(These are the curriculum expressions that are the backbone for Carol Buswell’s curriculum unit, “Exploring Your Community.”)
Big Ideas
We can understand ourselves and our communities in a broader and more meaningful way by conducting research using a wide variety of methods gathered from various disciplines and peoples.
Enduring Understandings
- Examining other cultural worldviews can help add depth to our understanding of our own communities and the world around us.
- Academic research can be conducted by all ages.
- There is a wide variety of methods for conducting research and reporting results.
Essential Questions Aligned with Trail/Tribal Themes
- How can understanding the story of Lewis and Clark’s journey help me conduct better research? (Growth of a Young Nation)
- How does connecting with nature help me understand my community as a more complete whole? (Documenting Observations of Natural Science)
- What do people of various cultures living in my community contribute to my understanding of the world? How does trying to see the world in their way help me understand how to better approach my own? (Encountering Indigenous People)
- How can we avoid conflict by looking at our community’s past? (Unity through History)
- What can we do to help make our community a better place? (Traces of the Past Observed Today)