Historic Southern Indiana

The Lewis and Clark Bicentennial:
Teaching across the Curriculum
Jeffersonville, Indiana
June 17, 2003

Notes from afternoon sessions:

Elementary School Workshop

Recorder: Lee Bilderback, Pine Ridge Elementary School, Birdseye, Indiana

Barbara Peacock discussed the importance of planning interesting activities that address specific standards. Standards can be addressed in multiple ways. The more teachers use facts, concepts, and skills that interest students, the more students will learn (retain).

Paula Miller of Hite Elementary School in Jefferson County, Kentucky explained that themes such as the Lewis and Clark expedition could be developed school-wide. Core subjects and the fine arts can easily be integrated to support the theme. A great source for materials is Poppler’s Music (phone 1 800 437-1755 web site www.popplersmusic.com.

Hite Elementary School used the theme “Pioneer Day.” The thematic unit lasted two weeks. Students researched and prepared a large timeline and a “Did you know?” list of fun facts. Compact discs of music from this period are available.

Barbara Peacock introduced other learning materials including Lewis and Clark trading cards and BINGO games. Students can prepare some of these materials. Ms. Peacock explained how to use journaling with the Lewis and Clark theme. She explained that tactile learners might construct models such as scale size boats using Lego blocks, for example.

Role-playing various parts of the Lewis and Clark story will reinforce concepts and facts from the story. Students can conduct research in preparing skits.

Venn diagrams comparing Lewis and Clark with Columbus help organize learning, as well as reinforce earlier topics.

Other activities include expedition job applications, advertising, and letters.

Assessment can include students’ preparation of webs showing key facts and correspondence between facts.

Jerry Wilson showed how spelling lists can be prepared using terms from Lewis and Clark content. For more student involvement and creativity, the class can produce a video depicting parts of the expedition. The teacher and class can also prepare a “discovery trunk” to introduce Lewis and Clark content. Artifacts are included that will pique curiosity and promote learning. Students can write about artifacts. They can also classify the artifacts and explain the classifications. These activities involve students actively and promote higher-level thinking.

Science is easily adapted in a thematic unit on Lewis and Clark. Students can prepare seed packets of the plants “discovered” by Lewis and Clark. Selected Internet sites include activities for teaching science and integrating science with other subjects and topics. Teachers can prepare WebQuest activities for individual students and for small groups. WebQuest involves using the World Wide Web to learn about a topic. Students prepare reports of their findings.

Middle School Workshop

Recorder: Rob Spear, Helfrich Park Middle School, Evansville

Alan Eichelberg - special education teacher

- stressed the importance of hands-on activities, as well as questions to stimulate interest in a topic

Questions used include:
    What does an expedition do?
    What must you take with you on an expedition?
    How are you going to carry these products?

These questions will prompt students to think about what Lewis and Clark actually took with them when they left the Clarksville/Louisville area. Questions such as these help students to think about the activities and challenges of the Corps of Discovery.

Use timelines. Start with something simple such as a day in time. Mark key points such as breakfast and after school, and have students record what they did. From this simple time line move to one that covers more time--a year, for example, and have students mark and record some key events during the past year. This will lead eventually to a timeline for American history, where the students will see Lewis and Clark in perspective of the present and also of a crucial time in American history, such as the Revolutionary War.

Hands-on project: Use yarn to show the size of the boats--to help students understand the size and also the space available for storing goods (provisions).

Web resources recommended:

PBS.org (awesome resource)
Crayola.com (Lewis and Clark coloring projects)

Todd Read, who teaches 8^th grade history at Clarksville Middle School showed a syllabus he developed for the Lewis and Clark study in his classes.

He recommended activities to prepare students for the study of Lewis and Clark. Students can:

- consider why Clarksville should feel pride in the Lewis and Clark story

- develop a flier (tri-fold, e.g.) that conveys information about Clarksville and the Lewis and Clark connection.

As the study progresses (third or fourth day), students can do additional projects such as making three-dimensional maps (e.g. a map of the Indiana/Kentucky region, with depiction of the river and its course from Louisville to Illinois). Students could then compare their maps to maps in books and on-line and also in brochures on Lewis and Clark. Students who become quite involved in this activity could create a map showing the entire journey. They might also prepare a narrative report in which they would chronicle major parts of the journey. This activity could be videotaped.

For a writing exercise, students could prepare an essay on a cultural aspect of the journey. They might also speculate on an occurrence and write a fictional account of it. Students can do this work in class, over a period of two or three days, and they can keep a daily journal on their progress.

Note: Some of children's written work should be in their own handwriting and under the supervision of the teacher, to prevent copying and printing from the Internet.

Students can use information from the Lewis and Clark story to speculate about what life was like in 1803. Their ideas will make for interesting class discussion and also for follow-up research.

Another idea: Students prepare materials from their study and from their creative stories to present to others. The class then develops a walking timeline of Lewis and Clark, based on the geographical setting of each story. This walking timeline could be set up in a gymnasium or perhaps outdoors for a period in which students from a lower grade would visit and tour the "walking timeline."

Students at Clarksville Middle School discussed what they could do to help the community prepare for the influx of visitors for Lewis and Clark bicentennial activities. They suggested clean-up activities and actually carried them out. This was a good activity for the students and good public relations for the school

Sharon Criswell and Dolores Hoyland from Charlestown Middle School discussed ideas and gave examples from their teaching to highlight the importance of an interdisciplinary approach to the study of Lewis and Clark. Sharon and Dolores are language arts teachers, and they have found many resources and activities for language arts, science, and math (in addition to social studies, which is the most obvious subject area to draw upon).

Sharon and Dolores discussed the following resources that are available for middle school teachers.

1. An American Legacy: The Lewis and Clark Expedition Curriculum Guide (which emphasizes interdisciplinary curriculum).
2. Lewis and Clark Indiana Connection magazine
3. Lewis and Clark Educator's Resource Guide, from Project Wet and Wild (Project Wet and Wild has offered workshops for teachers that are very worthwhile.)
4. Cobblestone Magazine - Lewis and Clark ($4.90)
5. IMAX Lewis and Clark movie
6. The Captain's Dog, a very popular story of Lewis and Clark from the dog's perspective. The book is written on a sixth grade reading level.
7. A good computer game about the expedition: "Lewis and Clark - A simulation of the Corps of Discovery"

Teachers should consider joining the Lewis and Clark Heritage Trails Foundation.

Teachers should use books and stories that tell about the expedition from the Native American perspective.

High School Workshop

Recorder: William Bartelt, Harrison High School, Evansville

The following points were discussed:

Standards are starting points for curriculum—a “map” for planning
Teachers should be conceptual and emphasize major concepts and ideas. Facts are used to support and provide structure to the major ideas.
Teachers should assess students’ knowledge and understanding of events leading up to a topic of study. If students lack background knowledge, then teachers should take time to teach information and concepts that form the needed background.
Lewis and Clark information is not just for history classes. It can be used for studies in science, literature, and math, in addition to history.
Teachers can use Lewis and Clark to generate themes for organizing curriculum—themes such as

Arts and humanities

The encounter of cultures

Movement and engagement

Expeditions—comparing Lewis and Clark with other expeditions

Geography and westward movement

Leadership styles

A major idea in this session was that teachers can use Lewis and Clark as a springboard for learning activities not only in history but in other subjects as well. Another idea was that stories such as Lewis and Clark add meaning to dates, names, and issues that are identified with the early part of the 19th century and westward expansion.

Notes compiled by Tom Pickering, University of Southern Indiana

8600 University Boulevard - Evansville, IN 47712-3596 - 812/464-8600