Tallgrass Prairie and Pioneer Bluffs…Exploring the Flint Hills of Kansas
The Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve and the Center for Flint Hills Ranching Heritage called Pioneer Bluffs are about 30 minutes from each other in the Flint Hills region of Kansas. Both the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve and Pioneer Bluffs were working ranches at one time and offer educational opportunities for kids and adults. I visited the preserve this past fall and I visited Pioneers Bluffs last spring.
There is so much to learn at both of these places and the learning can go in so many directions. Students can learn history by learning about the families that lived on these ranches. Students can dig into what efforts are being made for conservation when in comes to the tallgrass prairie, as well as conservation efforts for the bison and other animals like the priaire chicken. Yes, there is such thing as a prairie chicken, I learned about said prairie chicken when I moved to Kansas. Students can learn about ranching and all the moving pieces that go into making a ranch work. All of that being said, students just might want to hike through the Flint Hills and enjoy nature and the memories and conversations that come from those hikes also have value.
Tallgrass Praire Preserve
When I arrived at the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve, the first stop I made was by the visitor center. The visitor center does provide some educational information about the Tallgrass Prairie, but most likely the main advantage of visiting the visitor center is to find out the different places to visit around the preserve. Visitors can walk several trails at the preserve and from some of the trails visitors can see bison. When driving into the main entrance of the preserve, when you look to the right there is the Spring Hill Ranch House. One resource that the Park Service provides is an audio tour that you can access by calling 1-620-805-3185 that provides information about the family that lived there as well as some of the things in the house that made it unique. A couple miles down the road is a one room school house called the Fox Creek School.
Pioneer Bluffs
Pioneer Bluffs was once a working ranch. Now, Pioneers Bluffs has an event space in their barn. The house on the property provides information about the ranchers that lived on that ranch many years ago. A trail on the property gives students the opportunity to take a short hike. One of the places that impressed me the most is an area they have created for kids to experience hands on activities about ranching. The grounds of Pioneer Bluffs are open to the public every day during daylight hours. Come explore the nature trail and their self-guided tour. If you want to see inside the buildings, contact executive director Lynn Smith at lynn@pioneerbluffs.org to make arrangements.
Resources
Tallgrass Prairie Preserve website- Provides a variety of information about the preserve.
Pioneer Bluffs website- Provides a variety of information about Pioneer Bluffs.
Field Trips in the Flint Hills- This link provides teachers with links to places that teachers can take their students on field trips.
Flint Hills Lesson Plans- Lesson plans focusing on the Flint Hills.
US National Park Service- Educator Resources- Teachers can use the search function on this website to find lesson plans connected to national parks. The search function allows teachers to search by topic, subject, and grade level.
Bison Conservation- Information about bison conservation.
Prairie Chicken Conservation- Information about the prairie chicken conservation.
Prairie Chicken Little book- This children’s book tells the story of Chicken Little, but the main character of this story is a prairie chicken.
Activities
National Parks Advertising Campaign Project
For this project, students will use the National Park Service website to research information about a national park of their choice.
Students will brainstorm ways that they can advertise the national park they have researched. This could include commercials, brochures, social media posts…
If students have visited the park, they can use pictures they took from their trip. If they have only researched the park, they will need to find pictures to use as a part of their advertising campaign.
Students should begin creating their commercial, brochure, and social media posts.
Students will present their advertising campaign. It might be cool for students to send the advertisements that they create to the national park. Who knows? Maybe the national park will decide to use it.
Passport Books
When I was visiting the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve, I saw that there are passport books that people can buy and it sounds like there are stamping stations at national parks where people can get stamps in their books. This is a new things to me, but it sounds fun and I am going to look into it more.
A tip from someone whose been there.
A town called Marion is about 25 minutes west of the Flint Hills. It is a smaller town, but it would be a great place to stay if someone was visiting the Flint Hills. There is a beautiful hotel called The Elgin Hotel. It is unique, beautiful, and classy. It also has a restaurant connected to it called Parlour 1886. A lake is nearby and has places for people to stay that are traveling with RVs.
