Age: 6th grade +
Discipline: Social Studies
Title: What Makes a Place Unique?

Explore the physical and cultural characteristics of places along the Appalachian Trail in south-central Pennsylvania and identify the characteristics that make places all along the Trail unique. Learners will have the opportunity to create an interactive map that examines the physical and cultural of their region of the Trail.

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Presenters/Bios:

Tawnya Finney has been a Social Studies educator in Waynesboro, PA since 1996. She is a Trail to Every Classroom alumni and has participated in many Chesapeake Bay Foundation workshops over the years. These educational experiences have fostered her love for examining the characteristics of regions through a geographical and environmental lens. She recently became a National Geographic Certified Educator. In her spare time, Tawnya loves to explore the outdoors through hiking, cycling, skiing, travel, and photography. Along with her husband, she has backpacked sections of the Appalachian Trail, the John Muir Trail, and cycled the KATY Trail in Missouri along with the Great Allegheny Passage and C&O Canal Towpath.

Katie Hess coordinates the South Mountain Partnership, which was launched in 2006 and is a public-private partnership between Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) and the Appalachian Trail Conservancy that has grown into an alliance of citizens, businesses, non-profits, academic institutions, and local, state and federal government agencies and officials collaborating to envision and secure a sustainable future for the South Mountain landscape region.