Glacier National Park

Help your class connect ice-carved valleys, mountain roads, alpine life, and Blackfeet homeland in Glacier National Park

This virtual field trip helps grades 6-12 understand Glacier National Park as a connected mountain landscape shaped by ancient rock, enormous Ice Age glaciers, smaller modern glaciers, high-country climate, engineering choices, fire, tourism, and Blackfeet history. Students move place by place so each idea stays tied to visible evidence on the map.

The seven-stop route begins at Lake McDonald, then follows Going-to-the-Sun Road to Big Bend and Logan Pass before crossing to St. Mary Lake, Many Glacier, Grinnell Glacier, and Two Medicine Lake. The stops compare valley-scale glaciation with cirques and modern glacier monitoring, then widen the lesson to drainage, alpine ecology, fire disturbance, road construction, railway-era tourism, and continuing Indigenous presence.

Designed for grades 6-12. Middle school classes can focus on landforms, drainage, habitat, engineering problems, and place-based history; high school classes can extend the discussion into repeat photography, climate evidence, public-land interpretation, and relationships among scientific and cultural evidence.

At each stop, students explore Google Maps, use the photo panel or gallery when another angle is useful, listen to short narration, follow the transcript when needed, and discuss evidence from the visible place. Plan about 35-50 minutes with map exploration and discussion pauses.

Try the free preview of Stop 1 (Lake McDonald) to see the format with your students. When you are ready for the full trip, purchase the lesson to get an unlock code. After you unlock, you can share a student link for whole-class projection or 1:1 devices. The printable teacher guide, worksheets, and answer key come with the Shopify purchase, separate from the online trip.