Exploring the Decades: 1950s

Exploring the Decades: 1950s

Overview
Students will learn to navigate the St. Louis Virtual City website to uncover what makes up a city; how cities are organized, grow, change and the advantages and disadvantages of living in a city. Students will read primary sources to learn about people and explore the buildings and their uses. A time capsule will be produced to record each student’s findings in both decades, the 1950’s and the 1850’s. In the third part of the lesson, these two decades will be compared and contrasted.

Objectives
After completing this lesson, students will:

Navigate the St. Louis Virtual City website
Demonstrate note taking skills
Identify the elements that make up a city
Identify the districts within St. Louis
Identify some of the people living and working in the city
Analyze the advantages and disadvantages of city living
Compare and contrast St. Louis as it has evolved through the decades

Show Me Standards 1.2, 1.4, 1.5, 1.8, 2.1, 2.3, 3.1, 4.3

Process

Brainstorm with the class what a city is: a center of population of a significant size with commerce and culture and importance. What types of buildings, businesses and transportation would one expect to locate in a city?
Introduce the St. Louis Virtual City website to the class. Define a decade and explain that the students will be able to “tour” St. Louis by decades to see how the city has changed and grown. Allow ample time for the students to navigate the 3D model on the left side of the screen. Students will discover some graphics in the model have an anchor symbol appear when they are activated. The right side of the screen produces pictures, texts and other links to describe the highlighted item. Have students practice with the interface until they are comfortable touring the city on the left and accessing information on the right.
Direct students to the 1950’s model. Explain that they will be entering each of the neighborhoods (Court House District, Chinatown, Mill Creek Valley, and Shopping District) in the model to learn about the buildings and people. They will produce a time capsule with the information they uncover. Students are to:

Find one male person

Name
Date of birth
Date of death
What is important to know about this person
Draw a picture of this person-note clothes

Find one female person

Name
Date of birth
Date of death
What is important to know about this person
Draw a picture of this person-note clothes

Find one building in each of the four districts (total of 4 buildings)

Name of Building
Address
Construction date
Use
Draw a picture of either the exterior or what had been in the interior of the building

Find a residence

Address
Construction date
Description of the house
Draw a picture of the exterior or interior of the residence

Analysis

How were buildings grouped in neighborhoods/districts?
What are some of the advantages of living in the city?
What are some of the disadvantages of living in the city?

Students will collect their data from the website through note taking and drawing. They will share their findings in a time capsule booklet or a Power Point presentation with the class.

After sharing their time capsules with each other, students create a T chart listing the advantages and disadvantages of living in St. Louis in the 1950’s

Analysis

What are some of the advantages of living in the city?
What are some of the disadvantages of living in the city?

Final reflections: Read the poem “St. Louis Boos” found on the web site in the shopping district. Click Scruggs Vandervoort and Barney, link to “suburbanization and opened a branch store in Clayton” then choose Perspectives in the blue oval.

Directions for teachers

Make the appropriate number of photocopies for the your class. Note: make 4 copies of the building page and 2 copies of the people page for each student. (Link Here Black line masters folder for the 1950’s)