Format
1. Students will use Visual Thinking Strategies to discuss artwork (introducing technological advancements during Westward Expansion).
2. Communication- How do we communicate with people far away? Ships, stagecoach, telegraph, Pony Express, and are discussed through artwork.
3. Students participate in Morse Code activity
4. Transportation- How did the West change our need for transportation? Concord Stagecoach technology, Oregon Trail, and trains are discussed through primary and secondary sources.
5. Commerce- what made people head to the West? What technology did they use? Red Bird Mud Wagon (primary source) utilized to discuss Gold Rush; comparison of Concord Stagecoach (long distance travel) technological advancements over Mud Wagon (short distance travel for gold mining workers).
6. Other Technology that shaped the West- barbed wire, windmills are discussed; Visual Thinking Strategies with artwork to introduce windmill and evolution of barbed wire through primary sources and objects from Booth Education prop collection.
Objectives
-Students will explore technologies that led to Westward Expansion
-Students will engage in a discussion about the intended and unintended consequences of technological innovation (ex: effect on indigenous peoples)
-Students will use Visual Thinking Strategies to explore the changing role of technology through artwork
-Students will participate in a Morse code activity
Standards Alignment
National Standards
Program supports Next Generation Science Standards and National Education Standards in areas of social studies and visual arts.
Next Generation Science Standards:
Engineering, Technology and Applications of Science
Waves and Their Applications in Technologies for Information Transfer
4-PS4-3 Generate and compare multiple solutions that use patterns to transfer information
Energy
4-PS3-2 Make observations to provide evidence that energy can be transferred from place to place by movement, sound, light, heat and electric currents
(Applies to post activity)
3-5-ETS1-1 Engineering Design
3-5-ETS1-2 Engineering Design
3-5-ETS1-3 Engineering Design
4-PS3-4 Apply scientific ideas to design, test, and refine a device that converts energy from one form to another