Category: Lesson Plans

In this short lesson students will learn about the Caddo salt industry at the Hardman Settlement east of Arkadelphia. As well as learning how salt deposits formed in the West Gulf Coastal Plain of Arkansas, students will study the process of Caddo salt production and the uses and trade value of salt.

Lesson Plan

Courtesy of CALS Butler Center for Arkansas Studies

Grade Level: 5-8 Middle School

Time period: Modern Era 1968 to Present

Arkansas Academic Standards are subject to revision every six years by the Arkansas Department of Education.

Students will become familiar with karst topography in the Ozark Plateau Natural Division, and with the impact that modern humans have had on the sensitive cave ecosystems created by this landform. Presented with a typical commercial development proposal in a mythical North Arkansas town, students will research and assume the roles of community leaders and activists to solve a potential environmental problem.

Students will develop an understanding of Ozark culture, the Mountain View area and specific tourist attractions. Geographic themes included are: place, location, human-environment interaction, and movement.

Lesson Plan

Courtesy of CALS Butler Center for Arkansas Studies

Grade Level: 5-8 Middle School

Time period: Modern Era 1968 to Present

Arkansas Academic Standards are subject to revision every six years by the Arkansas Department of Education.

One goal of the lesson is to teach students about determining the role of a citizen in the United States and analyzing ways the government used propaganda to manipulate individual’s involvement in WWI. A second goal of the lesson is to teach students how to analyze primary sources to compare and contrast the expectations of the involvement with the realities of war.

The goal of this unit is to teach students about oral histories as well as have them create their own. Students will also learn that information can come from people or places outside of the school library media center.

Lesson Plan

Courtesy of CALS Butler Center for Arkansas Studies

Grade Level: K-4 Elementary School

Time period: Modern Era 1968 to Present

Arkansas Academic Standards are subject to revision every six years by the Arkansas Department of Education.

The preservation and management of the Ouachita National Forest, the South’s oldest and largest national forest, has helped make it possible for Arkansas to remain “The Natural State.” Students will learn how the area developed into a national forest and the importance of retaining the habitats of the plants and animals that live there. Students will also locate the Ouachita National Forest;

This lesson serves to spark interest in the study of Arkansas’ three Native American groups by using an Arkansas legend, “Norristown Mountain”. Students will evaluate the authenticity of the legend, “”Norristown Mountain,”” by comparing facts about the Osage Indians and the legend. Students will develop an excitement for studying Arkansas’ Native American groups through the exploration of legends,

Students will learn a few quick skills in “”how-to-read”” historical photographs and then analyze some of the changes caused by the automobile revolution in Arkansas, using scenes from several towns along U.S. Highway 67. In the second day of this two-part lesson, students will show what they have learned by turning copies of the photos into “”teaching postcards””

In this lesson students will explore one of the impacts of the natural environment on culture—the creation of Arkansas place names. Using Arkansas highway maps, they will locate place names derived from the unique characteristics of each of the state’s six natural divisions, becoming more familiar with these divisions in the process.

Lesson Plan

Courtesy of CALS Butler Center for Arkansas Studies

Grade Level: 5-8 Middle School

Time period: Modern Era 1968 to Present

Arkansas Academic Standards are subject to revision every six years by the Arkansas Department of Education.

Students will discuss the people involved in the development of their local community. They will have the opportunity to investigate through interview and research key people and events that have shaped the character of their community. Various creative products will provide the opportunity for students to share their research findings with a variety of audiences.