Making History is designed to Middle School (6th to 8th grade) subject standards.
Starting in October 2015, we hope to release one unit for each subject per week. Unit 1 ELA week one, Unit 1 Science week two, etc.
But obviously since this is a creative effort and a tremendous undertaking, this is not strict timing. Please be patient, thank you.
Approximately 8-12 lessons per subject will be included in each unit, covering all five subjects: ELA, History, Science, Math and Maker concepts.
Here’s a link to the subject/topic organization of the curriculum.
Yes, we will be developing Powerpoints for lessons where applicable, but they will likely lag a bit behind the release of the lesson. They’ll be included in the same folder that delivers the units.
YES. The most current one is posted here. They may change slightly as the storyline and lessons progress, but the core academic skills will remain. Time travel has great potential to impact storylines, history and all kinds of events, as you know.
The projects work for a single subject or any combination of multiple subjects.
In our framework, each unit for each of the subjects focuses on the subject standards. A single teacher can use one subject of the projects or multiple subjects of the projects can be used together.
For example, the History teacher could use the History projects alone, making use of the time travel narrative and theme. Or, a Math, History, English Language Arts, and Science teacher could simultaneously each use their respective subjects in the projects. Each subject in a unit uses the same narrative and time travel theme, but each subject involves a project that approaches the issue from the angle of the subject.
Full units will be delivered for Science and Mathematics. Technology and Engineering may show up in Science or in Maker concepts, depending on where it makes sense for the invention/discovery in the time travel storyline.
While Making History is designed for middle school standards (Grades 6-8) it is conceptually very deep. High school teachers could instead utilize the corresponding high school standards for the lessons and still utilize the PBL and Historical thinking concepts.
We have seen this process work successfully in the Zombie-Based Learning curriculum, which was also designed for middle school.
At this time, Making History is set up for individual purchase so that users can take advantage of the forums and other social networking. Please contact us at email@example.com if you wish to purchase in bulk for a school and we’ll likely help set up the accounts with you.
Making History incorporates historical thinking skills that are required in both U.S. History and World History. However, the focus of historical content is on World History.
Yes! Although it will take some adjustment on the part of the homeschool teacher.
Many of the activities encourage group participation or discussions. This works really well for homeschool groups. If you are working with individual students or small groups, you may need to accommodate activities accordingly.
This curriculum is designed for standards-based classrooms (Common Core, Next Generation Science), but the concepts can still be used.
We’ve found the same with Zombie-Based Learning–some homeschool teachers adjusted the curriculum to their needs. We’d suggest starting or checking through the Forum once more people are registered to share thoughts about a homeschool approach since it’s not something we’re qualified to recommend. You can even create a specific group for homeschool teachers.
Not at this time. Creating Dead Reckon (the comic for Zombie-Based Learning) took quite a bit of time (and money) for all the hand-drawn illustrations. We want to get the MH curriculum out in a timely manner. That being said, we’re working on a pretty fun storyline and characters for Making History and are working on cooking up something fun for the students to stay engaged outside the classroom. We just don’t know the exact format yet!
We have set up forums to share questions on this Making History website. It’s something we didn’t have for Zombie-Based Learning (but will remedy soon) so that you can connect over common questions or to share solutions and modifications.
Access the forums by following the “Forums” link in the menu bar, or the dropdown menu in “Social” on your admin bar at the top of the screen.
You can also find other members on the Member page. When you view a member, you can send them a message or connect with them.
You can also create Groups. You can create a group, invite other teachers, and create a specific forum just for your group. We picture this will be really useful for some people who share specific goals or challenges.
Additionally, we’re setting up a Facebook page for teachers to connect there as well.
Sorry, only the original Kickstarter backers or those who pre-ordered on Kickstarter Backerkit will receive a printed book of the curriculum.
Once all the units of the curriculum is fully complete, we’ll review and decide if offering a printed version makes sense. We’re anticipating it would be a very very large book, so may need to break it into smaller separate books. We’ll decide then. So for now, everything will be available only by digital download.
If you were a Kickstarter backer or signed up later with BackerKit, you are still directly connected to receive product updates.
If you would like to review the original Kickstarter project details when it was released spring 2015, the link is here.
This is a tremendous undertaking, please be patient as David creates this original work. Thanks!