20th Century Interactive: About the Project

Project Description

Project Description

History is a guide to navigation in perilous times.
History is who we are and why we are the way we are.

David C. McCullough
address at Wesleyan University, 3 June 84

It has been said that a society that wants to build the future must know its real past. But in today's society, it is difficult to engage students—the very people who will be building the future. 20th Century Interactive is designed to ignite American history with excitement, immediacy and relevance by helping students discover the links between their own local history and national historical movements.

20th Century Interactive is an interactive, multimedia American history project targeted to the learning needs of high school students in southwestern Ohio. The units in the project are tied to both state proficiency and National History Standards and are cross-curricular.

The project is designed to help students develop their historical reasoning skills and understanding of 20th century American history. By engaging in extended inquiries, students learn the skills and techniques that historians use. They also learn valuable research and presentation skills, as well as an understanding of our regional and national history.

Covering the period of 1890 to the present, curriculum materials explore the themes of reform, civil rights, and the changing roles of men and women in society. Students see how historic issues affect our current lives, how national history affects local history and how ordinary citizens can and do make a difference.

20th Century Interactive has been designed with two broad goals in mind:

to improve students' historical reasoning skills
to integrate educational technologies into the classroom

Curriculum Materials and Technology Resources

The Instructional Guide features activities and worksheets that encourage students not only to master facts, concepts and generalizations, but to master the skills needed to produce knowledge. They analyze primary sources, appreciate historical perspectives, analyze cause-and-effect relationships, research and test historical data, and create their own historical narratives. Activities such as debates, Socratic dialogues, simulations and press conferences engage students in historical decision-making.

A CD-ROM accompanies the Instructional Guide and is used in conjunction with the lessons. It contains original source documents such as speeches, advertisements, political cartoons and video clips for student research and analysis.

The Interactive Web Site offers supporting research information, video clips of historic interest, and a virtual history museum in which students can publish their own works.

Live Television Broadcasts on February 20 and May 8, 2002, will engage students in discussion with key figures in our local history who have conflicting points of view and will encourage students to interact with historians, either in the studio or via telephone, to discuss their jobs.

Teachers learn details of 20th Century Interactive through Professional Development workshops held in January 2002 at several locations throughout southwestern Ohio. Teachers are also encouraged to use the interactive discussion forum on the web site, to exchange ideas, share information and develop professional resources in the field of American history.