In The Shadow of Fort McHenry: Fort Whetstone in March 1776

Presented by: Charla Helmers

Subject Area(s):

Grade Level(s):

Description:

This lesson is designed to engage students in local history as part of a larger context while learning how to use Google Earth, an HTML generator, and to search for supporting text, pictures, and maps. The final project is a tour generated in Google Earth; however this project can be further extended to include creating a movie and/or uploading into software like VoiceThreads to allow children to create a verbal narration of their learning concerning the historical event.



The historical focus of this lesson is Fort Whetstone, Maryland during a conflict with the HMS Otter, March 1776.

Goals & Objectives:

Students will communicate the significance of waterways as means of transportation and communication during the American Revolution by exploring a local conflict and contemporary documents about that conflict.

 

Goal:  To teach students how to use technology like Google Earth to organize historical events, to communicate significant details, and to create a meaningful visual method of communication.

 

Goal:  To introduce students to the use of HTML code to create engaging information presentations through software such as Fresh HTML.

 

Goal:  To bridge students understanding of American History through local history connections.

 

Goal:  To help students build a spatial sense of historical events through identifying significant locations on Google Earth.

Materials:

  1. Download Google Earth from www.earth.google.com to provide spatial information for the historical event.
  2. Download Fresh HTML from www.freshwebmaster.com  to generate HTML  code to personalize the information bubbles in Google Earth.
  3. Provide a core document for the event.

Procedures:

  1. Download Google Earth from www.earth.google.com  to provide spatial information for the historical event.
  2. Download Fresh HTML from www.freshwebmaster.com to generate HTML code to personalize the information bubbles in Google Earth.
  3. Provide students with a story board to sequence historical events. (see Supporting Files)
  4. Provide a core document for the event

                (see Supporting Files)

  1.  
  2. Using the story board divide students into research groups. (see Supporting Files)
  3. Students use note cards, either hardcopy or electronic to capture relevant information, links, and citation information.
  4. Students expand their section of the story board to sequence the details they have researched, and then, using main idea concepts, determine which elements will be used.
  5. Students then create "my places" in Google Earth, capturing a view.
  6. Using Fresh HTML, students format the information bubble in order to capture the HTML code.
  7. The captured HTML copy is then copied and pasted into the properties view of the information bubbles for each "my place" icon.  Once pasted and accepted, the information bubble is reformatted.  Students are to include links for further research and original documents.
  8. Students complete a bibliography using MLA format (based upon prior lessons) to hand in.
  9. Students then share their research and visual demonstration using the sequencing of the original story board.

Note: If making a movie is a chosen option, the free version does not support this option directly. Instead screen shots are made, cropped in an image processing software and saved.  Then in Windows Movie Maker these images can be imported.  Now verbal narration can be added.

Assessment:

Answer to an overarching question through their end product.

For this project: What is role of the Chesapeake and its tributaries in the movement of goods and for communication during the American Revolution?

Supporting Files:

Standards: