Introduction:

    You have been selected to be a newspaper reporter for a group of travelers who will be traveling along the Santa Fe Trail.  The trail will be long and hard.  You will record what you see, hear, and feel along the way.  You will take a photographer/artist or journalist with you as well as a biologist.  Each member of your team will have specific information to record.  See below for each task.
 
 

Team Member	Description
Journalist	Record impressions of all that occurs along the trail and write it as a newspaper article.  Make a minimum of four slides in PowerPoint.
Photographer/Artist	Find photographs or pictures of the people and countryside encountered along the trail.  Record exactly where these pictures/photographs were found (Internet sites, who took the pictures, and/or any other information about them.  Use these pictures/photographs in the PowerPoint presentation and newspaper article.
Biologist/Anthropologist	Record any information about the living things encountered on the trail.  Describe all peoples and their behavior.  Use the information in a newspaper article and make at least four slides in PowerPoint.

    Your team's task is to record everything you discover about life along the Santa Fe Trail.  You will then write a newspaper article for your paper, The Bellevue Sun.  Remember your readers will want to know what you take on your trip, the countryside through which you travel, the people on the trail including any Native Americans you encounter, see a map of the trail, and any experiences you may have along the way.  You will also create a presentation to give to others so they may be prepared for the trail should they decide to follow in your footsteps.

    You will use the resources below to help with your quest.  Use each site to find information to prepare your presentation.  Keep in mind that you are going to report all that you see and do for others who might want to also make the trip.

    Directions:  Click on the Internet address to find information

http://www.nmhu.edu/research/sftrail/sftmappc.htm   Photographs and maps

http://raven.cc.ukans.edu/heritage/research/sft/

http://www.nmhu.edu/research/sftrail/

http://www.nmhu.edu/research/sftrail/sftdocrt.htm Personal Diaries of early pioneers
 

At the end of your Santa Fe Trail quest you and your team should be be experts on the trail.  Your newspaper article and PowerPoint presentation will help to teach others about life along the trail.  Your quest is very important.  If others decide to take the trail, your presentation will be of great help to them.  Good Luck and stay safe!

Your newspaper article and PowerPoint presentation will be evaluated as follows.  There will be a total of 90 points possible for this activity.  Below is a matrix that will be used to calculate your score.
 

What Is Evaluated?	10 Points	20 Points	30 Points
Team Effort - This includes how well you work together as well as how well your team  stays on task.	Team stayed on task part of the time and worked together a little.	Team stayed on task most of the time and worked together most of the time.	Team stayed on task all the time and always worked together.
Quality of news article-spelling and grammatical structures	Team wrote a news article, but had more than five misspelled words or grammatical errors.	Team wrote a good news article with no more than three to five misspelled words or grammatical errors.	Team wrote an excellent news article with no more than two misspelled words or grammatical errors..
Quality of PowerPoint presentation	Team's PowerPoint presentation was completed	Team's PowerPoint presentation was good.	Team's PowerPoint presentation was excellent

Author: Barbara Jones
Revised February 4, 2001