Westward HO Engaging Students with Inquiry Online Projects

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Westward HOEngaging Students with Inquiry Online
Projects

• Presented by Lori Mathys
• National Board Certified Teacher,
• eMINTS Teacher, Milken Educator
• 4th Grade, Chesterfield Elementary, Rockwood
  School District
• 2008 Digital Citizenship Conference

Presentation Resources www.portaportal.com Guest
login chesterfield
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Choosing Online Projects

• Consider
• Curricular goals
• 21st Century Skills
• Reading comprehension
• Computer and technology skills
• Critical thinking and problem-solving skills
• Written communications
• Ethics and social responsibility
• Teamwork and collaboration
• Oral communications
• Lifelong learning and self-direction
• Mathematics (algebra, geometry and trigonometry)
• Leadership
• Creativity and innovation
• Media literacy
• Global awareness
• Time
• Technology and Materials access
• Assessment for learning

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Example Project Westward HO

• Finding Projects
• Teacher Tap
• Westward HO
• A simulated journey that allows students to
  travel the Oregon Trail as collaborative
  families, based on real families from America's
  past, making daily decisions that will influence
  their safe arrival in Oregon.
• The Westward HO experience
• Online chats, discussion boards, moodle, video
  conferences, Excel Spreadsheet, websites,
  classroom engagement, teacher support

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Experiencing the Project in a 30 minute Snippet

• How the Online environment invites students to
  experience Pioneer Life
• 5 minutes Choose your identity
• 10 minutes Pack your wagon
• 15 minutes Experience 6 fates
• Mathys Class Website

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Yee-ha!

• Travel Fate Card 2Independence
  SpringIndependence, Missouri
• Mile 0.0 May 1
• Your pack horses are rubbed down and ready and
  your oxen team in place. Your belongings are
  packed. Your food rations carefully secured. Many
  of the parties in your wagon train are already
  lined up and ready to move out. But you still
  have to get one more vital item your drinking
  water!
• Will you top off your kegs from the drinking
  water available here at Independence Camp? Or
  wait until you get to the next stop this evening?

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Splish-Splash!

• Travel Fate Card 6 Crossing of Wakarusa River
• (Blue Jacket) (5 miles southeast of Lawrence,
  Kansas)
• Mile 54 May 5-7
• You thought Blue River was meaner'n a chained dog
  to cross? Then you don't know beans from a
  buckshot! Because you've just reached the most
  difficult river crossing on the Oregon Trail.
  "Wakarusa" means thigh-deep. But the Wakarusa
  River rarely is. Within hours it can flow from a
  sluggish river within steep banks to a dangerous
  flood overflowing to the nearby marshes. You can
  see the murky, brown pools that have the slimy
  glisten of water snakes and leeches.
• You must spend several days in the painstaking
  process of moving supplies and children. How
  will you cross this river? By the way, how many
  oxen do you have?

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A Fort at Last!

• Travel Fate Card 22Fort Laramie video
• (Goshen County, Wyoming)
• Mile 650July 11
• Everything you've heard about it is true. Fort
  Laramie is "an island of civilization in the
  western wilderness." Here, for the first time on
  the trip, you have a chance to clean up, put on
  your "Sunday Best" and stroll around the fort,
  admiring wares for sale.
• Outside the fort, Indians are selling beaded
  moccasins, buffalo robes and fringed leather
  leggings. Inside the fort you can get all kinds
  of supplies. In addition to buying supplies for
  your trip, you can also have your animals shod,
  mail letters back east, get trail information and
  communicate (via billboard) with other trains.
• Here are some of your choices PAIR OF BEADED
  MOCCASINS 1.00 BUFFALO ROBES 8.00 _at_
  BLACKSMITH FEES 2.00 per animal 10 LB BAGS OF
  FLOUR 1.00 5 LB TINS OF SUGAR 1.00 1 DOZEN
  FRESH EGGS .50 1 LB SMOKED BACON 1.50 CALICO
  CLOTH .25 PER YARD
• What will you do for fun? This is a good time to
  huntwill you chance it?

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A Side Trip?

• Travel Fate Card 24Ayers Natural Bridge(12
  miles west of Douglas, Wyoming)
• Mile 724July 13
• You've read about this place in your Emigrant's
  Traveler's Guide. They say it's an incredible
  solid rock bridge over a rapid torrent in a red
  rock canyon. But it's a ways off the trail. And
  then quite a climb down. Are there Indians about?
  Will you go for it? Or stick to the trail?

