Teaching The Hudson Valley

LESSON PLANS BY UNIT

Mannahatta
Introductory Lesson Students use maps and images to understand the basic idea of comparing the natural history of 1609 Mannahatta with the urbanized present of Manhattan....
Module I, Lesson 1- Connectivity: Tracing Mannahatta Students trace historic natural features from old Manhattan, and layer them over the modern street grid in order to see how the land has changed ove...
Module I, Lesson 2- Connectivity: Weaving a Mannahatta Muir Web Students use their bodies and ribbon to create a web of habitats, species and abiotic elements that were present on Mannahatta. Through this lesson...
Module I, Lesson 3- Connectivity: The Changing Life of a Water Droplet Students pretend they are water droplets moving through the water cycle - first on the Mannahatta of 1609, and next on modern Manhattan. This lesso...
Module I, Lesson 4- Connectivity: Uncovering Streams in Central Park This field trip, in which students "uncover" an ancient stream in Central Park, reinforces what students have learned in the first three lessons abo...
Module II, Lesson 5- Landscape: Island of Many Hills Students build clay models of sections of Mannahatta, then learn how to create contour maps based on their models. This lesson uses basic math and g...
Module II, Lesson 6- Landscape: The Mighty Beaver In this lesson, students act out the roles of the different species that can live along and in streams and wetlands of Mannahatta. They learn how be...
Module II, Lesson 7- Landscape: The Search for Lenape Campsites The native people of Mannahatta, the Lenape, chose their campsites based on their proximity to what they needed to live: food, water, and shelter. ...
Module II, Lesson 8- Landscape: Exploring Inwood Hill Park On this field trip, in which students explore the forest and salt marsh of Inwood Hill Park, students reinforce what they have learned in this modul...
Module III, Lesson 9- Localism: Migration, Immigration, and the Importance of Diversity Students use bird migration to compare the biodiversity of 1609 Mannahatta with the cultural diversity of New York City today. In this lesson, student...
Module III, Lesson 10- Localism: The Eco-History of Our Block Students use the Mannahatta website to learn about the ecological history of particular blocks on the island of Mannahatta-and then compare what the...
Module III, Lesson 11- Localism: Designing the City of the Future Based on what they have learned from studying the history of Mannahatta, students design the city they hope will exist 400 years in the future, focu...
Module III, Lesson 12- Localism and Stuyvesant Town: Building a City on the Island On this field trip, students search for all the original ecological communities in what is now the Stuyvesant Town section of Manhattan. Students lear...
Mapping the Ecological Communities of Lower Mannahatta (Field Trip for High School Students) On this field trip specifically designed for older students, participants use maps of lower Mannahatta's ecological communities from 1609 to A) find o...