Brief Description Objectives Materials and Resources Activity Description Internet Resources

• Grade level: Middle/Upper Elementary, High School

• Subject Area: Social Studies, Language Arts

Brief Description

    Using the criteria developed in lesson two, students begin their research, gathering information on immigration and synthesizing the data they find. Prior to starting, the whole class develops a list of questions that students will use in their research.
Objectives

    Students will:

• Develop an understanding of the forces affecting immigration.
• Develop skills in conducting research on the Internet.

    In developing our lessons and activities, we made some assumptions about the hardware and software that would be available in the classroom for teachers who visit the LETSNet website. We assume that teachers using our Internet-based lessons or activities have a computer (PC or Macintosh) with the necessary hardware components (mouse, keyboard, and monitor) as well as software (operating system, TCP/IP software, networking or dial-up software, e-mail and a World Wide Web client program, preferably Netscape, but perhaps Mosaic or Lynx). In the section below, we specify any "special" hardware or software requirements for a lesson or activity (in addition to those described above) and the level of Internet access required to do the activity.

1. Special hardware requirements: None.
   
2. Special software requirements: See our list of Internet resources below.
   
3. Internet access:Medium-speed (28,000 BPS via modem) or High-speed (greater than 1 MBPS via network).

Activity Description

• As a whole group, brainstorm a list of questions that students will use as a guide in their research.

• Have students develop a list of items-- photographs, drawings, artifacts, etc.-- that they might want to gather as part of their research to enhance their final reports.

• Divide students into groups to research their projects. Rotate groups between doing Internet research and library research.

• Have students write up reports of their projects.

    Below are some sample questions that you might consider using with your students to guide their research.

1. Were/are there more than one reason why people immigrate to this country?
2. How do the reasons that people immigrate differ by time and by ethnic group?
3. What were some of the reactions of current citizens to people immigrating to this country?

• The Ethnic Heritage Council
  [http://www.eskimo.com/~millerd/ehc/]
  A non-profit organization with a board of directors that includes African-American, Native-American, Asian-American, Latin-American, and European-American members. This site has events, services, publications, people, etc.

• Ethnic, Religious, and National Web Index
  [http://www.dcn.davis.ca.us/~feefhs/ethnic.html]
  A complete listing of all known ethnic organizations in 14 countries.

• Latino Web - Education and History
  [http://www.latinoweb.com/favision/history.html]

• Native Web
  [http://web.maxwell.syr.edu/nativeweb/]
  A site with lot of information on Native Americans, including historical material, news, and literature.

• Urban Education Resources
  [http://eric-web.tc.columbia.edu/home_files/other_resources.html]

• Yahoo Immigration Information
  [http://beta.yahoo.com/Government/Law/Immigration/U_S__Immigration_Info/]

• U.S. Immigration Resources
  [http://www.contact.org/usimm.htm]

• Basic Immigration Resources
  [http://www.autonomy.com/immig.htm]

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