War of 1812 Scavenger Hunt
Intermediate
Three class periods
Program Segments
Entire program (almost 2 hours)
NCSS Themes
III: People, Places, and Environments
V: Individuals, Groups, and Institutions
Canadian (Ontario) Concepts
Environment
Canadian (Ontario) Specific Expectations – Seventh Grade
Describe the impact of the War of 1812 on the development of Canada
Explain key characteristics of life in English Canada from a variety of perspectives
Objectives
Students will be able to:
- gather and organize information about the Great Lakes and other related regions, battle locations, and various individuals who made contributions to the War of 1812
Focus Questions
1. How does geography impact armies during a time of war?
2. Why are waterways important?
3. How did waterways help during the War of 1812?
Key Concepts
Geography, Transportation, Communication
Instructional Resources
The War of 1812 DVD
Colored pencils
Map of North America (73.7 KB)
Assessment Tasks
The students will complete a scavenger hunt that includes the completion of a War of 1812 Scavenger Hunt Worksheet and placing important information gathered on a map of North America.
Additional Resources
Procedures
1. The teacher will begin the lesson by guiding the students in a discussion on the importance of waterways and how geography affects warfare. Using the focus questions provided, the teacher will guide the students to answer the question, "Why were the Great Lakes so important during the War of 1812? The teacher will stress the importance of the Great Lakes for transportation, trade, and their strategic location.
2. The students will be given the Scavenger Hunt Worksheet and the teacher will explain the instructions to the class. The students will watch the program and use the clues provided in the scavenger hunt to determine what location the clues are describing.
3. The students will view The War of 1812 and use the information to solve the clues.
4. After the students have watched the entire program, the teacher will need to review the answers that they found for the scavenger hunt clues. The teacher may want to provide a word bank to assist the students.
5. Once the students have found the answers to all the clues, they will be given a map of North America and will place all of the geographic locations on the map. The Students will use the information in the clues to help them determine where the relative location is on the map of North America.
Related PBS Resources
War Letters: GeographyMap areas of the world where American military forces have fought wars and describe the importance of the locations of battles mentioned in letters read in the accompanying program.www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/teachers-resources/warletters-teachers-guide/ Two Days in October: GeographyLocate on maps of Vietnam and the U.S. major battles and anti-war demonstrations from one year of the Vietnam War to identify links between the events. www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/twodays/tguide/index.htmlDownload War of
1812 Scavenger Hunt (366.2 KB)
Lesson (PDF)
