Explore the Ancient Southwest

Click here to open the Southwest Gazette (pdf)
Click here to see a sample Trail Head screen capture
Click here to see the Southwest Postcard (pdf)

Camp Internet hosts a multi-subject online learning expedition called Explore the Ancient Southwest that integrates teacher technology training with in-class, standards-based learning activities for students grades 6-9. Every week new study units are featured and live interactive learning activities are offered. Students and teachers learn to use technology-based resources as an integrated part of their classroom learning and are encouraged to develop hands-on projects: GPS, GIS, school gardens, weather stations, and the Camp Passport question and answer folios earn every student color incentive passport stamps for each area of the project completed.

Unique to the Ancient Southwest track are studies of:

  • The Great Migration - the peopling of North America
  • Ancient Geography /Geology - Pangaea to the Grand Canyon to the Petrified Forest
  • First People - Clovis, Folsom, Archaic and Basketmaker innovations
  • The Great Pueblos - from pit houses to magnificent city structures
  • Dinosaurs and Fossils - the REALLY ancient Southwest story
  • Writers and Explorers - from one-armed John Wesley Powell to the intrepid Bandelier, these early explorers and writers introduced the world to the SW
  • Artists and Photographers - Ansel Adams, Laura Gilpin, Thomas Moran, Taos Society Georgia O'Keeffe and Edgar Payne - artists who brought the mysteries to light
  • Amazing SW Women - for Women's History Month we meet Willa Cather, Mary Austen, Nampeyo, Maria Martinez, Pablita Velarde, Helen Hardin and more
  • Ancient Pueblo and Tribal Life Alive Today - art, culture, and technology at work
  • Native Plants and Animals - exploring three deserts and the Colorado plateau
  • GIS/GPS - all classrooms receive a GPS unit and begin gathering data to contribute to Camp's online GIS mapping project.

Meet the Famous Explorers


When Major John Wesley Powell first traversed the gorge of the Grand Canyon, a new age of Southwest exploration began. Not on the trail to seek gold and plunder as had been Spanish predecessors, these new explorers sought to uncover the mysteries of ancient life, from 1.7 billion year old rocks to the echoes of footsteps in cliff house ruins. Fellow explorers included Adolph Bandelier, Frank Cushing, and Charles Lummis whose words, drawings, and photographs began to reveal the mysteries of the Southwest to the world. More writers and painters soon followed, from Willa Cather to Zane Grey, Thomas Moran and Edgar Payne to Georgia O'Keeffe, the land itself and its shadowed ruins evoked an ancient time and world that still captivates explorers today.

Where did the Ancient Peoples go? How are their ways kept alive by the Pueblos today? What trade routes linked the Big Picture of the Ancient Southwest? And can it be that the LARGEST city in the Ancient Southwest is actually in Northern Mexico? From dinosaurs to tribal dances, there is a heritage here of life shaped by the climate and the majesty of the landscape.

Linking Classrooms in Seven States ~
Year End Field Trips to Rock Art and Ruins Recommended ~ Technology components provided


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Camp Internet Introduction page