Science Kits: Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument
The Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument Kit helps students discover why the Monument has an unusually high level of biodiversity. Located just outside Ashland, the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument includes Pilot Rock, Soda Mountain Wilderness, Hobart Bluff, and a section of the Pacific Crest Trail. The Cascade and Siskiyou Mountain Ranges converge at this spot, creating an area of high biodiversity and geological uniqueness. The kit contains activities that explore butterfly diversity, bird migration, geologic complexity, and the cultural ecology of the Monument. The kit is perfect for use either on field trip or in the classroom.
Activities:
- A Close Friendship: Plants and Butterflies (pdf) – Grade 1-3. Understand the mutual relationship between plants and butterflies.
- Life on the Flyway (pdf) – Grade 6-8. Identify the various risks that birds encounter during migration and what types of adaptations help them in the process.
- Living off the Land (pdf) – Grade 4-6. Learn how the indigenous people interacted with the natural environment.
- Birth from the Earth (pdf) – Grade 6-8. Find out about the different geologic processes and formations of the Monument.
- Ladder Fuels and Fire Spread (pdf) – Grade 6-8. Interpret the relationship between fuel arrangement and vertical fire spread in forests, shrublands, and woodlands.
- Crossing Corridors (pdf) – Grade 9-12. Explore how habitat fragmentation limits survival of the Pacific Fisher and the importance of wildlife corridors.
Educational Tools:
- Butterfly’s Life cycle poster
- Bug viewers
- Migratory bird specimens
- Tinker Tree
- Coyote and Pacific Fisher pelts
Books and Literature:
- CSNM maps
- Butterflies of the Pacific Northwest
- Butterflies through Binoculars – The West
- BLM Butterfly brochure
- Birds of Oregon
- Guide to Backyard Birds
- Mammals of Washington and Oregon