Local History Scavenger Hunt

Learning Target OR Standards & Connections
  • ISTE Student Standard Knowledge Constructor: Students critically curate a variety of resources using digital tools to construct knowledge, produce creative artifacts and make meaningful learning experiences for themselves and others.
  • 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.
  • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.11-12.7: Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in diverse formats and media (e.g., visually, quantitatively, as well as in words) in order to address a question or solve a problem.
Essential Outcome(s) Level(s)
Students will…

  • visit and explore local historical artifacts, monuments, and phenomena.
  • learn key facts about the local history of the community.
  • archive and document local history by taking pictures and voice notes.
 Middle & High
Activity/Project
  1. Teachers can compile their scavenger hunt clues or create a SCVNGR account at scvngr.com. 
  2. Teacher assigns students into groups (or asks them to voluntarily group themselves).
  3. The students will travel on foot (or by car, depending on how spread out the city is) to find clues, collect images, voice recordings (using Soundtrap’s quick record feature) and complete challenges at the clue locations. 
  4. Students complete the local history hunt over the weekend.
  5. Teacher will be able to log in to SCVNGR at any time and see the results of the students’ hunt or review the results on Monday and go over the local history lessons learned from students. 

* **The teacher should tell the students about a month beforehand when the hunt will occur so they can set aside a few hours over that particular weekend.
Extended Learning
  1. The teacher can ask each of the student groups to document different pieces of local history with images and video, and then use those images, voice recordings or video as the basis of future lessons on local history.
  2. Instead of the teacher setting up the hunt, students can research local history and create scavenger hunts for each other or another (perhaps younger?) class.

 

This lesson was adapted by Meredith Allen from a mobile lesson on Scholastic. Prior to joining the Soundtrap team, Meredith served as an Instructional Technology Consultant at Prairie Lakes Area Education Agency in Iowa.  Preceding her consulting, Meredith taught instrumental music, K-7 technology and facilitated a district’s Virtual Reality Education Pathfinders program. She also served on their District Leadership Team, served as the district’s Technology Integrationist, and assisted with the implementation of the district’s 1:1 computing initiative. Meredith has a Master’s of Science in Technology for Education and Training and participated in the 2016 Iowa cohort of the national Teacher Leadership Initiative.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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