Academic Emphases

The remarkable natural and cultural history of Yosemite National Park and the breadth of our educators' experience allows Yosemite Institute to offer your classroom a wide range of study.  

Yosemite Institute programs are multidisciplinary, including science, history, arts, literature, math, and more. Activities feature active learning targeted to multiple intelligences and reflect our Core Educational Framework themes: Sense of Place, Interconnections, and Stewardship.  In our classroom, students have the unique opportunity to observe, experience, and personally connect with the knowledge and concepts outlined in the California Content Standards.  

We work in partnership with our schools to choose academic emphases that most effectively transfer to and from the home classroom.  Your program can focus on one or more of these areas of study, depending on your classroom's needs and the length of its program.

Climate Change

• climate and weather patterns
• greenhouse gas effect
• carbon cycle
• impacts on hydrology
• impacts on ecology
• carbon footprints

Ecology

   Ecological Concepts

• food webs
• predator/prey relationships
• energy transfer
• species diversity
• populations, communities, and ecosystems
• biomes and habitats
• adaptations
• fire ecology
• forest succession

   Natural History

• life zones
• adaptations
• plant identification and observation
• wildlife identification and observation
• endangered or threatened species
• observation techniques                       
• migration patterns
• territory and home range
• life cycles

 Geology

• weathering and erosion
• rock types, minerals, and soils
• formation of geologic features
• plate tectonics, earthquakes

Hydrology

• sedimentation and succession
• water cycles
• watersheds
• significance of the Sierra snow pack
• California water issues

  History of Yosemite

   Native People's History And Culture

• relationship to their environment
• uses of plants, skins, etc.
• food and shelter
• legends and history
• cultural comparison
• current status

   Yosemite Pioneer History

• John Muir
• Euro-American pioneers in Yosemite
• Cultural diversity in Yosemite
• National Park Service

Scientific Process

• the scientific process
• observation techniques
• looking for patterns
• asking answerable questions
• dependent vs. independent variables
• creating hypotheses
• data collection techniques
• replication
• data graphing
• drawing conclusions
• presenting results