Lesson+1+-+Call+to+Action

In 2016, the National Parks will be celebrating their centennial anniversary. You can help to celebrate this anniversary by helping to develop awareness about the value of our National Parks. One way to develop awareness in others is to create a public service announcement. Follow these steps in creating a public service announcement that will inspire others to celebrate and protect the future of our national parks:


 * 1) Research the natural and cultural resources that can be found in one of the National Parks.
 * 2) Research the effects of natural processes and social circumstances on the natural and cultural resources.
 * 3) Produce a National Parks Public Service Announcement slide show or video (presentation should be 3-5 minutes) to share the information you researched.
 * 4) Extension:
 * Design a poster in a historical style commissioned by the WPA or in your own style to advertise your campaign.
 * Create a brochure to inform others about your campaign.
 * Create a website or wiki to host information about your campaign and your public service announcement.

As an example of public service announcement (PSA), view the video Renewing Our National Park Promise from the National Parks Conservation Association. More example PSA for State Parks can be found here: Proposition 21: California State Parks Initiative. For more information on creating a PSA, see

Critical Reading of Persuasive and Expository Texts
Next, engage students in academic discourse around expository texts. Students should be working in the beginning to determine the adequacy and appropriateness of the evidence for an author’s conclusions, making reasonable assertions about a text through accurate, supporting citations, and noting instances of unsupported inferences, fallacious reasoning, persuasion, and propaganda in text. Provide the students with the graphic organizer to support this critical analysis. (See some sample text response sheets here: and ).

Possible text sets to begin with:
Saunders, S. & Easley, T. (July 2006). //Losing Ground: Western National Parks Endangered by Climate Disruption//. Renewing Our National Park Promise Teddy Joins the Debate Northern Arizona Petroglyphs Scrubbed of Graffiti Friends of Red Rock Canyon (Go to the Resources page for more text sets)