Dust Bowl Mystery: Inquiry-Based Intro. to Great Depression!
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In this bundle, you'll get ALL THREE of my Primary Source Mysteries! Each mystery sets the stage for engagement with a situation that puts students into the story. The Mystery of The Lusitania (World War One): In this mystery, students are posed with an engaging scenario - they are CIA Agents that mPrice $8.38Original Price $11.97Save $3.59
Description
The Great Depression and The Dust Bowl have fascinated kids and adults for years. Use this mystery to harness that fascination and engage students in an inquiry-based investigation that they will remember all year long!
This lesson is SO FUN when used as an introduction to a unit about The Great Depression. I let them try to solve the mystery first and THEN tell them that our next unit will be about The Great Depression. It's the perfect way to get them asking questions and build genuine curiosity about the content.
In this mystery, students are posed with an engaging scenario - they are detectives that must piece together how and why The Smith Family disappeared from their farm. After creating their initial hypotheses, students will explore a series of five "exhibits" to help them decipher the mystery. Throughout these exhibits, they will interact with a variety of primary sources from the 1930s. After students have collected and analyzed each exhibit, they revise and defend their final hypotheses.
It can be SO difficult to get away from "sit and get" lessons in Social Studies. Give students a chance to spread their investigative wings while still sticking to the standards!
This product includes:
- Complete Lesson Plans - Provides essential questions, options for differentiation, assessment strategies, and full step-by-step instructions to implement this lesson
- Student Introduction - Sets the stage for an engaging and FUN activity
- Five "Exhibits" - Exhibits include primary sources (maps, photographs, and a song written by a migrant framer in the 1930s), and fun, engaging activities that require inferencing and critical thinking (analyze a weather forecast, put a list of journal entries in order on a timeline)
- Note-taking Graphic Organizer - Questions correspond with each exhibit and ask students to create an initial hypothesis, refine their hypothesis as they go, and then present their final hypothesis.
- Additional Resources - Make this activity even more immersive by sealing envelopes with the provided exhibit labels! Go deeper with kids as you analyze additional maps provided from the time period!
- UPDATED TO INCLUDE: Specific questions/ worksheet to correlate to each clue
- UPDATED TO INCLUDE: Graphic organizer to collect notes about the Dust Bowl after the mystery.
CHECK OUT MY OTHER MYSTERIES HERE!
- World War One Mystery: The Mystery of The Lusitania
- Cold War Mystery: The Case of The Missing Man
Want all three?? Pick up the bundle here!
