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By Ryan Hurley
WEAC PR/Comm summer intern
Learning about the past is much easier and more entertaining when historical information is just the click of a mouse away.
The Wisconsin Historical Society has developed many programs for teachers and students to help them integrate critical thinking skills with real historical content into the classroom. In addition to providing educational books, teacher’s guides, and newsletters, the Society provides many additional classroom essentials through its Web site, www.wisconsinhistory.org.
“We provide interactive materials for students that they can learn from while having fun,” said Bobbie Malone, director of school services at the Society. She said the Society is the premiere collection of American history materials in Wisconsin, and one of the most outstanding in the entire country. These primary resources and secondary materials serve as the basis for all Society books and other materials aimed at classrooms. The interactive publications give teachers what they need to help students build historical content and critical thinking skills.
“We try to get children interested by using examples of local history in Wisconsin and then expand into history on a national level,” Malone said.
From their computers, teachers can get directly to Connecting to the Classroom, the Society’s portal for educators. It is a one-stop resource to connect teachers with relevant and useful educational materials on the Society's Web site. The portal is organized by topics that are specified in the Wisconsin Model Academic Standards for American and Wisconsin history. Teachers can access relevant original documents, photographs, lesson plans, classroom activities, background essays, and other resources that can be used with students.
To help those teachers looking for a complete outline to teaching about
Wisconsin, the Society is revising and expanding its online Wisconsin
History Curriculum Guide. The guide will link Society publications,
other teaching materials, and multimedia materials to topics in Wisconsin
history detailed by the state standards, key learning objectives, and
assessment resources. The guide and many of the resources are downloadable.
They’ll be easy to understand and convenient to use in the classroom,
and will address the specific performance standards for social studies
and other curricular areas issued by the Department of Public Instruction.
American Journeys, a collaboration of the Wisconsin Historical Society
and National History Day, is a digital library linked to the Society’s
Web site. It contains more than 18,000 pages from North American exploration,
including documentations from explorers, Indians, missionaries, traders,
and settlers. You can view, search, print, or download more than 150
rare books, original manuscripts, and classic travel narratives from
the library and archives of the Society. American Journeys was created
for students exploring National History Day’s 2004 theme, “Exploration,
Encounter & Exchange,” and others who love American history.
Another online feature ready for the Fall 2004 semester will be “Turning Points in Wisconsin History,” which will contain in-depth research on up to 50 pivotal events that impacted the state’s history. In May people were invited to vote online for which events in Wisconsin’s history they believed to be the most important. The top three were: rise of dairy farming; lumbering; and arrival of the first peoples. These topics will be documented and featured on this site, which is still being developed.
WisHisforKids is a Society-created Web site directed toward younger students who are eager to learn historical facts about the state. It includes an interactive timeline of significant events in Wisconsin history, Wisconsin Firsts (things that originated in Wisconsin), and a matching game using state symbols. This section also allows children to take an interactive tour of an archeological dig for mammoth fossils. Another activity allows the children to dress Caddie Woodlawn and Sterling North, historic Wisconsin figures in children’s literature, in time-period specific clothing.
Coordinated in Wisconsin by the Society, National History Day is an academic enrichment program that helps middle and high school students learn about historical issues, ideas, people, and events. This yearlong academic adventure fosters students’ enthusiasm for learning and their love for history. National History Day emphasizes student research and presentation skills at a series of regional, state, and national events. Researching topics for National History Day is made easier through the various sources that the Wisconsin Historical Society’s Web site provides.
By visiting the Society’s Web site, teachers can also a get a preview of all publications directed toward classrooms and download sample pages before ordering them.
Posted June 14, 2004