Immigration Explorations

	Brief Description Objectives Materials and Resources Activity Description Internet Resources

• Grade level: Elementary, High School

• Subject Area: Social Studies, Language Arts

Brief Description

    Students visit John Schick's Virtual Ellis Island Museum created by students in his classroom. This site will provide models for students to complete their own research. When students visit the site they should evaluate the sorts of research students carried out to create their site, how they structured the site, and what sort of information and graphics they included. The list of criteria students develop from their own research will guide them in conducting their research and constructing their site.
Objectives

    Given internet sites students will:

• develop critical tools to apply to their exploration of web sites.
• use these tools to develop a list of criteria to guide their own research.
• develop a sense of what makes a good web page.

Materials and Resources Needed

    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 - over and above those described above - as well as our sense of the Internet access required to do the activity.

1. Internet access: A medium to high speed connection and our list of sites on immigration and Ellis Island below.

Activity Description

• Organize the students into research groups to explore the web.

• Students begin by visiting the Virtual Ellis Island Museum [http://wwwald.bham.wednet.edu/museum/museum.htm]. Students explore the site keeping in mind that they will be asked to develop a list of what sorts of graphics, and text were helpful or confusing, and how different ways of organizing information helped or hindered their understanding.

• After students have had time to explore the Virtual Ellis Island Museum, allow them to spend time investigating some of the other Internet sites on Ellis Island and immigration.

• Reconvene as a whole group and brainstorm a list of the types of things that they found in the sites they visited. The discussion should include what sorts of things were helpful or confusing, and how different ways of organizing information helped or hindered their understanding. You may choose to record the class' findings in a chart.

Internet Resources

  Student Produced Resources

• Virtual Ellis Island Museum
  [http://wwwald.bham.wednet.edu/museum/museum.htm]
  A virtual museum compiled by students at Alderwood Elementary [http://wwwald.bham.wednet.edu/default.htm] in Bellingham, Washington detailing their families' experiences immigrating to the United States.

• Donnel Middle School's Hypermedia Project on Ellis Island
  [http://river.findlay.edu/donnel/ellis.html]
  A HyperStudio stack depicting Donnel's seventh graders' reenactment of immigration through Ellis Island. (If you don't have HyperStudio, you can also download HyperStudio Player at this site to view the stack.)

• American Immigration Home Page
  [http://www.bergen.gov/AAST/Projects/Immigration/index.html]
  Results of a survey done by 10th graders at The Academy for the Advancement of Science and Technology [http://www.bergen.gov/AAST/] in Hackensack, NJ--a great place to learn about the origins and reasons for immigration over time.

• American Immigration Survey Form
  [http://www.bergen.gov/AAST/Projects/Immigration/form.html]
  Survey on immigration from the American Immigration Home Page, your chance to become part of their site.

• Ellis Island
  [http://www.bergen.gov/AAST/Projects/Immigration/ellis_island.html]
  Information on Ellis Island at the American Immigration Home Page.

  Other Resources on Ellis Island

• Ellis Island
  [http://www.i-channel.com/ellis/index.html]
  Ellis Island site run by the International Channel in cooperation with the Ellis Island Museum. This site has many good photographs and other resources.

• Turner Adventure Series - Migration to America: Ellis Island
  [http://www.turner.com/tesi/html/migration.html]

• Teacher Resource Book
  [http://www.turner.com/tesi/html/experience.html]
  Teacher resources from Turner Learning Adventure on immigration.

• Photos
  [http://cmp1.ucr.edu/exhibitions/immigration_id.html]
  A site with historical photos of Ellis Island.

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