Social Studies – Unit Activity Planner: Austin Past and Present
Austin Independent School District
Grade:
5th
Unit Length (Number of class periods):
30 minutes
Required Technology:
Teacher Preference:
1. One computer with an Epson projector
2. A few computers located in a center
3. Entire class at the computer lab
Course:
Social Studies
Topic:
Geo-Tour Student Tutorial
Concept:
Change
Overarching question:
How has Austin changed over the years?
What are some of the reasons that a specific place changes from one time
period to another?
Unit Questions(s):
What differences did you notice between how your neighborhood looked in
the past and now? Are there more or less buildings? Are there changes in the
vegetation? Are people dressed differently?
Unit Understandings:
To have a high degree of familiarity navigating the Geo-tour
site; using a model lesson comparing the area around the
student’s school to the same location from the past
TEKS/TAKS:
5.9A: Describe ways people have adapted to and modified their environment in the United States, past and present.
5.14A: The student understands the concept of how people earn a living, past and present.
5.25A:The student understands how to locate, differentiate, and use primary and secondary sources.
Local 809: Obtain information, including historical and geographic data about using a variety of print, oral, visual, and computer sources.
Local 810: Transfer information from one medium to another, including written to visual and statistical to written or visual, using computer
software as appropriate.
Austin Independent School District
Social Studies Curriculum Department
June, 2006
Social Studies – Unit Activity Planner: Austin Past and Present
Austin Independent School District
Materials:
 Austin Past and Present program
 Interactive Notebook
Preview:
Class discussion: Does your classroom look the same as it did at the beginning of the year? Support your answer with details. For example, the
teacher’s desk was located by the door, and now it is over by the board.
Student activities that support the TEKS/TAKS:
This lesson can be used with your students to find the area of Austin where you school is located and make comparisons between the past and
present.
1. Open Austin Past and Present program and read the captions.
2. Click on Geo-Tour picture.
3. Choose the section of Austin where your school is located.
4. Move cursor over icons to get a “feel” for all the places located in each section.
5. Choose an icon to investigate.
**Note the dialogue box in upper left corner – other stories will present themselves.**
6. Click on the picture – read additional notes.
7. Click on the picture again to enlarge.
**Note: some stories contain multiple pictures – in that case, arrows will appear on the bottom left corner. Click on it to navigate these
additional pictures.**
8. Select other stories from the dialogue box and follow the same procedures.
9. Occasionally, audio will accompany the story.
Using these steps, user should be able to make some comparisons between your school’s neighborhood past and present.
Assessment(s):
Interactive Notebook Journal Entry:
1. Do you feel comfortable navigating the Geo-Tour program and can you operate it independently?
2. What differences did you notice between how your neighborhood looked in the past and now? List two of them.
3. Are there more or less buildings?
4. What changes have taken place in the vegetation?
5. How have people’s dress styles changed?
Austin Independent School District
Social Studies Curriculum Department
June, 2006