Outreach – Primary Sources

This Friday, December 12, I get the opportunity to assist in an outreach for 10^th grade students at a local high school. These students are learning about primary sources, where to find them and how to critically think using them.  We were given the topics to search for documents and to create assignments for the students. Some of the topics are Jim Crow, immigration, unions and urbanization. Out of these subjects I worked on immigration and urbanization. I decided to give use the Mercer County 1^st and 2^nd papers Naturalization.  In order to relate the people in the ledgers, I found two minors who applied for naturalization. The part of the assignment I am enthusiastic about is what type of backstory these students create for the immigrants.

Now for urbanization, the focus is on how I-675 has increased growth in the suburbs, especially around Wright State University. There are pictures of North Fairfield Road and Colonel Glenn Highway in the 1970s before the completion of the interstate and prior to the buildup of the shopping centers. Outreach is a part of my goals for the program.  Being able to be a part of this outreach has strengthened this goal for me and has shown me what is involved in an outreach program for high school.