My Fellowship Focus is to create a geographic Story of Place through a comparative analysis of how American and Canadian national parks utilize and preserve their public lands within the Rocky Mountain ecosystem through cultural, economic, and ecological perspectives.
Rhonda O'Keefe
6th Grade Geography Teacher
rhonda.okeefe@fhsdschools.org
I grew up the youngest of six in a family with a strong appreciation of the Great Outdoors. Our family vacations and weekends consisted of camping, so state and national parks have been my playground and classroom for a lifetime.
In 2023, I became a National Geographic Grosvenor Fellow and explored the Arctic (Iceland-Greenland) which allowed me to design rich, global-scale experiences for my students. As a result of that experience, my students completed a Geo-Inquiry Project that established a museum display, recipe center, and school lunch menu option focused on a different culture each month of the school year. With place-based education as a foundation, I wanted to seek another opportunity for my students, focusing this time on a regional scale.
Via RV, I will explore Glacier National Park in Montana, USA , Banff and Jasper National Parks in Alberta, Canada, and Yoho and Kootenay National Parks in British Columbia, Canada. Based on the geographic Story of Place model I create, my students will examine a chosen natural public land space in our local community to apply the concept on their own.
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