Author(s):
Beth Bisson, Maine Sea Grant Program;
Sandy Daniel, Old Town Elementary School;
Cheryl Daigle, Penobscot River Restoration Trust;
Ruth Hallsworth, University of Maine Senator George J. Mitchell Center;
Cathy Lucas, Old Town Elementary School;
Kristy St. Peter, Old Town Elementary School
- Grade Level:
Five, Six
- Themes:
B. Skills & Traits, C. Enterprise, Careers and Education Development, English Language Arts, Social Studies
- Activity Type:
Class Discussion, Exploratory, Hands-On, Research/Knowledge-Building, Skill-Building
- Setting:
Classroom, Field Site
- Part of the Community Connections Watershed Experience
-
- Print Activity
Table of Contents
Question(s)
How has my watershed shaped my community? How has my community shaped my watershed?
Overview
Students visit local museums and historical societies, where they conduct cultural and historical research to broaden and deepen their knowledge of past and present community connections to watershed resources. Students use social science research skills to record their observations and ask questions of local historians.
This activity was developed as part of the Penobscot River Watershed Education Program, a collaborative project led by Maine Sea Grant, the University of Maine Senator George J. Mitchell Center, and the Penobscot River Restoration Trust, working in partnership with Old Town Elementary School and the City of Old Town, Maine. Fifth grade teachers and students at Old Town Elementary School piloted this activity during the 2007-2008 school year.
This activity builds on the previous Conduct Oral History Interviews activity, in which students conduct formal, tape-recorded or videotaped oral history interviews of community members. It sets the stage for the subsequent Take Action: Design Educational Posters About Your Watershed! activity, in which students reflect on their learning throughout the Community Connections watershed experience and design educational posters to share information about their watershed with their community.
Standards (MLR)
Science and Technology
B1. Skills and Traits of Scientific Inquiry
3-5 Students plan, conduct, analyze data from, and communicate results of investigations, including fair tests.
6-8 Students plan, conduct, analyze data from, and communicate results of investigations, including simple experiments.
C1. Understandings of Inquiry
3-5 Students describe how scientific investigations result in explanations that are communicated to other scientists.
6-8 Students describe how scientists use varied and systematic approaches to investigations that may lead to further investigations.
Social Studies
A1. Researching and Developing Positions on Current Social Studies Issues
3-5 Students identify and answer research questions related to social studies by locating and selecting information and presenting findings.
6-8 Students research, select, and present a position on a current social studies issue by proposing and revising research questions, and locating and selecting information from multiple and varied sources.
E2. Individual, Cultural, International, and Global Connections in History
3-5 Students understand historical aspects of unity and diversity in the community, Maine, and the United States, including Maine Native American Communities.
6-8 Students understand historical aspects of unity and diversity in Maine, the United States, and various world cultures, including Maine Native Americans.
English Language Arts
E1. Listening
3-5 Students apply active listening skills.
6-8 Students adjust listening strategies to understand formal and informal discussion, debates, or presentations and then apply the information.
E2. Speaking
3-5 Students use active speaking skills to communicate effectively in a variety of contexts.
6-8 Students adjust speaking strategies for formal and informal discussions, debates, or presentations appropriate to the audience or purpose.
Learning Objectives
- Students use social science research skills to broaden and deepen their knowledge of local watershed resource uses during visits to local historical collections
- Students understand ways in which their community’s connections to and use of local watershed resources has changed through major events in the history of Maine and the United States
- Students obtain new information to help them answer their oral history research question by developing questions for local historians and studying cultural and historical artifacts
Materials
- Booklets of blank paper for student observations and drawings during field trips to local historical collections
- Pencils, pens, and colored-pencils
Time Needed
One 45-60 minute block of time at each local historical collection you visit, and the transportation time you need to get to and from each location.
Activity Procedure
- To expose students to a broader range of historical and cultural information than the oral history interview process can provide, make plans to visit one or more (if transportation budgets allow) local libraries, cultural museums, or historical collections. For example, the 5th grade Old Town Elementary School students and teachers involved in the Penobscot River Watershed Education Program visited the following cultural and historical collections during the 2007-2008 school year:
- If your field trip budget doesn’t allow for out-of-school travel, you can make use of online historical collections, such as those available on the Maine Memory Network website, Maine’s statewide digital museum, which is a project of the Maine Historical Society.
- Alternatively, or in addition, you can ask local historians or museum staff if they are willing to bring some of the relevant and portable pieces of their collections into your school for some in-classroom historical research and exploration.
- As a class, discuss the range of research tools of the social scientist and talk about the difference between collecting information through opinions and personal reflections (as in the Conduct Oral History Interviews activity), and collecting historical or cultural information in other forms, such as:
- Photographs
- Newspaper articles
- Physical artifacts
- Information collected through conversations with cultural history professionals
- Before visiting the museums, draft several focus questions for the trip, based on the students’ oral history research topic. Use these questions to help the students frame the types of information they reported that they were still wondering about after completing the OWL chart during the Reflection and Formative Assessment Ideas section of the Conduct Oral History Interviews activity.
- Teachers should review history and social studies topics covered at the students’ grade level and before, in order to help reinforce things the students have already learned. For example, students in Old Town do extensive studies of logging/forestry/forest products history prior to 5th grade. The trip to the Old Town Museum gave students an opportunity to use this prior knowledge to help them understand a different perspective on these forestry connections (i.e. the reliance of logging/forestry history on the Penobscot River and other local waterways for log drives, hydro power, commerce, etc.).
