Lesson Observation Critique

Description of the Lesson

The lesson was a living history tour of the Desert Queen Ranch in Joshua Tree National Park. The goal of the tour is to show how life and work was like during the height of the ranch in 1939. To do this, the tour utilized two park rangers, one who explained the process of the tour and the other who presented the ranch as if it were 1939.

The first ranger gave some background knowledge of the ranch and some interesting tidbits on the state of the world in 1939, such as the Best Picture Gone With the Wind and war in both Europe and Asia. She then explained how we were to be transported back to 1939 to work with a miner on the ranch, Henry, and since this was not a regular type of tour we could ask him opinionated questions that he would answer. She gave the example of a question to ask: "How do you feel about the Germans?"

Henry, then took us on a tour of the ranch as if we were his new hires. He explained the mining process in 1939 and how the Keys Family, the owners of the ranch, lived and made money. During the tour, if we came across something newer than 1939, he simply acted as if it did not exist. At the end of the tour he took off his helmet to signify we had been transported back to 2010 and could ask him questions about the family and the ranch after 1939.

Since this was a tour on a historical site, no technology was used during the presentation. He did refer to the artifacts and buildings of the ranch. His knowledge of the time also allowed him to answer specific questions such as, "How much will we be paid?" and "What would be a good stock to buy?" His strategy of lesson and question and answer allowed for a deeper understanding of the ranch and life in 1939. The tour used the model of inqu...

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... opened up the discussion of the difficulties of cooking food on a desert ranch.

The Historical Content

During the first part of the tour, the guide informed that when the ranch was acquired by the National Park Services (NPS), they decided to leave the ranch just as it was in the 1960s. Fortunately, much of the artifacts on the ranch had been used by the Keys family for decades. These almost accurate time pieces allowed the tour guides to describe part of the mining process and life on the ranch.

I think one way to expand the historical content would be to have different time periods examined. The Keys family operated the ranch for decades leaving plenty of time periods to explore. What would life on the ranch of been like during the 1950s or 1960s? These explorations would have to be done on different tours which I know would be difficult for the park rangers.