Local Students Created Winning Projects on Yellowstone National Park

Park County, Wyoming boasts amazing schools, students, and teachers. This past May the Center’s Interpretive Education Division and Draper Natural History Museum partnered with Westside Elementary in Park County’s Powell, WY to advance the success, ingenuity, and creativity of two of the school’s 5th grade students. These local students created winning projects on Yellowstone National Park!

An Idea to Celebrate Students’ Successes

Prior to the end of the school year, Mrs. Foley and Mrs. Tobin contacted me with an idea. Their idea was to challenge their 5th graders to complete a project based on a two day field trip into nearby Yellowstone National Park. These innovative teachers who believe in their students’ potential presented their students with two project types.

1. Create a museum exhibit on a feature of Yellowstone National Park that interests them.
2. Create a virtual google field trip for visitors visiting Yellowstone.

These two choices included specific rubrics or expectations that students’ had to address in their final product. Not only did they consider and present the science behind Yellowstone, but they also had to appropriately provide messaging for their audience.

Making a Choice to Highlight Yellowstone

Students chose their project type and headed to Yellowstone for two days with their classmates. Once back at school, students had two days to complete their project. Mrs. Foley and Mrs. Tobin then picked finalists in the each project category.

And the Winners are…

Dr. Charles Preston and I reviewed the finalists and chose a winner in each category. We are thrilled to announce the winners in each category.

Museum Exhibit

Abby Wambeke’s The Story is a three dimensional exhibit about the mudpots found in Yellowstone National Park. Abby employed both visual elements, as well as layered components of interpretation. The exhibit, now on view in the Draper Natural History Museum’s Seasons of Discovery, will allow our visitors to view the surficial and underground plumbing of mudpots. They can also read about the science behind these amazing geothermal features.

Virtual Field Trip

Megan Jacobsen created a sense of inquiry and curiosity in her virtual field trip. Megan’s voice as both the writer and narrator is immediately evident as her field trip leaves Westside Elementary and travels to highlighted points of interest in Yellowstone National Park. Each point of interest includes a photo and narration of why it is a must see stop for visitors from all over the world.

View Megan’s winning virtual field trip here: Virtual Field Trip Winner

On Exhibit Now!!

On Tuesday, July 12, the Center invited Megan, Abby, their families, and their teachers to visit the Center for the installation of Abby’s museum exhibit and the launch of Megan’s virtual field trip.

We are thrilled with both students’ accomplishments!!! We wish them luck in all they do and hope to highlight the work of other local students in the future.