Students in the 1st & 3rd period US Studies Honors classes spent a week in simulation, creating their version of the Jamestown colony. They were given a set of instructions, construction materials, a "land charter" (posterboard) from the "Virginia Company of London" (Mr. Wade), and a group of six (6) with on individual acting as their colony's John Smith.
During simulation, Jamestown colonists were to decide what construction tasks their group would tackle during the daily "seasons". Tasks ranged from building a church to digging a well and foraging for food. Sometimes a settler would "die" due to circumstances out of the colony's control.
The overall goal of the simulation was to teach about Jamestown while the students were constructing Jamestown in miniature. A emotional goal was to have students empathize with the plight of Jamestown. Students were given snippets of information about Jamestown at various points to reinforce the importance of the simulation.
At the end of the simulation, all students completed a set of summary questions. Students were also given the opportunity to voice any constructive feedback for future running of the simulation.
Later, I created a "Survival Rating" rubric, which was used to give each colony a survival rating. This was a last minute addition - suggested by students - in order to determine which group had the best colony overall. There was no penalty / reward aside from bragging rights. (All in good fun on this portion.)
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| Jamestown Colony Period 3 |
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| Jamestown Colony Period 3 |
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| Jamestown Colony Period 3 |
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| Jamestown Colony Period 3 |
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| Jamestown Colony Period 3 |
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| Jamestown Colony Period 1 |
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| Jamestown Colony Period 1 |
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| Jamestown Colony Period 1 |
Coming Soon! PHOTOS
European Explorer "File" Project
Students in all US Studies classes, Regular & Honors, were given a chance to do some independent study on European explorers during the Age of Exploration.
Students were grouped and given the opportunity to choose one of six (6) roles ranging from Ship's Engineer to Voyage or Early Life Biographer.
Students then were asked to construct their portion of the "file" based on individual info-gathering, as well as some collaborative work with group members. For example: some group members found biography info while searching for data on a particular ship used by their explorer. That person was instructed to share what they found with the biographers in their group.
Overall, the goal was to provide an early opportunity to get "hands-on" with history. The other objective was to given students a chance to focus on areas about the explorer they were interested in learning about. Most explorers were discussed in class via notes, class reading from the textbook (with accompanying handout), or in notes which were provided to them by me.
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