America on the Move Classroom Activity Guide
Classroom Activity Guide
This activity guide accompanies the exhibition America on the Move. It delivers a variety of historical primary-source materials from the exhibition directly to your
classroom. Through these documents and activities, students can build a deeper understanding of how transportation shaped
American commerce, communities, landscapes, and population migrations. These documents are in PDF format.
You may want to start with the
Table of Contents and learning standards.
Unit One: 1880s
Agricultural Nation: Foods and Families on the Move
Subtheme: immigrant and migrant workers
To the Teacher Instructions:
- Six images with analysis questions
- Clues sheet with contextual and image information
- Mapping the Big Idea—map activity
- Taking a Deeper Look—higher-level primary-source document; debate questions and projects
- What about Your Neighborhood?—apply themes to students’communities
Unit Two:1920s
Industrial Nation: Workers and Products on the Move
Subtheme: struggle for racial equality
To the Teacher Instructions:
- Six images with analysis questions
- Clues sheet with contextual and image information
- Mapping the Big Idea—map activity
- Taking a Deeper Look—higher-level primary-source document; debate questions and projects
- What about Your Neighborhood?—apply themes to students’communities
Unit Three: 1930s and 1940s
Early Highways that Bind the Nation: Families on the Move
Subtheme: depression, Dust Bowl, post–World War II
To the Teacher Instructions:
- Six images with analysis questions
- Clues sheet with contextual and image information
- Mapping the Big Idea—map activity
- Taking a Deeper Look—higher-level primary-source document; debate questions and projects
- What about Your Neighborhood?—apply themes to students’communities
Unit Four: 1950s and 1960s
Suburban Communities on the Move
Subtheme: cities versus suburbs
To the Teacher Instructions:
- Six images with analysis questions
- Clues sheet with contextual and image information
- Mapping the Big Idea—map activity
- Taking a Deeper Look—higher-level primary-source document; debate questions and projects
- What about Your Neighborhood?—apply themes to students’communities
Unit Five: 1970s–2000
The World’s People and Products on the Move
Subtheme: globalization of workforce
To the Teacher Instructions:
- Six images with analysis questions
- Clues sheet with contextual and image information
- Mapping the Big Idea—map activity
- Taking a Deeper Look—higher-level primary-source document; debate questions and projects
- What about Your Neighborhood?—apply themes to students’communities
Additional Resources
- Term definitions, bibliography, webliography.
- Acknowledgments
