Historical census data can be an invaluable resource for
teachers and students of American
History, but the logistical challenges of teaching with such complex
data often inhibit
instructors from giving students opportunities to investigate and
reason with
such archives.
This project will make historical census data available to teachers and
students in
the form of on-line interactive data maps, displaying selected census
data for
each decade
(1790-2000) on US maps at the county level. The web-based learning
environment
will apply technology to integrating ambitious historical scholarship
into both
the high school and university levels of education, including
pre-service
history courses
for future teachers. The rich materials and tools developed in this
project
will enable
teachers to select data relevant to a historical topic they are
teaching;
integrate links
to on-line primary-source documents pertaining to the same topic; and
set up an inquiry
environment for their students to gather evidence from census maps and
primary-source documents to support particular historical claims. A
map-and-timeline interface will
enable students to explore data thematically, geographically and
chronologically.
This
learning environment will be a geographic
information system (GIS) –
software
combining an interactive map with a relational database, in which one
can display
layers of information from multiple data tables using a variety of
representational schemes
(e.g. colors, shapes and labels). It will provide a construction
environment
for teachers
to custom-design their own projects, as well as an inquiry-support
environmentfor
students to conduct research. The inquiry environment will support
students in keeping
track of their investigation, gathering and saving evidence,
maintaining links
to the
maps and documents they have read, and ultimately creating a
presentation of a historical
argument supported by evidence.
The
PI’s (university history instructors and educational
software designers) will collaborate
with in-service high school teachers to develop, pilot-test and
disseminate
this on-line
historical inquiry environment, including tools for teachers to
custom-design projects
on a range of historical topics for their students, and curriculum
modules on
five key
topics in American history (Westward expansion; immigration and the
World Wars; urbanization
and suburbanization; the African American Great Migrations; and industrialization
and economic depressions) modeling the use of the environment. The value
of the learning environment for teaching and learning history will be
evaluated
in pilot
tests in Chicago
public high school classrooms as well as university Teaching of
History
courses. This GIS learning environment
for the study of American history will provide a valuable resource for
teachers, teacher educators, and high school and college students,
including
future teachers of high school history.
See the Full
Text of this grant proposal (pdf)
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Top
Project Team and
Contributors
Project Team
|
JOSH RADINSKY,
PROJECT DIRECTOR
Email: joshuar@uic.edu
CV: http://tigger.cc.uic.edu/~joshuar
|
NOT PICTURED
|
Robert D. Johnston,
Director
of Teaching of
History Program, University of Illinois at Chicago
CV: http://www.uic.edu/depts/hist/Faculty/johnston.htm
|
NOT PICTURED
|
Ann Marie Ryan,
Associate
Director of Teaching of
History Program, University of Illinois at
Chicago
CV: http://www.uic.edu/depts/hist/Faculty/Ryan.htm
|
|
Susan Goldman,
Co-Director of
the Center
for Learning, Instruction, and Teacher Development
CV: http://litd.psch.uic.edu/people/us/goldman/
|
|
James Pellegrino,
Co-Director
of
the Center
for Learning, Instruction, and Teacher Development
CV: http://litd.psch.uic.edu/people/us/pellegrino/
|
|
|
Matt Lauterbach,
Program
Associate
Email: matt79@uic.edu |
Advisory Board
|
Leon Fink,
Advisory Chair,
Distinguished Professor of History at UIC, Editor of Labor
CV: http://www.uic.edu/depts/hist/Faculty/fink.htm
|
|
John Long,
Director of the Newberry
Library's Atlas of Historical County Boundaries project
CV: http://www.geog.port.ac.uk/hist-bound/people/long.htm
|
|
Daniel Edelson,
Director of
the Geographic Data in
Education (GEODE) initiative
CV: http://www.cs.northwestern.edu/~edelson/
|
NOT PICTURED
|
Lisa Oppenheim,
Chicago
Metro History Education Center
Award: http://www.knowledgeplex.org/news/29186.html
|
|
Andrew Beveridge,
Professor of Sociology
at Queens College
CV: http://www.socialexplorer.com/Andrew_Beveridge.htm
|
NOT PICTURED
|
Robert D. Johnston,
Director
of Teaching of
History Program, University of Illinois at Chicago
CV: http://www.uic.edu/depts/hist/Faculty/johnston.htm |
NOT PICTURED
|
Ann Marie Ryan,
Associate
Director of Teaching of
History Program, University of Illinois at
Chicago
CV: http://www.uic.edu/depts/hist/Faculty/Ryan.htm |
|
Adrian Capehart,
Clinical
Lecturer of Curriculum Instruction at UIC College of
Education
CV: http://www.uic.edu/educ/college/faculty/biopages/CAPEHART.HTM
|
Cooperating Schools
and Teachers
Software Development
|
INQUIRIUM, LLC
Inquirium
LLC
was formed in 2000 to bring the latest innovations in educational
technology research to real world applicatoin. Inquirium is made
up of
professional educators and technologists experienced in designing and
developing complet educational environments for schools, universities,
informal learning environments, and corporations. In addition to
our
key staff members, we draw upon a carefully selected network of
professional programmers, artists, educators, and writers. |
|
BEN LOH,
SENIOR DESIGNER
|
