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Lesson Plans A wealth of material is available over the Internet to assist educators in exploring content areas in Journey Stories with their students. The following links to relevant lesson plans and activities represent just a small sample of sites that will be of interest to educators. Each lesson lists national learning standards that the lesson fulfills. Teachers planning visits to the exhibition are highly encouraged to contact their local hosts and state humanities councils to obtain information on lessons and educational resources related to their areas and local learning standards. Smithsonian National Museum of American History, Behring Center http://www.americanhistory.si.edu/onthemove/learning/classroom.html The Smithsonian's National Museum of American History maintains several lessons created for the museum's America on the Move exhibition that are related to content in Journey Stories.Downloadable lesson plans and online activities are available from the museum's website. Migration Knife River: Early Village Life on the Plains This lesson looks at a group of Native American villages in what is now present-day North Dakota. Students explore the extensive journeys taken by groups that migrated regularly for trade and the interactions between the Hidatsa and Mandan Indians at Knife River with early European traders. Esperanza Rising: Learning Not to Be Afraid to Start Over In this lesson, students learn about what it meant to start life over in a new country through the experiences of Esperanza, a young Mexican girl learning to cope with life as a migrant worker in California in the 1930s.
These lessons take students through the process of learning about the difficulty of journeying West on the Oregon Trail. Students are encouraged to compare the travel experiences of migrants on the Oregon Trail with their own modern travel experiences. Journeys West This lesson encourages students to think about the motivations behind the decision thousands made to move to the American West and the experiences they had along the way by looking at primary source materials and assuming the roles of travelers. Images of Our People: A Patchwork Culture This lesson introduces students to the diversity of cultures represented among the people that migrated to the American West by examining historic photographs. German Immigrants: Their Contributions to the Upper Midwest In this lesson, students review the stories of German immigrants to the United States. They then develop an advertisement designed to convince Germans to migrate to the farmlands of the American Midwest. Immigration/Migration: Today and During the Great Depression Students learn about migration during the Great Depression by looking at historic photographs and conducting oral history interviews in their own families. Our Changing Voices Using issues facing migrants to Nebraska as an example, this lesson helps students explore the history of their own families. Commerce Wheat Farms, Flour Mills, and Railroads: A Web of Interdependence This lesson looks at the way that transportation systems helped to sustain commerce by looking at the relationship between flour mills in Minnesota, the wheat farms that supplied them, and the railroads that made it possible to carry raw materials. Marco Paul's Travels on the Erie Canal: An Educational Voyage The impact of the Erie Canal on the development of commerce and its value to 19th century travelers is examined through the experiences of Marco Paul. Settlement Teaching With Documents: Little House in the Census - Almanzo and Laura Ingalls Wilder This lesson uses the migration of author Laura Ingalls Wilder and her family as an example for exploring how students can use census documents to track American migration and think about what those documents can reveal about settlement patterns. Gran Quivira: A Blending of Cultures in a Pueblo Indian Village Native Americans had established cultures in North America long before Europeans moved into the American Southwest. This lesson plan introduces students to Native cultures and details interactions between the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico with Spanish immigrants from Mexico. The Old Mormon Fort: Birthplace of Las Vegas, Nevada Students will learn about the establishment of new settlements by examining letters from Mormon settlers in what became present-day Las Vegas, Nevada. Sodbusters! Through historic photographs of homesteading families in the Plains, students will consider how families built their first dwellings on their new homesteads.
These lesson plans use papers that document the homesteading efforts of two families to introduce students to the Homestead Act of 1862. Forced Migrations The Trail of Tears and the Forced Relocation of the Cherokee Nation In this lesson, students examine the relocation of Cherokee Indians in the Southeast to territory in present-day Oklahoma. Students will consider the routes taken by the Cherokee and the actions that forced the Cherokee off their lands.
These lessons introduce students to the forced migration endured by Japanese Americans when thousands were removed from their homes along the West Coast to internment camps during World War II. Focusing on documents and photographs, students are asked to think about the implications of forced removals. Exploration
In both lesson plans, students will look at the journey undertaken by the members of the Lewis and Clark expedition, how they made the trip and their interactions with Native Americans along the way. Students are asked to consider how that expedition affected Americans' views of obtaining territory across the North American continent. Travel Roadside Attractions Once the automobile took hold in the early 20th century, business owners began adapting to the needs of auto travelers. This lesson looks at the advent of auto culture by examining the businesses that served travelers. All Across America: Preparing a Travel Guide for a Cross-Country Journey Today, we have no qualms about traveling long distances for leisure. This lesson encourages students to think about places they would like to go and lets them plan their own journey. Transportation Systems and Infrastructure
The canal systems that developed in the early 19th century prompted commercial development that fed migration and settlement in areas west of the Appalachian Mountains. Both of these lessons explore how these two canals contributed to the growing national transportation network and facilitated the journeys of people and goods. Allegheny Portage Railroad: Developing Transportation Technology The rugged terrain of central and western Pennsylvania posed a problem for expanding transportation networks. The state's innovative solution was the "Main Line of Public Works," a network of canals, railroad lines and inclined planes that got people and goods across the state. Students are encouraged to think about the roles that innovation and technology play in our journeys. Chattanooga, Tennessee: Train Town Railroads not only got people and goods from place to place, their locations often determined the ultimate success of a community. This lesson explores how railroad connections brought people and commerce that helped the settlement that became Chattanooga, Tennessee grow into a prosperous city. I Hear the Locomotives: The Impact of the Transcontinental Railroad This lesson uses letters and other documents to show students how the connections established by the Transcontinental Railroad in 1869 affected life on the Plains and in the West. Students are asked to consider the effect of the completion of the railroad on the journey across the country and on settlement by thinking about the impact on people of all cultures, including the Native Americans who already lived on the land and the settlers from many different nations flooding into the area.
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