Guide Users

For Classrooms, Homeschool, Scout Troops, Historic Sites: Integration Into Existing Curriculum

The Discovery Guide is intended for anyone interested in understanding, preserving, and promoting the heritage of the Allegheny Ridge. While it has been prepared in a format that makes it useful to elementary or secondary teachers, other educators will also find things they can use. The guide can be used by any group leader, with homeschoolers, scout troops, church youth groups, and even with adult education programs and as activities for senior citizens. Staff and volunteers at sites along the Ridge can also mine the Discovery Guide for ideas and activities that may be incorporated into interpretive programs. The Discovery Guide provides a process that its users can follow to discover the diverse heritage of the Allegheny Ridge.

The Discovery Guide can be an invaluable tool for field-trip planning, but its real value lies in its integration into the existing curriculum. Teachers can find lessons here in all subjects that will stimulate an excitement and intellectual curiosity for heritage that becomes part of the student's everyday life. As part of a math lesson, language exercise, or science experiment, students can learn about local cultural, historical, and natural resources and the legacy that has been bequeathed to them. They begin to appreciate their role as stewards of this legacy, and to recognize and respect it in the customs they follow, in the buildings and structures of their communities, and in the other people of the Ridge. They begin to understand that the experiences of the people of the Ridge have had far-reaching influence, and that they are the newest part of that experience.

We hope you will consider using the Discovery Guide and that you will want to make it a permanent part of your yearly curriculum.