Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve is located in the hills south of Pittsburg and Antioch. The regional preserve was a mining region in which several coal mines were once operated. These were followed by sand mining later. This area has many hiking trails. It also offers a great view of the San Joaquin River and the surrounding area from the hill tops.
Standards:First grade social science
standards 1.4 and 1.5. Standard 1.4: Students compare and contrast everyday
life in different times and places around the world and recognize that
some aspects of people, places and things change over time while others
stay the same. Standard 1.5: Students describe the human characteristics
of familiar places and the varied backgrounds of American citizens and
residents in those places.First grade 
standard
2 of the life sciences: Plants and animals meet their needs in different
ways. As a basis for understanding this concept:
a. Students know different plants and animals inhabit different kinds
of environments and have external features that help them thrive in different
kinds of places.
b. Students know both plants and animals need water, animals need food,
and plants need light.
c. Students know animals eat plants or other animals for food and may
also use plants or even other animals for shelter and nesting.
d. Students know how to infer what animals eat from the shapes of their
teeth (e.g., sharp teeth: eats meat; flat teeth: eats plants).
e. Students know roots are associated with the intake of water and soil
nutrients and green leaves are associated with making food from sunlight."
Second grade standard for social sciences,
2.2: Students demonstrate map skills by describing the absolute and relative
locations of people, places, and environments. Standard 4: Compare and
contrast basic land use in urban, suburban, and rural environments in
California."
Second grade life sciences standard 2: Plants and animals have predictable
life cycles. As a basis for understanding this concept:
a. Students know that organisms reproduce offspring of their own kind
and that the offspring resemble their parents and one another.
e. Students know light, gravity, touch, or environmental stress can affect
the germination, growth, and development of plants.
f. Students know flowers and fruits are associated with 
reproduction
in plants.
Third grade social science standards: 3.1,
and 3.3. Standard 3.1: Students describe the physical and human geography
and use maps, tables, graphs, photographs, and charts to organize information
about people, places and environments in a spatial context. 1. Identify
geographical features in their local region (e.g., deserts, mountains,
valleys, hills, coastal areas, oceans, lakes). 2. Trace the ways in which
people have used the resources of the local region and modified the physical
environment (e.g., a dam constructed upstream changed a river or coastline).
Standard 3.3: Students draw from historical and community resources to
organize the sequence of local historical events and describe how each
period of settlement left its mark on the land. …3. Trace why their
community was established, how individuals and families contributed to
its founding and development, and how the community has changed over time,
drawing on maps, photographs, oral histories, letters, newspapers, and
other primary sources.
Third grade life sciences standard 3: Adaptations in physical structure
or behavior may improve an organism's chance for survival. As a basis
for understanding this concept: 
a. Students know plants and animals have structures that serve different
functions in growth, survival, and reproduction.
b. Students know examples of diverse life forms in different environments,
such as oceans, deserts, tundra, forests, grasslands, and wetlands.
c. Students know living things cause changes in the environment in which
they live: some of these changes are detrimental to the organism or other
organisms, and some are beneficial.
d. Students know when the environment changes, some plants and animals
survive and reproduce; others die or move to new locations.
