LIFE 100 YEARS AGO
As we enter a new decade and embrace the 2020’s, wouldn’t your student love to know what the 1920’s were like? “Life 100 Years Ago” focuses on technology, culture, and change that roared through the 1920’s.
Short videos cover general history and fun facts about the 1920’s, while the activity kits include exercises and games to help kids of the 2020’s learn about kids who lived 100 years ago. Featuring job profile cards, historic grocery lists, and games like Pick-up Sticks and Jacks, students will explore how things have changed and how they’ve stayed the same.
The 1920’s have a lot of lessons for the 2020’s, let’s explore them together!
This program is aligned with Social Studies, Health Education, Science, and English Language Arts and Reading TEKS for 1st – 5th grade.
FIRST TO FLIP, FIRST TO FLUSH
The light bulb and the toilet might be things we take for granted today, but they were revolutionary technology that changed the world. “First to Flip, First to Flush” takes a look at the science and history behind these technologies. The W.H. Stark House was one of the first homes in the world that had both of these core technologies and remains one of the best examples of these early innovations.
This program aligns with middle school TEKS in both Social Studies and Science. Instructional videos review the history and functionality of these technologies as well as their cultural role. Students will then create their own crafted light fixture in a guided exercise that encourages them to think critically about the role of decorative arts in utilitarian objects.
We all flip light switches and flush toilets. It’s time to learn where that came from and how it all works!
ORANGE AS A FINAL FRONTIER
Your parents have decided to move to a totally new place with a completely different environment and culture, leaving behind everything they know. Given a choice, would you go with them? This was the choice Miriam Lutcher faced when her father moved the family from the developed industrial town of Williamsport, Pennsylvania to the back-water, frontier town of Orange, Texas in 1877. Her decision changed Orange forever and helped close a part of the western frontier.
This program aligns with TEKS for “United States History Studies Since 1877” and is adaptable for English Language Arts and Reading. A lecture video will give students an overview of theTexas frontier, a historic look at Orange, and the background of Miriam’s life in her late teens as she faced the decision to move with her family or not. It will also explore her husband WilliamHenry Stark’s decision to move to Orange from a small homestead in Newton County in spite of his father’s wishes, which are detailed in a scathing letter written to young William. Students are then prompted to respond to either of these situations, writing their own letter using period technology, the fountain pen.