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Camping for the Night

• Travel Fate Card 26 Poison Spring (Natrona
  County, Wyoming)
• Mile 777 July 18
• You've reached the much feared Poison Spring. The
  water looks perfectly clear. But if the black mud
  at the bottom gets stirred up, the spring's
  lethal poison is released. You can't let your
  animals - or anyone - near it. You really should
  press on - to avoid Poison Spring. But it's late.
  It's dark. And it's been a very grueling day of
  travel.
• Call the midwife! One of the pregnant women on
  the wagon train has been in labor for ten hours
  already. So you decide to chance it. You set up
  camp and station guards to keep the animals out
  of the spring. Now what will you do to guard your
  animals? What is the plan?

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Ice on the Trail?

• Travel Fate Card 31Ice Spring (9.5 miles east
  of Sweetwater Station, Wyoming)
• Mile 862 July 25
• Today you reach another curiosity along the
  trail. You've heard tales about finding ice in
  summer here. But all you see is a swampy spot
  filled with alkali water in the middle of the
  sandy plains. Everyone has a different opinion on
  what should be done continue to travel or dig
  for the legendary ice?

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Student Journal Examples

• April 8,1863
• Dear Diary,
• This is the worst day ever! Im moving to
  Oregon. I have to leave all my friends behind.
  My grandpa is dead and we buried him here so we
  will never see his grave. We cant decide what
  to bring we have way too much stuff before you
  know it we will run out of money! I cant even
  bring my doll! I have had it since I was born.
  I cant bring her because my mom said it will
  take up too much space. I dont even know why we
  are moving. My mom said Id rather not know.

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Student Journals

• May 30, 1863
• Dear journal,
• Today we came across Independence Rock. We
  carved our names at the top and we made Dad eat
  green bread. The reaction on his face was nothing
  you could imagine. It was REALLY funny! I also
  had a small taste and it tasted odd. But dad ate
  a whole piece!!
• May 5, 6, 7, 1863
• Dear journal,
• Whhhhhooooo!! The last few days have been a
  wipeout! We had to travel across a huge river
  called the Wakarusa River. Thank goodness we wore
  ponchos!!! Or else we would have leeches and
  snake bites all over us! GROSS!!! But we did have
  to pick leeches off our oxen. EVEN GROSSER!!!!!

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Student Journals

• May 30, 1863
• Dear Journal,
• Today we settled into Fort Kearney. We can
  finally up and take a bath. But we also had to
  care for dads rattlesnake bite. We rubbed
  whiskey on it then we rubbed horse manure on it.
  After that we dried it off with a towel and we
  wrapped the wound with a clean towel. At least we
  didnt have to cut off his leg!!
• July 12, 1863
• Dear journal,
• Sorry I havent written in a while, but
  something amazing happened today! We were resting
  up at a place called Register Cliff, and we
  didnt notice until we got to Warm Springs that
  we had left, Joseph from the Richards family,
  behind. When we found him he told us why he was
  left behind. He said, This girl named Lucy from
  another wagon train invited me to come up to the
  top of Register Cliff and carve our names up
  there. Evidently, we didnt know we were leaving,
  so we just started to follow the wagon trails.
  And eventually we found camp. WOW!! He said he
  saw a turtle, coyote, a bear and a bison.

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Curricular Objectives

• Summarize events in Westward Expansion, including
  peoples motivations and hardships.
• Identify Missouri as a jumping-off point to the
  West and explain how the state was impacted by
  the Oregon Trail and the Westward movement of
  goods and people.
• Compare how peoples needs have been met in
  different ways in different cultures at various
  times.
• Evaluate the impact of Westward Expansion on
  Native Americans in Missouri.
• Describe how people are affected by, depend on,
  adapt to, and change their environments.
• Identify, use, and create primary and secondary
  sources.
• Identify and use library and media resources.
• NCSS Thematic Strands II. Time, Continuity, and
  Change (c, d, e, f)
• III. People, Places, and Environments (h,
  i)
• NETS-S 3. Technology Productivity Tools
• 4. Technology Communications Tools
• 6. Technology Problem-Solving and
  Decision-Making Tools