Standards
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.7
Integrate visual information (e.g., in charts, graphs, photographs, videos, or maps) with other information in print and digital texts.
NCSS Theme 3 – Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of people, places, and environments.
Technology required
Device with a browser for students to access crop-it activity. Teacher should have a computer with projector to give slides presentation, but if this is not available, students can see slides on their own device.
Time
40 – 50 minutes
Lesson Summary
Students watch a video or play through the introduction of the You are Here game, including the levels on Lewis and/ or Clark. The teacher gives a presentation introducing the crop-it tool and students complete an assignment that requires answering questions using the map provided.
What is crop-it and how to use it
It’s a fun tool that lets your students zoom in on a section of a primary source. You have three options:
- Use a crop-it activity from the gallery
- Print out resources and do the activity using paper
- Create your own crop-it
Lesson
Begin playing the game, You are Here: STEM on the Lewis & Clark Trail.)
Teacher tip: If you don’t personally have time to play the whole game, even though it’s fun and educational, you can prepare yourself by with watching the video “Why study Lewis & Clark? which plays in the first level.
Next, do a crop-it activity.
In this lesson, we’ll go with Option 3. Because occasionally, the government is shut down, the Library of Congress is offline or otherwise unavailable, I uploaded a map to the Growing Math site. While the image below is only 600 pixels in width, the image I uploaded for this exercise is 20 times this size.
Zoom in or Crop the Map
Here is the link of the crop-it I created for the map Lewis and Clark made that went as far as the area they named Cape Disappointment.
Here is a Google slides presentation showing your students step by step how to crop an image, add notes, save notes, zoom in and create a PDF showing their responses.
Differentiation
On the crop-it site, you can design your own crop-it activity with fewer questions or simpler images.
For a simpler crop-it, you can use this photo of a Hidatsa bull boat on the river.
