This video explains how national park visitors can stay healthy and hydrated as annual temperatures increase in more than 90% of national parks, highlighting the Grand Canyon National Park as an example.
Students will learn that the National Park Service is adapting to higher temperatures by creating shady rest areas for visitors, providing water bottle filling stations, and investing in low pollution transit infrastructure.
Teaching Tips
Positives
Students will learn how high temperatures can affect people's health and impact their ability to participate in recreational activities.
The video description provides a link to an audio-described version of the video.
Additional Prerequisites
Students should be familiar with the terms vulnerable, strenuous, hydrate, efficiency, transit, exacerbate, itinerary, and pursuits.
Differentiation
Younger students could plan a virtual summer trip to a national park of their choice. To plan for the trip, students could research and answer the following questions:
What month will you visit?
What is the average temperature in the park during that month?
What do you plan to do in the park?
How will you cool off?
How will you stay hydrated?
What will you do if you get overheated or dehydrated?
Students could make a list of the ways that national parks are adapting to higher temperatures and decide if any of the adaptations will help mitigate climate change.
Other resources on this topic include this article on how countries are adapting to extreme heat, this interactive map on global warming scenarios and rising temperatures, and this SubjectToClimate lesson plan on analyzing data to understand rising temperatures.
Scientist Notes
In the face of changing climate, this video illustrates safety measures to prevent heat illness and other climate-related diseases during visits to national parks and recreational facilities. This is recommended for teaching.
Standards
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
ESS3: Earth and Human Activity
MS-ESS3-5 Ask questions to clarify evidence of the factors that have caused the rise in global temperatures over the past century.
HS-ESS3-1 Construct an explanation based on evidence for how the availability of natural resources, occurrence of natural hazards, and changes in climate have influenced human activity.
LS1: From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes
HS-LS1-3 Plan and conduct an investigation to provide evidence that feedback mechanisms maintain homeostasis.
