The Iowa Museum Association seeks to identify critically important people and turning point moments in each of Iowa’s 99 counties from their very beginnings up to the present day. Working with the Iowa Museum Association, students and their supervising teachers will contact area museums and historical organizations to develop a working list of names and topics those organizations feel are most important to the history, development, or ongoing development of their county. Students will choose one person or story to focus on, employing best practice historical research skills to delve into why this person or story is important to their county, and, if possible, placing the research in the greater context of the state or nation. Students will identify primary sources (artifacts, photographs, documents) in public collections that will help a reader fully understand the research.
Student will deliver (1) a fully cited, well-written research paper with footnotes and complete bibliography; (2) annotated list of contacts made or interviews completed in researching the topic (why they believed the topic was important or summary of content of interview); (3) list of artifacts, documents, and photographs in public collections that illustrate the story, and where to find those primary sources (catalog numbers should be included if possible); (4) complete list of names and topics compiled, from which this research topic was chosen.
How this will/may be used: (1) Completed papers, with student author and name of the supervising teacher/school, will be posted as Resources at TeachingIowaHistory.com for potential classroom use; (2) Pre-professionals in the Teaching Methods Classes at University of Northern Iowa and Simpson College may choose to develop lessons based on these papers; (3) identified primary sources will, with the permission of the organization that owns them, be added to the Teaching Iowa History primary source database where they will be accessible as teaching tools and for inclusion in lesson plans; (4) Student authors may develop their research into a History Day Project; (5) informal and formal educators may use the research as the basis for lesson plans or other instructional resources.
Recognition: (1) Student authors and supervising teachers will be recognized with any posted research; (2) Student authors may be recognized at the annual Iowa Museum Association conference; (3) Student authors and their teacher(s) may have an opportunity to present on their project at an Iowa Museum Association conference.
Recognition: (1) Student authors and supervising teachers will be recognized with any posted research; (2) Student authors may be recognized at the annual Iowa Museum Association conference; (3) Student authors and their teacher(s) may have an opportunity to present on their project at an Iowa Museum Association conference.