a way to examine the connections between geology and human history. Integrative Essay Answer many, if not all, of the following questions: Explain how the history or location of the park illustrates or represents larger historical developments. For example: how does this park show the movements or activities of human beings over time? What is it about the geology, or the geological uses of the park, that allowed it to have an effect on human history and the environment? For example: the glaciers of the late Pleistocene Epoch carved Yosemite Valley, creating a protected, temperate area in the Sierra Nevada Mountains that the Miwok tribe inhabited. What are the most notable things that a historian would note about this park? (Examples: architecture, economic uses, political jurisdiction, symbols, etc.) What are the most notable things that a geologist would note about this park? (Examples: Yosemite contains many granitic pluton that make up the mountainous areas of the park, and many valleys that were carved into the plutons by Ice Age glaciers) What are the benefits and limitations of studying the park in terms of only one discipline, such as geology or history? How would you synthesize the two ways of looking at the same park? How does learning about the history of the park affect your scientific understanding of the park? How does learning about the geology of the park affect your historical understanding of the park? Page 6 of 7

7 How does the perception or labeling or categorization of the park s landscape change over time? (e.g., private land, public park, wilderness preserve, recreational area, etc.) Did this change occur due to a change in the park or its environment, or was it due to a change in human values? What has/have been the human impact(s) on the park? What role has the park played in the larger context of American history? Page 7 of 7