History database

Brief Description:
This activity template will allow students to use a database to analyze historical figures.

Main Curriculum Area: Computer

Grade Level: Secondary

Approximate Time Required: 8 hours

Primary Goal and Objective: 3.2

Other Goals & Objectives from the NC Standard Course of Study:
Social Studies
US History could include:
1: The learner will analyze those elements in the
American colonial experience that led to separation
from England.
2: The learner will apply ideas of self-government as
expressed in America's founding documents.
3: The learner will judge the effectiveness of the
institutions of the new nation in completing its
independence. (1781-1815).
4: The learner will assess the contending forces of
nationalism and sectionalism in the period 1815-1850.
5: The learner will evaluate the Civil War and
Reconstruction as an affirmation of the power of the
national government.
6: The learner will interpret economic, social, and
political trends of the late nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries.
7: The learner will analyze the causes and effects of
United States involvement in international affairs.
8: The learner will appraise the economic, social, and
political changes of the decades of the Twenties and
Thirties.
9: The learner will analyze and evaluate the significance
of causes, events, and effects of the World War II
Era.
10: The learner will trace economic and social
developments and assess their significance for the
lives of Americans in the last half century.

World History could include:
1: The learner will analyze the onset and development of
cultural institutions in early civilizations.
2: The learner will analyze classical Eurasian
civilizations and assess their enduring contributions.
3: The learner will investigate significant events in
and assess characteristics of traditional
civilizations (A.D. 500-1750).
4: The learner will investigate significant events in and
assess characteristics of medieval Europe (476-1400).
5: The learner will trace events and evaluate the
significance of movements associated with the rise of
the West (1400-1914).
6: The learner will examine causes and consequences of
Europe's world domination in the period 1750-1945.
7: The learner will analyze causes and effects of World
events in the early twentieth century (1914-1945).
8: The learner will analyze problems and assess prospects
of an interdependent world (1945-present).
9: The learner will draw relationships between continuity
and change in explaining human history.

Other Subjects Covered: Information, Social Studies

Teacher's Lesson Goals/Objectives:
Students will research historical events and develop a vision of the connectedness between historical events. The students will learn to use a database in a meaningful way.

Materials/Resources Needed:
print and/or electronic reference materials.

Technology Resources Needed (computer hardware, software, etc.):
A computer with Microsoft Works version 3 or 4
or a later version of Clarisworks
preferred: an Internet-connected computer and electronic encyclopedia

Pre-Activities:
Discuss primary and secondary sources.
Discuss the concept of importance: who is an important character in an event, what are important events?

Activities:
Students use the enclosed materials to research 5 events in history from the appropriate time-frame. Students will submit the worksheet to the teacher for verification of the quality of information. After placing all relevant information into the database template, students query the data base to find connections between the events. The database can be maintained from year to year and thus supplemented.

Assessment:
Enclosed materials are graded after original research for accuracy, and then after querying for evidence of grasping the connectedness of the historical issues.

Supplemental Resources / Information for Teachers (handouts, background information, bibliographies, examples of student work, etc.):
Care should be taken to ensure that only key issues are addressed in the entries; additionally, all key issues should be entered. Particular attention should be paid to characters in history. Additionally, the first time this activity is used, it should be limited to a time period that can be covered by assigning no more than 3 events to each student in the class. After the database has been used for one class, additional time periods can be entered by later periods.

Relevant Web Sites:
Source for other similiar activities at NCA&T State University School of
Education
http://www.ncat.edu/~schofed/its
link to PC files and templates
http://www.ncat.edu/~schofed/its/history.exe

Additional Comments from the Author of This Lesson:
These materials were developed to support and enhance the use of the 1998 K-12 computer/technology skills standard course of study.

About the Author:
originally created by Christopher I. Cobitz
and Denise E. Hedrick
used with permission