LEARN NC

K–12 teaching and learning · from the UNC School of Education

From forest to farm and back again

http://www.foresthistory.org/Education/Curriculum/Activity/activ2/
activ2.html

A lesson plan for Grade 8 Social Studies

Provider: Forest History Society

About this resource

Appropriate grades
8
Subjects
science (environmental science), social studies (United States history)
Provider
Forest History Society
Special requirements
Adobe Acrobat Reader

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In this lesson plan from the Forest History Society in Durham, North Carolina, students examine the history of land use from colonial settlement to the emergence of modern America at Harvard Forest in Petersham, Massachusetts. Students will examine, interpret, and analyze physical and cultural patterns of forest use and management over a 300-year period.

Students will:

  • understand how the values and institutions of European economic life took root in the colonies;
  • understand the impact of the American Revolution on politics, economy, and society;
  • understand the impact of territorial expansion between 1801 and 1861 on communities in the east;
  • identify and use processes important to reconstructing and reinterpreting the past, such as using a variety of sources, providing, validating, and weighing evidence for claims, checking credibility of sources, and searching for causality; and
  • examine, interpret, and analyze the physical and cultural patterns and their interactions, such as land use, settlement patterns, and ecosystem changes.

Visit the Forest History Society's Education Table of Contents for other modules in this series.

North Carolina Curriculum Alignment

Social Studies (2003)

Grade 8

  • Goal 1: The learner will analyze important geographic, political, economic, and social aspects of life in the region prior to the Revolutionary Period.
    • Objective 1.01: Assess the impact of geography on the settlement and developing economy of the Carolina colony.
    • Objective 1.05: Describe the factors that led to the founding and settlement of the American colonies including religious persecution, economic opportunity, adventure, and forced migration.
    • Objective 1.07: Describe the roles and contributions of diverse groups, such as American Indians, African Americans, European immigrants, landed gentry, tradesmen, and small farmers to everyday life in colonial North Carolina, and compare them to the other colonies.