The GIS activities add three important dimensions to the study of each topic:

• Students are able to put the events involved firmly in place as well as time.

• They are able to bring large amounts of place related data to their studies that tend to have little meaning outside a geographic framework and that provide an entirely new avenue for understanding.

• GIS investigations are fun. The software involved is an elaborate tool that with a limited amount of initial guidance puts students in charge of meaningful historical investigation.

Units -

The Cherokee Removal		Materials focus on the Cherokee removal from the southeastern United States in the 1830s. They provide background on Cherokee culture, the national debate over Indian removal, and accounts of the Trial of Tears itself.
Yosemite		The "national park" idea was born in 1864 when the U.S. Congress granted Yosemite Valley to the state of California to "be held for public use, resort, and recreation; ... inalienable for all time." The materials included here provide an insight into the impressions held by the first visitors to the park, early business people, and by those who fought to preserve the place.
Hetch Hetchy		The early 20th century battle to dam the Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park was national in scope and pitted two sides of the country's new conservation movement against one another. Preservationists, led by John Muir, argued against the dam, Utilitarians, led by Gifford Pinchot, creator of the nation's Forest Service, argued for the dam. The materials in this unit allow students to explore over a century of American ideas about the natural environment, the geology and geography of Hetch Hetchy Valley, its early history, the controversy to build the dam, and, finally, to examine the impact of breaching the dam today.
The Great Migration		The movement of African Americans from the rural South to the urban North in the first three decades of the 20th century is one of the most significant mass migrations in the nation's history. The materials include primary and secondary sources as well as detailed demographic data.
The Dust Bowl		The traditional story of the Dust Bowl focuses on the agricultural practices of settlers in a foreign environment. Recent accounts look more closely at climate as the most significant factor in this story. Students will get a chance to explore the issue from both points of view.
Japanese Internment		The internment of Japanese Americans during World War II represents the degree to which racial and cultural intolerance can be carried when mixed with the fear and hysteria of war. The history of the event represented in the documents and activities here is at once a story of immigration, significant constitutional issues, racial discrimination, and the lengthy amalgamation of cultures.

Each unit includes a For the Teacher page that identifies unit objectives, related national social studies and geography standards, references to GIS data sources, and a short bibliography of additional resources.

Source Materials -

GIS Activities -

	GIS assignments are an integral part of the materials in this collection. Students will need access to either My World GIS, a software package designed for middle and secondary student use, or ArcGIS, a professional GIS software package. There are introductions to each GIS activity that include detailed examples of using the software in ways that will help students complete the related assignments on their own or with a partner's help. In a classroom setting I would recommend that you use a video projector as you talk through specific software procedures and, more importantly, that you preview the types of analysis in which students will be involved.

Contact -

Your comments and suggestion about these materials are more than welcome.

If you have ideas for additional topics that would lend themselves to the approach taken here, please pass them along. I'd enjoy collaborating with you.