- Meet with or speak with museum staff prior to the visit and explain the focus of the students’ research, so they can pull out relevant artifacts and information for the students. Ask whether staff members are available to give presentations and/or walk the students through the relevant parts of the collection. This will also help to focus the visit.
- Each student should make a blank paper booklet in which they will write down observations about what they see and draw pictures of artifacts that interest them. If photographs are permitted, assign students to small groups and make sure each group has a camera, or ask volunteers to take turns with one camera.
- Students should individually brainstorm a list of questions they would like to ask of the museum staff. Then, as a class, make the individual lists into a class list of questions to avoid duplication and make sure they haven’t forgotten a key piece of information. Teachers should urge students to ask additional questions they think of during the museum visit(s).
- If students feel that the information collected during the museum visit(s) may be useful for their Student Action project, Take Action: Design Educational Posters About Your Watershed!, ask museum staff about their process for using copies of historical photographs or photographs of artifacts. Sometimes there is a fee for the rights to reproduce these items for use in student projects of public displays.
Reflection/Formative Assessment Ideas
Ask students to write up a summary of their observations in the booklet they took on their field trip(s), and explain how their cultural and historical research added to their understanding of their community’s past and present connections to local watershed resources. Give each student a few minutes to share some of their observations with the rest of the class, and collect the booklets to get a better sense for how students understand their community connections at the close of the Investigation part of the project.
Extension Ideas
Create a gallery of annotated student drawings of historical and cultural artifacts and display it in a public place in your school. Give students an opportunity to find out more about one of the watershed-related artifacts or historical documents that they learned about during their research. Give them time to visit the school library and/or conduct research online, prepare a summary of their findings, and present them to the rest of the class.
Resources
References
Have a great idea to share? Please leave a comment below.
Cultural and Historical Research
Author(s):
Beth Bisson, Maine Sea Grant Program;
Sandy Daniel, Old Town Elementary School;
Cheryl Daigle, Penobscot River Restoration Trust;
Ruth Hallsworth, University of Maine Senator George J. Mitchell Center;
Cathy Lucas, Old Town Elementary School;
Kristy St. Peter, Old Town Elementary School
Table of Contents
Question(s)
How has my watershed shaped my community? How has my community shaped my watershed?
Overview
Students visit local museums and historical societies, where they conduct cultural and historical research to broaden and deepen their knowledge of past and present community connections to watershed resources. Students use social science research skills to record their observations and ask questions of local historians.
This activity was developed as part of the Penobscot River Watershed Education Program, a collaborative project led by Maine Sea Grant, the University of Maine Senator George J. Mitchell Center, and the Penobscot River Restoration Trust, working in partnership with Old Town Elementary School and the City of Old Town, Maine. Fifth grade teachers and students at Old Town Elementary School piloted this activity during the 2007-2008 school year.
This activity builds on the previous Conduct Oral History Interviews activity, in which students conduct formal, tape-recorded or videotaped oral history interviews of community members. It sets the stage for the subsequent Take Action: Design Educational Posters About Your Watershed! activity, in which students reflect on their learning throughout the Community Connections watershed experience and design educational posters to share information about their watershed with their community.
Standards (MLR)
Science and Technology
B1. Skills and Traits of Scientific Inquiry
3-5 Students plan, conduct, analyze data from, and communicate results of investigations, including fair tests.
6-8 Students plan, conduct, analyze data from, and communicate results of investigations, including simple experiments.
C1. Understandings of Inquiry
3-5 Students describe how scientific investigations result in explanations that are communicated to other scientists.
6-8 Students describe how scientists use varied and systematic approaches to investigations that may lead to further investigations.
Social Studies
A1. Researching and Developing Positions on Current Social Studies Issues
3-5 Students identify and answer research questions related to social studies by locating and selecting information and presenting findings.
6-8 Students research, select, and present a position on a current social studies issue by proposing and revising research questions, and locating and selecting information from multiple and varied sources.
E2. Individual, Cultural, International, and Global Connections in History
3-5 Students understand historical aspects of unity and diversity in the community, Maine, and the United States, including Maine Native American Communities.
6-8 Students understand historical aspects of unity and diversity in Maine, the United States, and various world cultures, including Maine Native Americans.
English Language Arts
E1. Listening
3-5 Students apply active listening skills.
6-8 Students adjust listening strategies to understand formal and informal discussion, debates, or presentations and then apply the information.
E2. Speaking
3-5 Students use active speaking skills to communicate effectively in a variety of contexts.
6-8 Students adjust speaking strategies for formal and informal discussions, debates, or presentations appropriate to the audience or purpose.
Learning Objectives
Materials
Time Needed
One 45-60 minute block of time at each local historical collection you visit, and the transportation time you need to get to and from each location.
Activity Procedure
Reflection/Formative Assessment Ideas
Ask students to write up a summary of their observations in the booklet they took on their field trip(s), and explain how their cultural and historical research added to their understanding of their community’s past and present connections to local watershed resources. Give each student a few minutes to share some of their observations with the rest of the class, and collect the booklets to get a better sense for how students understand their community connections at the close of the Investigation part of the project.
Extension Ideas
Create a gallery of annotated student drawings of historical and cultural artifacts and display it in a public place in your school. Give students an opportunity to find out more about one of the watershed-related artifacts or historical documents that they learned about during their research. Give them time to visit the school library and/or conduct research online, prepare a summary of their findings, and present them to the rest of the class.
Resources
References
Have a great idea to share? Please leave a comment below.