Check out these interdisciplinary activity ideas, TV programs and online resources for your classroom.

Return in April for activities and resources about economics!

Teaching Ideas

1. Tracking Trends in Immigration
Grade Levels: 3-5
Subjects: Math, Social Studies, Technology

In this activity students will gather statistics from the last two out of three periods of immigration and compare results.

There were three waves of migration to the United States. Because the first period happened a long time ago, between 1600-1800, the exact number of actual immigrants is difficult to determine. Estimates range as high as 5 million people. The second wave of migration occurred in 1820-1920, and the most recent wave began in 1960 and is still present today.

Ask your students to research immigration trends during the 20th century. Ask them to find out how many people came to the United States in the two eras or allow them to create any other table or graph proving some numerical aspect of immigration to the United States. For example, they might want to find the number of European immigrants vs. Asian immigrants, or how many women vs. men migrated. Find out what interests the students then let them create their own summary of statistics about that immigration-related topic. They might create graphs by hand first then transfer their information onto charts or tables created on a computer. Make sure the graphs/charts your students create demonstrate trends in immigration. Ask them to explain the statistics based on the political, social or economic situation of the time.

Conclude with the students sharing the results to the class.

Online Resources

Ancestors:
http://www.pbs.org/kbyu/ancestors/records/immigration

NewsHour Online:
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/business/jan-june04/immigration_reform_02-04.html

The City/La Cuidad:
http://www.pbs.org/itvs/thecity

Immigration Statistics By State:
http://www.gcir.org/about_immigration/usmap.htm

Office of Immigration Statistics:
http://uscis.gov/graphics/shared/aboutus/statistics/

U.S. Census Bureau:
http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/immigration.html

Hall of Fame
Grade Level: 6-8
Subjects: Social Studies, Art, Language Arts

Introduce your students to the wealth of contributions new Americans make to the United States by asking them to choose a famous immigrant to research. Using encyclopedias, library books, magazines and biography based Internet sites, students will get answers that will explain who the immigrant is and what contributions he or she has made to the United States. (You may ask students to focus on notable immigrants that live locally so they can use local archives and historical societies for their research.)

Each student should write a report using information gathered from his or her research. The report should consist of three parts: an opening, the body of the paper, and a summary or closing. The opening should contain one to two paragraphs about why they have chosen this person for their report. In this section, students could address the following questions:

• How was he/she treated after upon arrival to the US? How did his/her ideas about the US change after coming here?
• What barriers did this person overcome?
• What role did education play, or not, in his or her life? Did this person's education and/or profession change his or her socioeconomic status or class? How did this person's ethnicity, race and gender affect this person's ambition?
• Have you or someone you know been affected by this person's accomplishments? If so, how?
• What did you want to learn about this person and/or the contributions he/she made that might shed light on the topic of immigration?

Have the students create a memorial to their chosen subject by making a class quilt as a group project. This can be easily done by cutting out equal sized pieces of poster board, hole punching them, and sewing them together with yarn. Each individual must decide how they want their person to be memorialized, by creating a symbolic portrayal of the person, his or her name, the contribution they made and a caption that signifies the importance of the contribution.

Online Resources

Library of Congress:
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/features/immig/immigration_set1.html

Digital History - Ethnic America:
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/historyonline/ethnic_am.cfm

Immigration Forum:
http://www.immigrationforum.org

Ellis Island:
http://www.ellisisland.org

American Immigration Law Foundation - Celebrity Immigrants:
http://www.ailf.org/notable/famous.htm