"The Significance of the
Antebellum Period Transportation Revolution"
Designed by:
Abbey Atwood, 8th grade, Roots Middle Schoo
Julie Greenfield, 8th grade, Edna Brewer Middle School
Katherine Suyeyasu, 7th  & 8th grade, ASCEND Middle School
Emily Walton, 8th & 9th grade, Coliseum College Preparatory Academy
Ariel Ron, University of California, Berkeley, Department of History

I. OVERVIEW

1. Background and Context of the Lesson to Be Studied.  Why this lesson? This lesson was created in order to provide background information for studying the Civil War as a part of the 8th grade American History curriculum.  We found that students had limited knowledge of infrastructure, transportation’s role in the economy as well as the concept of economy itself.  We wanted to enliven an often overlooked but nevertheless important foundational concept of economic history.  We framed this lesson in the bigger context of the Transportation Revolution of the antebellum period.
   
   
2. Student question: 
   How is transportation important to the economy?
   
   
3. Teacher Question:
   How can we design lessons that provide students the opportunity to improve and revise their thinking?