Curriculum

One of the main goals of the project is to build a new social studies curriculum on the history of Springfield, Greene County, and Missouri, that will be placed on the website, and can be used by the Springfield Public Schools. The project begins with its focus on the founding of Springfield and then moves out placing Springfield and Missouri in a larger context. The project has four themes each with a general geographic focus.

Developing the Websites

Use of websites will allow the online integration of:

The curriculum organization by themes
Drawings and poems by the elementary school students
Reports on topics by SMSU students
Pictures that apply to the topics
Maps and other images that apply to the topics
Documents that apply to the topics

The project will make a major contribution to local history by its use of images, such as pictures and maps, which will be placed on the website.

The Students' Website

Students as Citizens

This is the website created by the SMSU Computer Science Department to show the work of the elementary school students in the project.
This site has links to the participating schools.

Curriculum Themes

Theme I will be on the founding, the settlement and early development of Springfield and Greene County.

Theme II will focus on the development and progress of the city and county, in terms of its economy, town and county government, churches, schools, and community life.

Theme III will place Springfield and Greene County in the context of the larger economy and geography of Missouri and the impact of 19th century political issues, slavery, and the Civil War.

Theme IV will look at the larger region, the Louisiana Purchase, how Missouri became a state, and St. Louis' and Missouri's place in the national economy and river and railroad transportation system.

The first set of sessions can show the students the difference between past and present. The later sessions can show development through time.

Phase I, Fall 2000

Session 1, Part 1: Registration and Introduction

Session 1, Part 2: Landmarks
Session 2: Landmarks

See Historic Buildings for pictures of historic landmarks and buildings for these sessions.

Sessions 3 & 4: Daily Life

See Online Images, Daily Life, for pictures of daily life for these sessions.

Session 5: Field Trip

Sessions 6 & 7: On people, on individuals

See Online Sources, Essays, for Biographies for these sessions. This includes pictures and information on individuals who were important in the history of Springfield and Greene County.

Session 8: Concluding session

Other questions and topics:

The Founding of Springfield and Greene County.

See Online Sources, Essays, for information on the founding and naming of Springfield and Greene County.

What Native American tribes or nations were in the Missouri area before settlers moved in? How did they live? What kind of homes did they live in? How did they hunt? Which were in the Springfield-Greene County/SW Missouri area? Specific Indian nations:

Osage--who hunted in this area
Delaware--who lived in this area
Kickapoo--who lived in this area

Who were the first settlers to move into this part of Missouri? Where did they come from? How did they get here?

What kind of tools or equipment did the early farmers in Greene County use? What did they grow? How did farmers get their products to market? We can use pictures of farms and wagons.

What powered the early mills? What was processed in these mills? We can use pictures of mills.

What were the first crafts? We can use pictures, for example, of a blacksmith shop.

What were the first stores? How did merchants bring in goods to sell in Springfield? What did they sell? We can use pictures of stores, wagons, trains.

What was the first bank? There can be an essay on early banking. We can have pictures of banks.

What were the first schools? We can have pictures of early schools.

What were the things one could do that would send you to the Calaboose, the town and county jail?

How big was Greene County when it was first set up? How can historical maps show the continuous migration of settlers into this area?

Who lived in the area and how did they provide food for their families? This question is also important in dealing with Native Americans.
First, there were Indians, second, there were pioneers who cleared the land for farms, then third, the town of Springfield developed.

What kind of tools did people use in early Springfield? How did technology develop? An example is to look at the development of mills, from water mills to steam powered mills.

There are several things that can be done with transportation.
A “blank” Missouri map can be used for students to draw railroad routes out of Springfield. This is important for seeing how the railroad put Springfield on important lines of communication and transportation. This increased trade and helped the town to grow. It shows how Springfield was a commercial center for the area.

Specific transportation subjects:

Butterfield Stagecoach
Pony Express
"The Frisco" railroad

We can also deal with the technological development from the horse and wagon to the steam engine train to the internal combustion engine truck.

Note the panorama or Bird's Eye Views of the city at the images section of this website. They show the streets and buildings in 1872-1882 Springfield. The students could look at the pictures to find things. It could be done as a game. They could try to locate streets, the town square, railroad tracks, trains, and stations, Drury College, the courthouse, mills, stores, houses, churches, or schools. Or, they could see how much of the city today is not on the early pictures. They might notice they can’t find a football stadium, a bridge over railroad tracks, Chestnut Expressway, or Hammond Tower. They also might notice they can’t find cars and trucks.

Sources. For the above questions, see the online sources on this website and the histories of Springfield and Greene County, in the Shepard Room of the Springfield-Greene County Library.

For pictures, we will use pictures from the collections of The History Museum for Springfield-Greene County, copies of which will be scanned onto the image sections of this website.

For maps, see the online sources, Maps, on this website.