The idea for this lesson plan was inspired by Kristen M. Stutts of Devon Forest Elementary/New Hope in Goose Creek, South Carolina, who received a teacher grant from the National Geographic Education Foundation in support of a year-long project called Project Hope (Helping Our People and Community).

This lesson introduces students to the concept of historic preservation and asks them to find out about places of historic significance in their town. Students will create pamphlets or Web pages that showcase some of these places. Ideally, they will be able to get their pamphlets distributed to the community or have local organizations link to their Web pages.

Geography, U.S. history

Standard 17: "How to apply geography to interpret the past"

Two to three hours

• Computer with Internet access

Students will

• view pictures of preserved and restored historical buildings and discuss the reasons why communities would want to preserve them;
• research historic places in their town, such as buildings, parks, statues, or memorials;
• answer questions about these places; and
• create pamphlets or Web pages about the places they have researched.

Have students go to this National Trust page and scroll down to look at the photographs. Explain that these are old buildings that have won awards for being restored or preserved. Give students a few minutes to click on the photographs and see the "before" and "after" pictures.

Ask students why they think many people and communities feel that it is important to preserve old buildings. What might be some good things about preserving an old building rather than tearing it down? What might be some reasons to just tear an old building down? How might one decide whether to restore an old building or tear it down?

Explain to the class that one of the reasons these buildings are important is that they are part of the towns' histories. Explain that every town has a history, whether it was founded in the 17th century or five years ago. Towns that are very new, such as modern suburbs, often have histories as farming communities or areas of pastoral retreat for city dwellers.

Help students explore National Geographic's Saving America's Treasures Web site. Show students the pictures to give them an idea of the diversity of historic buildings across the country, and talk a little about the history of each.

Ask students if they can think of any interesting old buildings in their town or in a nearby town. If you know of any in particular, mention them and, if possible, bring in some pictures of them.

Ask students if they know of any other places in their town that are significant parts of its history. For example, a park, a statue, or a memorial all qualify as places that represent the town's history.

Have students research places of historic interest in their community. They should use the Internet, library books, materials from a local historical society or organization, or even artifacts from their parents' or grandparents' collections. As they conduct their research, they should answer these questions on paper about each historic place they learn about:

• What is the name of this place?
• Where in the town is it located?
• When was this place built or created?
• Did anything interesting happen here? Are there any interesting stories or events that took place here?
• What is special or important about this place? If someone were to visit your town, what would you tell them about this place?

One place to begin searching would be at the Google search engine. Have students type in the name of their town, and they will likely be led first to the town's official home page. This official site may have a link to information about the town's history. If not, have them return to Google and search under the town's name and the word "history" (e.g., "Golden, Colorado history").

[Note: If it's really difficult to find out about historical places in your town, it would be okay for students to focus on the history of a nearby town or city. For example, if you live in a suburb, you could have students research historical sites in the city. It would be ideal, however, if they could find out about their own home town. If students at your school come from several different towns, consider pairing or grouping them so they're working with students from the same town.]

Have students make street maps of their town and label the maps with the places they have learned about. They can create these maps at MapQuest.

Discuss students' findings as a class. What places have they learned about? What are their favorite places? What interesting stories or events occurred in these places? Where would they take visitors to their town?

Have students make pamphlets to share with members of their community. Their pamphlets should showcase the historic sites they have learned about in the lesson. They should include drawings or photographs, a map, and written information about each site.

Have the class write a letter to the town's government or historical society to inform them of their research and the pamphlets they have created. Ask if there might be a way for a town organization to copy and distribute the pamphlets to community residents and visitors.

As an alternative, have students create Web pages rather than pamphlets. Ask the school district, town government, or historical society if it will link to these pages from its own Web site.

Have students go to the Historic Denver Web site and link to the Bookstore. They will see several books about the histories of Denver neighborhoods. Ask students to pretend that they have been asked to write a series of books about their own town's neighborhoods. What neighborhoods would they choose? How would they decide what to write about? Where would they begin their research for these books?

Have the class create a plan for how it would begin its first book. As an option, have them actually go through the research process (e.g., learning about historic sites in this neighborhood and interesting stories and events that took place there, or interviewing people who have lived in the neighborhood for a long time) and write a booklet about this neighborhood and its history.

Historic Denver
Mississippi Department of Archives and History
National Geographic: Saving America's Treasures
National Trust for Historic Preservation