Sustaining a Green Collar Workforce:
An Interdisciplinary Approach
Green Application Projects (GreenApps) Title: The Dust Bowl: Sustainable Agriculture and Government Policy Author: Marjorie Berman Date: April 8, 2010 Interdisciplinary Classification (Subject, Level?): 200 Level United States History Prerequisite Skills: Research and Critical Thinking, Written and Oral Communications Materials Required: Roark and Johnson, etal, The American Promise – A History of the United States, Vol. I, 4th ed., 2009. Key Web Sites: • The American Experience Surviving the Dust Bowl http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/dustbowl/ • American Memory Voices from the Dust Bowl http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/afctshtml/tshome.html • The National Archives http://www.archives.gov/education/ • The New Deal Network http://newdeal.feri.org/ • Modern American Poetry – The Great Depression http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/depression/depression.htm Estimated Time: In Class: 2 class periods (2.5 hours) Outside of Class: 6 hours over two weeks for research, organizing presentations, and writing personal account Assessment: 8% of grade Presentation 50 points Personal Account 50 points Description of Project: Students will be divided into five groups of approximately five students each. Each group will explore different aspects of the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, its environmental and social impact, and lessons for sustainable agriculture. Group 1 Cattle and Farming on the Great Plains from the 1870s to the 1930s Group 2 The Drought and the Black Blizzard Group 3 Causes and Consequences of the Dust Bowl Group 4 Government Responses Group 5 The Great Plains today Each group will research their topic in appropriate historical sources with emphasis on the impact of practices on both agricultural, social, economics, and political life. They will make connections with contemporary issues including the contemporary Great Plains and China and Australia. They will show how the environment impacts people, politics, economics, and cultural life. Assessment: Part I: Presentation (10 minutes) Each group must cover the above issues in a lively and creative way. It must be organized and have a clear main point and a hypothesis that connects the past and present. They must include video clips, photographs, primary sources (including literature) that look at the Dust Bowl from different points of view and connect their topic to the issue of sustainable agriculture. Part I: Each student will write a newspaper article or diary entry from the point of view of a contemporary looking back from the present. They will include descriptions of the 1930s and explain how they would modify their actions if they farmed using current sustainable methods. These accounts must be documented and reflect the experiences of historically based individuals (names may be changed and the experiences of different individuals can be used), events, and government actions. They must include at least THREE different sources (not including their textbook). These sources must be correctly cited in the body of their writing according to MLA. There must be a Works Cited. Your account should be about 500 words, double-­‐spaced and written in Standard English including grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Outcomes: Student will •
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explore the underlying causes of the Dust Bowl and note attempts of citizens and government to solve resulting problems connect the problems of soil erosion and derogation and its resulting health problems with contemporary environmental issues analyze photographs, songs, interviews, and other archival documents to learn lessons about what happens when farming practices are out of step with the natural environment form a hypothesis about the short and long term impact of unsustainable practices on the environment and public health Support for this work was provided by; the National Science Foundation’s Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program under Award No. 0903055. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.