Westward expansion in the late 1800s and early 1900s had a significant impact on the environment. As settlers moved west, they established new farms and homesteads. To do this, they cleared forests, plowed prairies, diverted water sources, and built railroads. At the time, there were different approaches to how humans should interact with the environment. The long-lasting effects of westward expansion on ecosystems continue to impact Americans today.
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About the inquiry
Compelling Question
How did westward expansion impact the environment?
Standards
Instructional Snapshot
Class begins with students contemplating how they interact with the natural environment in their own lives. Students individually craft a response to the prompt on their graphic organizer, producing a contemporary example of human-environment interaction in their own lives. After sharing out responses, the teacher then reviews the four different historic perspectives on how humans interact with the environment in Featured Sources A-D (included for easy reference on the graphic organizer).
Next, the teacher divides students into small groups and distributes a set of Featured Sources E-M to each group. Using the featured sources, students work together to match each source to the perspective they think it most closely reflects. Once students have sorted all the sources, they predict the long-term impact of each perspective on either humans or the environment.
Formative Tasks
PRODUCE: Describe how students interact with the natural environment.
DELIBERATE: Match each source with the historic perspective on human-environment interaction that it best represents.
COLLABORATE: Predict a long-term impact of each perspective on either humans or the environment.
Sources
Sources A-D: Perspectives on the Environment, Library of Congress
Sources E-M: Westward Expansion and the Environment, University of Washington
Summative Performance Task
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Taking Informed Action
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