Activity 1A: Beginning Your Investigation

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Related Units
Podcasting the Past (U.S. History)

Activity 1A.1: Asking Questions

Example Podcasts
Downtown LA Walks. Site features short podcasts of historic places and buildings in downtown LA. Example used in the unit is about Union Station.
 
The Erie Canal. 400: Stories Pitched by Our Parents: Act Two, Nancy’s Dad’s Story www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/400/stories-pitched-by-our-parents
 
The Bowery Boys New York City History. Site features 30-minute podcasts about places in New York City presented by a pair of narrators. These podcasts are informal and funny, making them good examples for students, but they are also long.
 Podcast #76 The Woolworth Building
 
TravelTex. Site features short podcasts of historic places in several Texas cities. Podcasts about M.L. Leddy’s in Fort Worth and the Alamo in San Antonio are particularly good and diverse examples.
 
Student Podcasts
Military History Podcast. A student’s podcasts, starting in high school and continuing into college, on issues in military history.
 
Middle school student team podcasts on dates in World War II:
March 17
May 7
 
Walking Tours and Other Historical Podcasts
The Bowery Boys New York City History
Podcast #76 The Woolworth Building
Podcast #98 Manhattan Bridge
 
Civil War Traveler. Podcasts for many Civil War sites throughout the East. (Podcasts are from 20 to 45 minutes or more.)
 
Coney Island History Project
 
Downtown LA Walks
Doheny Mansion
St. Vincent de Paul Cathedral
 
Knowing Poe: The Literature, Life, and Times of Edgar Allen Poe in Baltimore and Beyond. Audio and text presenting locations in Baltimore in the present and in the past during Poe’s time. (Walking tour model—good collaboration with English class.)
 
The Neighborhood Stories Project
 
New York City Walking Tours
Temple Emmanu El: NYC
Ukrainian Institute of America
 
This American Life
Cicero. 179.
Social Studies Lesson. 296: After the Flood. Act Three.
www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/296/After-the-Flood
 
 TravelTex. Walking Tours of Several Major Texas Cities. San Antonio
 

Activity 1A.2: A Place in Your Community

Flickr is a good source for copyright-free images.
 
Images from Handout 3: Places
Flour mill, Caldwell, Idaho (Library of Congress)
 
Wall Painting of Hell’s Kitchen in Manhattan, New York City . . . 7/1974
 
Cabins imitating the Indian teepee for tourists along highway south of Bardstown, Kentucky (Library of Congress).