Community History Project Idea

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Google Historical Voyages and Events

While researching various social studies project ideas, I came across a very creative community history project - Google Historical Voyages and Events.  Carol LaRow, a Google certified teacher and Smithsonian Laureate, is the site administrator.  She invites teachers to submit projects that include historic events, explorers, and voyages tied to their local communities.  She asks for proposals, links to completed projects, or even just lesson plans.  She can even arrange hosting of your class's projects and lesson if you do not have hosting resources available.

You're asked to include a few Google resources in your projects.  Some of the many choices include Search (a natural), Picasa for pictures, Maps, Docs (word processing, spreadsheet, presentations), and Google Earth.  The website has links to the broader list.  

Other natural tie-ins for this community history project include Museum Box and Timeglider, an interactive timeline that can be embedded in your web page.  Look at my list of Freeware for Students and Teachers for more ways to incorporate technology into the project.

LaRow's website has many examples of projects to help you with ideas for your own class's community history project.  Historic Sites of Kingston, NY - created by the 4th graders of George Washington Elementary School - is one of my favorite examples of how various online tools have been incorporated into their Google Map tour of historic sites in their town.  It provides videos of each site narrated by a student.  And it has the elements essential to a project-based learning environment.  You can also see what standards the teacher incorporated into the project and her lesson plans.

Google Historical Voyages and Events is an inventive way to incorporate technology into the classroom and engage in project-based learning.  It's also a wonderful opportunity to bring in local experts, such as someone of the local or state historical society.  You could ask that the completed project be made available in the society's online resources, or perhaps those of the local library.

For more history project ideas, look at my post on PBL Social Studies Project Ideas.

Has your class done a community history project and posted it on the web?  If so, please share your thoughts on the experience.