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The Southwest’s rivers and canyons provide the ultimate educational backdrop!
People travel from around the world to visit the Grand Canyon and the Southwest. This environment is rich in gorgeous landscapes, intriguing human history, world-famous geology, and fascinating animals and plants. Your Grand Canyon Youth program immerses you in these wild places, and you learn by experiencing them firsthand.
We want to know where your interests lie. We also want you to participate fully in your trip. To accomplish these goals, you will prepare an interactive 10–15 minute educational presentation and present it to your peers while on the river. This is not a book report; it’s a way for you to choose something you are excited about and share that excitement with others.
How do I go about doing my educational project?
1–Choose a topic. The best way to choose a topic is to pick something you are already interested in. Past participants have done their educational projects on everything from medicinal plants to historical photographers. Be creative! Some topics to help you brainstorm…
| History | Native American people, past and present |
|---|---|
| Early settlers, miners, or explorers | |
| History of river runners | |
| Geology | Classification of rock types |
| Environments in which different rock types were formed | |
| Fossils | |
| Uplifts, faults, and other geological features | |
| Ecology | Human impacts on the environment |
| Relationships between living (plants and animals) and non-living (soil, water, temperature) aspects of the desert environment | |
| River | Rate of flow, sediment, etc. |
| Erosion: steep cliffs vs. wide meanders | |
| Formation of rapids and reading the water (eddies, holes) | |
| Biology | Life along the river: species of plants, birds, fish, reptiles, etc. |
| Native vs. exotic species | |
| Endangered or threatened species | |
| Archaeology | Ancient civilizations |
| Rock art | |
| Astronomy | Using star maps; research which constellations will be in the night sky and locate them at night during the trip |
| How explorers used the stars to navigate and make maps |
2–Complete the education project outline. The education project outline is meant to help you to organize your project. You are not graded on it. Turn this in prior to the trip so that we can let the guides and other adults know what your project will be about; that way, they can help find the perfect time and place for you to present your work.
3–Come to your trip prepared.
