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Website
Wessels Living History Farm

Living History Farm: Farming & Rural Life in the 1950s & 60s

For Students 9th - 10th
During the 1950s and 1960s, farmers had serious challenges but those who stayed made pretty good money due to agricultural advancements.
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Website
Wessels Living History Farm

Living History Farm: Farming in the 1930s

For Students 9th - 10th
During the hard economic times of the 1930s, farm families turned to low-cost entertainment such as barn dances. By listening to personal stories, discover what farm life was like during the Great Depression.
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Website
Curated OER

National Park Service: Homestead National Monument: History and Culture

For Students 9th - 10th
An extensive site that covers many aspects of the Homestead Act, including biographies, charts, and the text of the act. From the National Park Service.
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Website
Northern Arizona University

Land Use History of North America: Irrigation Systems Chaco Canyon Anasazi

For Students 9th - 10th
Scroll down to find title. Explanation and photographs of water drainage canals at Chaco Canyon and Mesa Verde Complexes.
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Website
Smithsonian Institution

National Museum of American History: Our Story: Life in a Sod House

For Students 3rd - 8th
Imagine moving into a house made out of sod that you and your family had to build in the middle of a prairie! Find great information and activities that will help you understand how it felt to live on the prairie.
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Handout
Gabriel Dumont Institute

Virtual Museum of Metis History and Culture: Metis Farmers

For Students 9th - 10th
Article looks at Metis agriculture from fur trade days on. Includes discussion questions, teaching ideas and a bibliography.
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Handout
Gabriel Dumont Institute

Virtual Museum of Metis History and Culture: Traditional Lifestyles Photos

For Students 9th - 10th
A large collection of historical photos showing the traditional lifestyles of the Metis. The photos are sorted into categories, e.g., food preparation, hunting, trapping, etc.
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Website
Digital History

Digital History: From Slave Labor to Free Labor

For Students 9th - 10th
The most difficult task confronting many Southerners during Reconstruction was devising a new system of labor to replace the shattered world of slavery. Learn how plantation owners and freed slaves adapted to this massive shift in the...
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PPT
Sophia Learning

Sophia: Agriculture: Food Production

For Students 9th - 10th
Students will be able to discuss the changes in agriculture throughout history and its effect on foods and food production of today. Additionally, students will be able to discuss the effect of commercial farming on the environment.
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Handout
Other

Sussex Archaeological Society: Romans in Sussex: Countryside Living and Working

For Students 3rd - 8th
Provides details about how agriculture was practiced in England during the Roman period, how people lived on the farms and what crops they raised.
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Handout
Other

Selected Essays on Barbed Wire: Brief History of Barbed Wire

For Students 9th - 10th
Provides information on the development and use of barbed wire. Includes biographies on Joseph F. Glidden, Jacob Haish, and Isaac L. Ellwood, who were instrumental in its invention and marketing. For more information on barbed wire,...
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Website
Other

Architect of the Capitol: Julius Sterling Morton

For Students 9th - 10th
This site has a biography of Julius Sterling Morton (1832-1902 CE), the famous Nebraskan and successful farmer. He taught people about modern techniques of farming and forestry and went on to be the founder of Arbor Day.
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Article
Khan Academy

Khan Academy: Us History: 1865 1898: Westward Expansion: Economic Development

For Students 9th - 10th
In the late nineteenth century, the West developed into a modern agricultural machine- at the expense of farmers.
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Handout
Wikimedia

Wikipedia: Crop Rotation

For Students 9th - 10th
Wikipedia provides a definition of crop rotation, including a brief history and examples.
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Website
University of Groningen

American History: Outlines: Agriculture Rules the South

For Students 9th - 10th
The essay describes the devlopment of the Southern colonies as agricultural centers and the cultural aspects associated with rural, agricultural life.
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Website
Independence Hall Association

U.s. History: The Farming Problem

For Students 5th - 8th
The farm crisis began years before the stock market crash and was made worse by the Great Depression. Read about the legislation that was passed to stabilize commodity prices and help farmers stay on their farms.
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Lesson Plan
University of Chicago

Ancient Mesopotamia: The First Farmers [Pdf]

For Teachers 9th - 10th
In this instructional activity our class can try an experiment to show how constant irrigation, with repeated evaporation of water that left salts in the soil, eventually ruined much farming land in southern Mesopotamia.Students can fill...
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Website
Other

Fantasy Farms: About Alpacas

For Students Pre-K - 1st
From the website of an alpaca farm, the page offers information about the history of alpacas and their recent import into the United States. You will also learn about the alpaca's physical characteristics, behavior, and commercial uses.
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Website
Independence Hall Association

U.s. History: Western Folkways

For Students 5th - 8th
A very brief review of what were the important ways people in the West made a living in the last half of the 19th century.
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Handout
University of Michigan

Univerisity of Michigan: A Taste of the Ancient World: Farming at Karanis

For Students 9th - 10th
Primarily pictures, but some commentary about food production in ancient Egypt. Particularly interesting is the pigeon pot for housing pigeons.
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Website
Wessels Living History Farm

Living History Farm: Farming in the 1930s: The Politics of the Rea

For Students 9th - 10th
Electrifying rural America revolutionized farm life. Read about how the Rural Electrification Administration was instituted and what had to be done to encourage rural families to form electric co-ops. Included is an interview with a...
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Website
Northern Arizona University

Land Use History of North America: Prehistoric Farming on the Colorado Plateau

For Students 9th - 10th
This is an overview of the Anasazi agricultural developments -- despite unfavorable environmental conditions -- which allowed for the formation of settlements and food sharing.
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Website
Wessels Living History Farm

Living History Farm: Farming in the 1930s: Crash!

For Students 9th - 10th
A multi-page site that focuses on the effects of the Great Depression primarily in rural America in the early days before the election of Franklin Roosevelt. Find videos interviews with those who lived through the trying times.
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Website
Wessels Living History Farm

Living History Farm: Farming in the 1930s: The Fsa, Farm Security Administration

For Students 9th - 10th
Find photographs, brief videos, and commentary about what loans from the Farm Security Administration meant to poor farmers during the Great Depression.

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