In this unit, students examine the reasons various groups traveled westward during the second half of the nineteenth century.

High school students in New Jersey practice artifact analysis and learn about soldier life in World War II when they interact with wartime relics, including medals, gas masks, ration coupons, and letters home.

Early in the semester, during a seemingly benign math lesson over money, one of the students in my second and third grade blended classroom halted the instruction to ask “Wait! Why are there no women on money? Is there any money with women on it?” Never one to miss an opportunity to get my students thinking critically, we took some time to discuss why that might be. In considering how to approach this topic in the classroom, I drew on several areas of research: the marginalization of women in history, the use of inquiry in the elementary classroom, and incorporating discussion in lessons.

Wild West shows helped construct the stereotypical image of the cowboy. But a study of this aspect of American culture reveals a rich history of men and women of many ethnicities.