Common Threads
WINTER, 2006-2007
How does immigration influence society? How has technology changed our world? How have people's ideas changed our city? These are some of the questions that guided 4th Grade's second expedition of the year.
The expedition began with an examination of U.S. immigration during the early 1900's, including a 4-day field study to New York City and Lowell, Massachusetts. As students visited Ellis Island and the Lower East Side of Manhattan, simulations, reenactments, and guided lessons and tours provided them with rich experiences and genuine understandings of immigrant life and tenement living. They then explored a working textile factory/museum in Lowell, Massachusetts, and examined the connections between child labor and the beginning of the labor movement in America.
For the second half of the expedition, students learned about the many important inventions and businesses that began in Rochester, and the role of immigrants as entrepreneurs and laborers. Students conducted individual research projects on the evolution of these endeavors, the people behind them, and legacies they have left behind.
