Home / Education / History Center Visits / Field Trips / Vatican Plus Lessons

History Center Field Trips: History Lessons

History Lessons provide in-depth coverage of topics in Minnesota history. Students work as individuals and in small groups with the real stuff of history: objects, photos and documents. Lessons are age-appropriate with content becoming more sophisticated as the grade level increases. History Center lesson instructors use an inquiry approach as they interact with students during the lesson.

Each lesson contains activities and content that may assist teachers and students to meet Content Standards requirements within the Social Studies and Inquiry Learning Areas of Minnesota's Graduation Standards. Call School Programs Associate Mary Mannes at 651-259-3413 to discuss how History Center lessons may be incorporated into your curriculum!

  • Each lesson is approximately 50 minutes long.
  • The maximum number of students in each lesson is 30.

Select one of the following hands-on lessons:

Dakota Children Grades K-3
How did Dakota Indian children spend their days in the mid-1800s? In this lesson, students listen to stories about Dakota children learning, working, and playing.

Generations Of An Ojibwe Family Grades 5-12
Students trace change and continuity in the Ojibwe culture in Minnesota by examining the lives of five families, spanning five generations. They learn that European technology, settlement and urbanization have forced changes in Ojibwe life, while important cultural traditions have persisted. Students will explore each generation through the use of artifacts and other primary sources.

The History Player’s Dilemma Grades K-8
Students step back in time to meet a costumed character from Minnesota’s past and help solve a problem. As students work through the History Player’s dilemma, they examine objects, images, artifacts, and primary sources from the character’s life. As they work together to help the History Player solve his or her dilemma, students uncover the similarities and differences between past and present. Availability of characters is limited.

Choose from the following characters:

  • NEW! Thomas Lyles (1843-1920) Grades 5 - 12
    It is 1920. Three black men have been lynched in Duluth and African-Americans in Minnesota are outraged. Lyles, an entrepreneur and civic leader in Saint Paul, has called other members of the community (your students) together to figure out how to respond to the crisis. Two of the nation’s most influential black figures of the time – Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois – had diverging views on the matter. Which course should African-Americans take? Through role-play and lively discussion, your students will gain a keener understanding of the civil rights issues which fueled debate over a hundred years ago and still do today.
  • Maud Hart Lovelace (1892-1980) Grades K-3
    The author of the Betsy-Tacy series of children’s books has a terrible case of “writer’s block!” Students help her develop a story based on her childhood and discover what it was like to grow up 100 years ago in Mankato, Minnesota. Students will look through catalogs from the 1890s, march to phonograph music, and pretend to ride in a “horseless carriage!”
  • John Beargrease (1858-1910) Grades 1-4
    Battling Minnesota's extreme weather was a way of life for John Beargrease, who delivered the mail along the North Shore of Lake Superior from 1879 - 1910. But today he's not sure if he should deliver the mail by dogsled, snowshoe, or sailboat. As students help Beargrease decide how to get from Beaver Bay to Grand Marais, they will learn about his Ojibwe heritage and the people who lived along the rugged North Shore.
  • Harriet Bishop (1817-1883) Grades 3-6
    It’s 1851 and St. Paul’s first public school teacher is about to have her classroom inspected by the National Board of Popular Education. Can your students help her demonstrate how well she has taught cleanliness, spelling, geography, arithmetic, sewing, and recitation to the children of Minnesota Territory?
  • George Nelson (1786-1859) Grades 3-6
    Students join clerk George Nelson in 1816, learn the business of the Great Lakes fur trade, and help him decide if he should write a journal about his life. Students will examine furs and trade goods, try to carry a fur pack, write with a quill pen, and try their best to be Ojibwe-French-English interpreters.
  • James Goodhue (1810-1852) Grades 5-8
    The editor of Minnesota’s first newspaper, The Pioneer, has a new group of apprentices help him write a descriptive story. Students learn about westward expansion, 19th century newspapers, and the complicated relationship between Dakota, Ojibwe, and European-American peoples in Minnesota Territory.
  • Fanny Brin (1884 – 1961) Grades 5 – 8
    This lesson introduces students to Jewish civic leader and pacifist, Fanny Brin. raised in Minneapolis, Brin devoted her life to four main causes: democracy, world peace, the Jewish heritage, and women’s rights, . Your students will help Brin as she strives to establish the Minneapolis chapter of the United Nations Youth Committee. As they explore how young people can make a significant impact on worldwide war or peace, the participants will also deepen their understanding of the basic concepts and history of the United Nations and World War II.

How Did You Think Of That? Minnesota Invents Grades 4-8
Students will tinker and play to discover famous Minnesota inventions that emerged from just “playing around.” They will see that ordinary people throughout Minnesota’s history created inventions that spurred the development of businesses such as 3M, Rollerblade and Medtronic.

Indians And The Fur Trade Grades 3-12
Students learn how the exchange of goods, skills and ideas between Europeans and Minnesota’s Indians affected both cultures. Discussion of the roles of various participants in the fur trade is an important part of this lesson.

Introduction to History Day Grades 6-12
Using interactive props and activities, students launch their exciting History Day adventure. They will learn about the year's theme and the four categories of History Day presentation -- papers, exhibits, documentaries and performances -- as well as methods for choosing historical topics and tips for conducting research.

Jump Start Your History Day Project Grades 6-12
After reviewing how to pick a topic and craft a thesis statement, students learn how to find and evaluate primary sources in the Minnesota Historical Society’s collections. Students visit the History Center’s library with a “virtual tour.” If you would like to add an actual library tour, please contact our scheduling staff at 651-297-7258.

Library Matters Grades 6-12
Students learn how to use the History Center Library by looking at various collections and walking through library procedures. Students will learn how to access library materials and will receive a brief tour of the library facilities.

Logging In Minnesota Grades 4-8
Students take on the roles of sawyers, bull cooks, and other lumber camp workers from a turn-of-the-century logging camp in Northern Minnesota. Students consider the difficult daily life of the lumbermen by examining photographs and objects from the era of the logging camp.

Minnesota In The Civil War Grades 4-12
Students discover Charley Goddard, who was 15 years old when he enlisted in the First Minnesota Regiment of Infantry. By role-playing and examining primary sources, students follow Charley’s Civil War journey, from Fort Snelling to Gettysburg and elsewhere.

Packing An Immigrant’s Trunk Grades K-3
“If you were leaving your home to make a new home some place else, what would you take?" With this question, students are introduced to the concept of leaving a homeland to start a new life in a strange country far away. They examine the contents of a trunk to determine what some immigrants chose to bring to their new homes in Minnesota. Finally, students imagine they are immigrants and decide what they might pack in their own trunks.

Rebuilding Shattered Lives: The Refugee Experience In Minnesota Grades 4-12
This lesson explores the refugee experience in Minnesota throughout time. Students will read oral histories, examine artifacts, and participate in activities that help them understand the similarities and differences among Jewish, Hmong, and Somali refugee experiences in their homelands and in Minnesota.

They Chose Minnesota Grades 4-12
Those who chose to settle in Minnesota brought their hopes and dreams as well as material goods. Students discover the stories of some of Minnesota’ immigrant families from 1850 to the present. They open trunks, bundles, and boxes from different eras and examine their contents. The personal belongings within – letters, photographs, journals and artifacts – help students understand why immigrants left their homelands, why they chose to make Minnesota their new home, and what they brought with them.

When I Was A Kid Grades K-4
Surprise packages and new identities are at the center of this lesson. Students become kids from the 1910s and learn how children played, what chores they had to do, and what school was like. At appropriate times during the lesson, students open packages of artifacts that children would have been familiar with in 1910.