2. Why I Chose This Topic I chose this topic because I am not really sure where I want to teach. I could see myself staying in the Evansville area. Evansville is also close enough to my home town, that if I were to teach back home I may still be able to use some of these places I have researched.
3. What I am looking to find out What resources are available for students to visit to help facilitate learning. What these makes up these resources. Where these resources are located. Activities that can be done to make connections from classroom to resource.
4. Evansville Museum of Arts, History, and Science This museum has art, science, and history. The history section has an exhibit from the 19th century Rivertown USA. There is also a great exhibit dedicated to Abraham Lincoln.
5. Activity The Museum’s website contains a new online exhibitions. Have students look at the pictures and explore more of Evansville’s history.
6. Standards 4.1.6 Statehood: 1816 to 1851. Explain how key individuals and events influenced the early growth of and changes in Indiana. 4.1.7 The Civil War Era and Later Development: 1850 to 1900. Explain the roles of various individuals, groups and movements in the social conflicts leading to the Civil War.
7. Evansville African American Museum This is a great museum full of interesting information that many students may not have studied. This site goes into great detail on many famous African Americans who helped change the world, and who have helped to make this country a much better place.
8. Activities Have students fill out a KWL chart about African American’s long history. Have students read Extraordinary People of the Civil Rights Movement by Shelia Jackson Hardy. This book tells the stories of many brave men and women who stood up for their rights.
9. Standards 4.1.8 The Civil War Era and Later Development: 1850 to 1900. Summarize the impact of Abraham Lincoln's presidency on Indiana and describe the participation of Indiana citizens in the Civil War.
10. Reitz Home This is a great example of Victorian life in Evansville. This allows students to get a much better picture at how life was for families in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s.
11. Activities Students will be asked to interview family members to see what it was life for them growing up. Make a comparison chart of their lives compared with the lives of their relatives. Take the comparison charts already made and add a comparison of the Reitz family’s lives.
12. Standards 4.1.9 The Civil War Era and Later Development: 1850 to 1900. Give examples of Indiana's increasing agricultural, industrial, political and business development in the nineteenth century.
13. Mesker Park Zoo The zoo has many educational activities that not only involve animals, but also plants and other wild life. Located on the site there is also a link for education. On this link the site provides the different educational activities the students can take part in while at the zoo.
14. Activities Located under the education tab there is a link to a webquest where students are able to get more familiar with zoo animals. Students could use the internet to go on a scavenger hunt looking for animals located on different contents such as Africa, Asia, and Antarctica. Compare and contrast the animals the students found on the scavenger hunt with the animals they learned about at the zoo.
15. Standards Science 4.4.3 Observe and describe that organisms interact with one another in various ways, such as providing food, pollination and seed dispersal.
16. Angel Mounds This is a great site that allows students to get a much better understanding of Native Americans. This is sometimes a hard subject to teach because students have a harder time picturing how Native Americans lived compared to how we live today.
17. Activities Students are to divide into partners. Students will search which Native Americans lived in this area. Still in groups students will present the information they found to the rest of the class.
18. Standards 4.1.2 Native American Indians and the Arrival of Europeans to 1770. Identify and describe historic Native American Indian groups that lived in Indiana at the time of early European exploration, including ways these groups adapted to and interacted with the physical environment.
