Making History

Synopsis of Curriculum

The course will emphasize the essential skills that can be gained through history as an active subject that can be explored, researched, and disputed. As amateur historians, students will be trained in research, critical and analytical thinking, communications, collaboration, and creativity. Students will study history through film, guest speakers, artifact presentations, monuments and a variety of primary and secondary sources. Students will learn how to use and interpret various historical documents. Students will finish the class with a product that can be displayed, published, or used by the community. Through integration of technology, the Making History course will fully blend technology, encouraging students to use alternative mediums from the traditional essays or research papers to create a finished product. Examples of such mediums could be augmented reality, digital video and sound recordings, social media, virtual tours, and digital portfolios . The evaluation of this course will be based on the process, product, and sharing of the students' capstone project.

 Units of Study Titles

1. What is Public History?
2. What is historical research?
   1. Print research methods
   2. Electronic research methods
   3. Digital archives
3. What is the importance of a shared authority?
   1. Oral histories
   2. Individual collective memory
   3. Contesting Authority
   4. Bias
   5. Reliability
   6. Sharing of Public History
   7. Museums
   8. Heritage Sites
   9. Digital Collections
   10. Historical Societies
   11. Case Studies
   12. Local historic sites
   13. National historic sites
   14. Digital historic collections