Living History to Understand It



Living History to Understand It

Region 4 Social Studies Conference

February 4th, 2012

Presenters: Cathy Crabtree Brazosport ISD

Jennifer Crutchfield Brazosport ISD

Introduction

Mission-Experiential Learning: As stated by the ancient Chinese philosopher, Confucius, "tell me and I will forget, show me and I may remember, involve me and I will understand."

According to David Colb, an American educational theorist, knowledge is continuously gained through both personal and environmental experiences. ]He states that in order to gain genuine knowledge from an experience, certain abilities are required:

1. the learner must be willing to be actively involved in the experience;

2. the learner must be able to reflect on the experience;

3. the learner must possess and use analytical skills to conceptualize the experience; and

4. the learner must possess decision making and problem solving skills in order to use the new ideas gained from the experience.

Activity 1. Measuring Your School or Classroom

Objective: Students review and utilize measurement tools and skills cooperatively to construct their own maps from raw data.

Estimated time: 2 class periods

Materials needed: measuring devices, grid sheets

Overview: Students work in groups to measure the school or classroom. As a class we collect the data on a large grid sheet. Independently they transfer the raw map to a smaller grid with a key. The class tours the finished maps. Students reflect in their journal after reviewing the finished maps. Sample questions: If all maps were not the same, why were they different? How do cartographers make maps of larger areas? What could you do to improve your map?

Activity 2. Native Americans-Trading For Life

Simulation courtesy of The Jason Project

Objective: TEKS on why groups settled in certain areas; describe landform and vegetation regions; patterns of land use; how and why people adapted to and modified their environment; how supply and demand affects consumers; how geographic features affect economic activities of a region; use a problem solving process and a decision-making process.

Estimated time: 2-3 class periods

Materials provided in handout.

Overview:

Day 1-Information is read about the culture of the Chumash Indians of the Channel Islands and how they meet their basic needs. Students plan in tribal groups for a trading expedition. Each tribe has different natural resources to trade but the same basic needs.

Day 2-Students trade in timed sessions to try to keep their tribe alive. Reflection on the trading sessions is done in group or class discussion.

Day 3- Journal questions answered. Sample questions: Why did each tribe have something different to trade? Why did tribes trade with one another? Why do you think tribes decided to settle in the Channel Islands? How did you feel about trading to live?

Activity 3 Indentured Servitude-A Colonial Market for Labor

Simulation courtesy of The Foundation for Teaching Economics

Objectives: Describe the types of settlement patterns and land use in the US; explain geographic factors that influenced patterns of settlement in the US; identify major industries of colonial America; describe the development of the free enterprise system in colonial America; understand how supply and demand affects consumers; compare how people living in different parts of the US earned a living in the past. Use a problem-solving and decision-making process.

Estimated Time: 2 class periods

Materials: Handouts, calculators

Overview: Students assume the role of emigrant or agent and bargain for indentured servant contracts at a jobs’ fair. They learn about incentives, geographic factors, and bargaining.

Day 1: Students assume roles and bargain in three sessions. Whole class collection of data between each session results in the same average number of years signed into indentured servitude that happened historically.

Day 2: Reflective questions and journal entries.

Activity 4 Beans Activity

Courtesy of the Foundation for Teaching Economics

Objectives: Identify patterns of land use; how and why people adapted to and modified their environment; how supply and demand affects consumers; how geographic features affect economic activities of a region; use a problem solving process and a decision-making process.

Estimated Time: 1 Class period

Materials: masking tape, dried beans

Overview: This activity uses masking tape and dried beans to represent a colonial village with a common area. Students are asked to harvest trees (beans) from their community to make money. If the trees mature another year (round), they will make more money. Students have to decide whether to leave trees for a richer harvest or harvest them immediately. Rounds are fast with each group learning from the mistakes of the earlier group (as our colonial ancestors also learned). After the first round, new colonists are given private ownership of parcels of the land with the community still sharing a commons. Reflective questions are used for evaluation.

Activity 5 Oklahoma Land Rush

Courtesy of the Foundation for Teaching Economics

Objectives: Identify reasons people moved west. Describe how the free enterprise system works in the US. Explain how supply and demand affects consumers. Use a decision-making and problem solving process. Draw conclusions based upon evidence.

Estimated time: ½ of 1 Class Period

Materials: tokens or poker chips, flags or sticky notes

Overview: In the Oklahoma Land Rush of 1893, the U.S. government privatized about two million acres known as the "Cherokee Strip". Private citizens could acquire property rights to parcels of land in the Strip through a first-come-first-served process. Citizens literally raced from the starting line as the gun fired to claim their “free” land. From an economic point of view this race for resources was wasteful and inefficient; all the resources that went into maximizing speed could have been more profitably used in other ways. From a political point of view, privatizing in this way made sense – politicians could take credit for "giving away" the land for "free." The simulation literally lasts 5 minutes. While students enjoy racing to claim their land parcels, they learn about supply and demand and the real costs of free items. Discussion and reflection last as long or as short as needed.

Activity 6 Great Depression

Courtesy of the Foundation for Teaching Economics

Objectives: Explain the effects of supply and demand on consumers in the US. Analyze the effects of migration and limited resources on economic development. Identify different points of view. Use a problem-solving and decision making process.

Estimated Time: 2 Class Periods

Materials: Originals provided in handout. Poster-sized paper.

Day 1- “Families” of students learn their roles and decide what changes they will make to meet their needs with diminished economic resources. Each family then reports their decisions to the class. As each family reports, every other family is affected and must readjust their budgets.

Day 2- Reflect on the activity in whole-group or small-group settings. Make a group poster to show the interconnectedness of the economics of the town or the ripple effect of economic decisions. Answer journal questions individually about the simulation.

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